Hereditary ring

A ring is left hereditary if every submodule of a left projective module is projective. Equivalently, every left module has a projective resolution of length at most one. The standard projective resolution of a quiver representation, used also for arbitrary infinite-dimensional modules, proves that path algebras are left hereditary.

Let $A$ be a finite-dimensional basic algebra over an algebraically closed field and a hereditary ring. The radicals of its indecomposable projectives are projective and satisfy $J{P}_i\cong {⨁}_j{P}_j^{a_{ij}}$, where $a_{ij}$ are the Ext quiver arrow multiplicities. Hence $\dim P_i=1+{\sum }_j{a}_{ij}\dim P_j$, forcing strict dimension decrease along arrows and therefore acyclicity. Lifting an arrow basis in $J/J^2$ gives a surjective path algebra homomorphism $kQ\to A$. The number of paths starting at $i$ satisfies the same dimension recursion. Equality of total dimensions proves the homomorphism is an isomorphism. Sums of vertex idempotents over connected components are precisely the primitive central idempotents, so components give the blocks.

The standard projective resolution of a quiver representation has length one, even for quivers with oriented cycles. Thus every path algebra is a hereditary ring, and higher extension groups vanish. Applying a long exact sequence of Ext groups to $0\to I\to K\to C\to 0$ gives a surjection ${\mathrm{Ext}}^1(K,W)\twoheadrightarrow {\mathrm{Ext}}^1(I,W)$, since the next term ${\mathrm{Ext}}^2(C,W)$ is zero. This is the hereditary step in the Ringel lemma on bricks.