Indecomposable module

A nonzero module is indecomposable if it cannot be expressed as a direct sum of two nonzero submodules. The zero module is excluded. A module of finite composition length is indecomposable exactly when its endomorphism ring has no idempotents other than zero and one: an idempotent splits the module into its image and kernel.

For a nonzero finitely generated indecomposable module $P$ that is a projective module over a right Artinian ring $A$, its top $P/PJ(A)$ is a simple module. The Jacobson radical $J(A)$ is a nilpotent ideal, so the top is nonzero; the quotient is a semisimple module over the semisimple ring $A/J(A)$. If it decomposed, a nontrivial idempotent of its endomorphism ring would lift by projectivity to an endomorphism of $P$. The Hopkins-Levitzki theorem gives finite composition length, and the Fitting lemma makes the lift either invertible or nilpotent. Its induced map on the top would have the same property, impossible for that nontrivial idempotent.