For an exhaustive nonnegative increasing multiplicative filtration, each left ideal induces a homogeneous ideal in the associated graded ring. If that graded ring is a left Noetherian ring, lift a finite homogeneous generating set of to elements of . For any element of , subtract a combination of these lifts with the same leading symbol; the remainder has strictly lower degree. Induction on the nonnegative degree proves the lifts generate . There is no completion hypothesis because the cancellation terminates in finitely many steps. The analogous result holds for right ideals.
In a left Noetherian ring, Noetherian induction shows that every proper two-sided ideal contains a finite product of prime ideals of a noncommutative ring that contain it. A maximal counterexample would be nonprime and contain a product of two strictly larger ideals; their prime products give the contradiction. Every prime over the original ideal contains a factor, so the inclusion-minimal factors give all its minimal primes over an ideal. Replacing each factor by a minimal prime beneath it gives a product of minimal primes inside the original ideal, with repetitions allowed. Applying this to zero makes a power of the prime radical zero.
If is a left Noetherian ring and a right Noetherian ring, and is a poly-(cyclic or finite) group, then satisfies both chain conditions. Induct along the subnormal series. A finite factor gives a finite free extension on each side, handled by finite-module extension preserves Noetherianity. An infinite cyclic factor gives a skew Laurent polynomial ring, with the twisting automorphism induced by conjugation by a lift of the cyclic generator. The noncommutative Hilbert basis theorem and clearing negative powers prove the required chain conditions at that step. In particular is Noetherian.
In a noncommutative domain that is a left Noetherian ring, two nonzero principal left ideals always intersect nontrivially. If , a relation first forces , then . Right cancellation of and repetition give all . Hence is an infinite direct sum of nonzero left ideals, whose finite partial sums violate the ascending chain condition. A nonzero member of supplies the equality with , proving the left Ore set condition for all nonzero elements.
For a noncommutative domain , the right Ore condition on its nonzero elements requires that for every and nonzero , there exist and with . The Ore theorem says that this is precisely the condition for a division ring of right fractions in which embeds and every element is . The left-handed condition similarly gives left fractions.
For completeness, a right Noetherian domain satisfies the condition. If with , the right ideals
form a strict chain of direct sums. Indeed, in a relation , the first term lies in and the rest in . Their zero intersection makes , hence ; cancel and repeat. Every new summand is nonzero in a noncommutative domain, contradicting the ascending chain condition. Thus exists, with , giving right common multiples. The opposite-ring argument gives left common multiples when is a left Noetherian ring. This proves right Noetherian domains satisfy the Ore condition.
A sketch of the fraction construction also explains the theorem. Pairs represent . They represent the same fraction when a common right denominator also satisfies . Addition uses . For multiplication choose with ; then
Further common denominators prove well-definedness and the ring identities. The original map is injective because all nonzero denominators are regular; a zero fraction numerator would satisfy for . Every nonzero fraction has inverse , so the ring is a division ring. This construction has the universal property of inverting all nonzero elements.
Apply this to the two-sided Noetherian noncommutative domain . Its left Ore property expresses any right fraction as a left one: choose with , yielding . Hence one division ring is simultaneously the left and right classical ring of quotients of ; the two constructions agree by their universal property.
Put , and . The multiplication of matrix-coordinate triples is . In particular is central, , and every element has the unique normal form . Consequently
The distinct normal-form monomials are the group basis, so this is an isomorphism, not merely a surjection from a presented algebra. This is the integral Heisenberg group algebra as a skew Laurent ring.
Here is the needed skew Hilbert basis theorem, including its proof. If is a left Noetherian ring and an automorphism, let be a left ideal of , where . Define
These are left ideals of : adding lifts adds the coefficient, and left multiplication by multiplies its normalized value by . Multiplication of a lift by proves . The chain stabilizes at some . Choose finite generators for each , , and lifts with coefficient .
For of degree , write its normalized leading coefficient as . Then
has smaller degree: the displayed summands have leading coefficients . For use the generators for without the shift. Induction on degree expresses every element of in terms of the finitely many chosen lifts. Thus is a left Noetherian ring. Passing to the opposite ring replaces by and proves the corresponding right-sided result.
This proof includes the ordinary Hilbert basis theorem when is the identity. Starting with the field , it makes Noetherian; localization at powers of makes Noetherian as well. Finally, for a left ideal in , its intersection with has finitely many generators. For each , some lies in , so is generated by those same elements in the skew Laurent polynomial ring. Right multiplication clears powers for a right ideal. Therefore is a left Noetherian ring and a right Noetherian ring.
Write the negative filtration as , with . Completeness is used in the separated sense ; in particular the intersection of all filtration terms is zero.
For any left ideal , its induced associated graded ideal is a left ideal of . Choose finite homogeneous generators and lift them to , with orders , meaning . Let . At each order , the leading symbol of the current residual is a sum of the generator symbols with homogeneous coefficients. Lift these coefficients to (zero when ) and subtract . The new residual lies in .
Iterating expresses as partial sums of , with residuals tending to zero. For fixed the successive coefficient increments have orders tending to infinity. Separated completeness therefore supplies . Multiplication is continuous by the multiplicative filtration, so
The sum on the right is finite, despite the convergent process used to obtain its coefficients. It belongs to the actual left ideal generated by the lifts; no assumption that is closed was made. Every left ideal is consequently finitely generated, and is a left Noetherian ring. This is the left-handed complete negative filtered-graded transfer of Noetherianity; the separated-completeness hypothesis is essential to the limiting argument.
Use generators with . The ordered monomials form a basis: construct the Weyl algebra as the differential Ore extension of with , which has unique ordered polynomial expressions. Giving both generators degree one produces the Bernstein filtration, whose associated graded ring is . If , their nonzero leading symbols have nonzero product in this polynomial integral domain. Thus has nonzero leading symbol and cannot vanish. Hence has no nontrivial zero divisors.
Here is the left-handed Ore theorem. Let be a multiplicative set of regular elements of a ring, containing and excluding . There is an injective Ore localization whose elements are left fractions if and only if
This is the left Ore condition. For a noncommutative domain, taking gives a division ring exactly when this condition holds. With zero-divisor denominators a further left reversibility condition is needed; the regular-denominator statement is the one used here.
Necessity follows by writing in the quotient and multiplying by and , giving in the embedded original ring. For a construction proving sufficiency, use the left Ore fraction construction: pairs represent , and and are equivalent when
for suitable . Reflexivity and symmetry are immediate. For transitivity, combine and by a common left multiple . Then , so regularity gives , which combines the numerator equalities and proves transitivity.
Addition uses the common denominator , with numerator . To multiply by , choose with ; set
The Ore condition supplies a common refinement whenever a representative or an Ore relation is changed, and regularity cancels the shared denominator, proving independence of choices. The same refinements verify the ring axioms; the formulas are simply addition and multiplication after clearing left denominators. The map is injective, since equivalence to zero would give with . Each becomes invertible. A homomorphism inverting extends uniquely by , giving the universal property. For all nonzero denominators in a noncommutative domain, a nonzero fraction has inverse , so the quotient is a division ring. This is the requested proof sketch, with the fraction equivalence and multiplication made explicit.
It remains to check the left Ore condition for . Its graded polynomial ring is Noetherian by the Hilbert basis theorem. Lifting homogeneous generators of a graded left ideal and successively cancelling leading symbols proves that the filtered algebra is a left Noetherian ring: each subtraction lowers the nonnegative degree, so it terminates.
In any left Noetherian noncommutative domain, nonzero principal left ideals intersect. Otherwise with would make
an infinite direct sum of nonzero left ideals. To verify directness, reduce a finite relation modulo to make its first summand zero, then cancel on the right and repeat. Its increasing finite partial sums contradict the ascending chain condition. A nonzero element of therefore has the form , with , proving the required condition. Consequently has a classical ring of left quotients, and it is a division ring.
Suppose first that is a Noetherian module. An ascending chain of submodules of is also a chain in , so it stabilizes. A chain in the quotient module lifts to a chain in , so it also stabilizes. Thus both and are Noetherian modules.
Conversely, let be a chain of submodules of . If and are Noetherian modules, both and stabilize, say for . For , equality of the images gives with . Then , and hence . This proves the extension direction of Noetherian modules in a short exact sequence.
The left regular module is Noetherian because is a left Noetherian ring. Applying the extension result inductively makes each finite direct sum Noetherian. Every finitely generated module on the left is a quotient module of such a direct sum, so it is Noetherian.
A poly-(cyclic or finite) group has a finite subnormal series
whose factors are cyclic groups or finite groups. We prove that the group ring is a left Noetherian ring by induction. Put . A finite factor makes a finite free left -module, using a coset transversal. Its left ideals are -submodules, so finite-module extension preserves Noetherianity handles this case.
If the factor is infinite cyclic, choose a lift of a generator and let . The group ring is the skew Laurent polynomial ring . Here is the required left-sided skew Hilbert basis theorem. For a left ideal , define
Each is a left ideal of . Left multiplication by gives . The ascending chain condition makes these ideals constant for ; choose finitely many generators for each , , and lift them to polynomials .
If has degree and leading coefficient , write
Subtracting cancels the leading coefficient. For , use the lifts for instead. Induction on polynomial degree shows that the finitely many generate . Thus the skew polynomial ring of an automorphism is a left Noetherian ring.
Finally, for a left ideal of , its intersection with has finitely many generators. Every satisfies for some , so those same generators generate after multiplication by . This completes the induction and proves that is left Noetherian, the left-sided form of group rings of poly-(cyclic or finite) groups are Noetherian.
Fix a finite-dimensional nonnegative filtration of a ring giving its almost commutative algebra structure, and choose a good filtration of a module on . When is a standard graded algebra, the Hilbert-Serre theorem makes the cumulative Hilbert function eventually a polynomial. For , define the dimension of a filtered module and multiplicity of a filtered module by
Use and . With positive weighted generators instead of a standard grading, the cumulative Hilbert function is eventually a quasipolynomial with a common positive leading coefficient across residue classes. Equivalently, , and the definitions are and . The common leading coefficient follows from monotonicity: interlacing consecutive residue classes forces their leading coefficients to agree. For a standard grading, multiplicity is a positive integer, since an integer-valued polynomial has an integral expansion in the binomial polynomials; weighted normalization can instead give a positive rational number.
Two good filtrations of a module for this fixed algebra filtration bound each other after fixed index shifts. The corresponding Hilbert functions therefore satisfy for fixed . Comparing their leading growth shows that the degree and leading coefficient agree. Thus and are independent of the module filtration; the fixed algebra filtration is part of the multiplicity convention.
For a submodule , use its subspace filtration and the quotient filtration on . These are good because is Noetherian. The short exact sequence of filtered pieces gives
Nonzero leading coefficients are positive, so
If , those leading coefficients add and
This is dimension and multiplicity in a filtered exact sequence.
For the Weyl algebra in characteristic zero, Bernstein inequality for Weyl algebra modules asserts for every nonzero finitely generated module . Write its generators as , with and all other generator commutators zero. The ordered monomials give the Bernstein filtration
Take a finite-dimensional generating subspace of and put .
To prove faithful finite-step action of a Weyl algebra, consider and choose a nonzero coefficient of a monomial of maximal total degree . Applying to gives
Indeed, these commutators differentiate the ordered coefficients: lower-degree monomials vanish, and another degree- monomial can survive only if all its exponents dominate , which forces equality. This is scalar extraction by iterated Weyl commutators.
Expanding these iterated commutators writes with . If annihilated , every summand would annihilate , contrary to . Therefore the action map is injective:
Taking dimensions and comparing polynomial degrees gives
which proves Bernstein inequality for Weyl algebra modules. The polynomial representation has dimension , so the bound is sharp.
The associated graded ring of the Weyl algebra is a polynomial ring, so ascending filtered-graded transfer of Noetherianity makes a left Noetherian ring. Thus every submodule of a finitely generated module is finitely generated. If , every nonzero subquotient has dimension at most by the exact-sequence formula, and at least by Bernstein inequality for Weyl algebra modules. Every such subquotient therefore has dimension and positive integral multiplicity.
In a strictly descending chain , each nonzero quotient consumes at least one unit of multiplicity, by dimension and multiplicity in a filtered exact sequence. Hence there are at most strict steps. This proves the descending chain condition, so is Artinian. In fact this holonomic Weyl algebra module has module length at most , as in multiplicity bounds the length of a holonomic Weyl module.
Use unital rings, and distinguish left and right Noetherianity. A useful form of the noncommutative Hilbert basis theorem is the following: if a ring is generated by a subring and an element , if , and if is a right Noetherian ring, then is a right Noetherian ring. The corresponding left-handed statement holds as well. In particular, a central polynomial ring over a Noetherian ring is Noetherian, and a skew polynomial ring of an automorphism preserves either side's Noetherianity.
Here is a proof of the general right-handed statement. Put and
The equality follows inductively from . These groups form an exhaustive ascending filtration, stable under multiplication by on either side, with . For any and , moving coefficients one step at a time also gives
Fix a right ideal of and define coefficient sets
Each is a right ideal of . Additive closure is immediate. If and , use the preceding transport identity to obtain
Here has this membership because is a right ideal and is stable under right multiplication by . Also , by multiplying on the right by . The ascending chain condition in yields with for .
For each , choose finite right generators of and lifts with . These finitely many lifts generate as a right ideal of . To prove this, let and write , . Then . Put and write . Transport each coefficient as with . Consequently
Induction on , with , expresses in the right ideal generated by the lifts. Every right ideal is therefore finitely generated, proving the theorem. Passing to the opposite ring proves the left-handed version. This proof does not require unique coefficient normal forms.
A poly-(cyclic or finite) group has a finite subnormal series
whose factors are cyclic or finite. Normality is required between consecutive terms. We show inductively that each group ring is both a left Noetherian ring and a right Noetherian ring.
The starting ring is Noetherian, since every ideal is principal. The other module fact we use is that a finitely generated module over a Noetherian ring on the relevant side is a Noetherian module: it is a quotient of a finite direct sum of regular modules, and the ascending chain condition passes to finite sums and quotients. For a finite sum this follows by induction, comparing the intersections of a chain with one summand and its images in the quotient by that summand.
If has finite index, choosing coset representatives shows that is finite free as a left and as a right -module. By finite-module extension preserves Noetherianity, every one-sided ideal of is finitely generated already as a -module, and those same generators generate it as a -ideal. Thus either chain condition passes through a finite factor.
If is infinite cyclic, choose lifting its generator. Every element of has a unique form , and conjugation by gives an automorphism of . Hence
For the polynomial subring , the condition follows from invertibility of , so the proved noncommutative Hilbert basis theorem makes Noetherian on both sides. A right ideal of the skew Laurent polynomial ring is generated by : for any , choose large enough that , and recover . Finite generators of over therefore generate over the Laurent ring. Left multiplication by a large power of proves the left-handed statement. These are the Laurent-extension facts used in the induction.
Every factor of the subnormal series is covered by one of these two cases. Therefore
The argument proves the more general result that group rings of poly-(cyclic or finite) groups are Noetherian over any coefficient ring satisfying both chain conditions.
Since is a finitely generated module, choose a surjection from a finite free module, . A finite free module over a left Noetherian ring is a Noetherian module, so the kernel is finitely generated. Choose a finite free module surjecting onto , then compose its map with . Its kernel is again finitely generated. Repeating constructs an exact sequence
with all finite free modules, hence finitely generated projective modules. Thus the requested projective resolution exists, without asserting that it has finite length.
Assume now that and . We may arrange a length- projective resolution with all terms finite projective. Here is why the preceding construction gives one. Set , with short exact sequences . Applying the Ext functor, whose positive degrees vanish on a projective first argument, gives by repeated dimension shifting
for every left module . The final equality follows from the existence of any length- projective resolution. Vanishing of these degree-one groups means that every short exact sequence ending in splits: its extension class is zero. In particular a free surjection onto splits, so is a projective module. It is finitely generated by the Noetherian kernel construction. Use and for to obtain
For a left finite projective module , put , a right module under . It is a right finite projective module, and its natural evaluation map
is an isomorphism. These claims hold for a finite free module by coordinates, and pass to direct summands, proving them for every finite projective module without any right-Noetherian hypothesis.
Suppose and . Computing the Ext functor from this resolution shows that its last dual map
is surjective. Since is projective as a right module, this map has a right-module section , with . Dualizing gives . Under the natural double-dual identifications, is , so this gives a left-module retraction of .
Therefore for a finite projective module . The next differential has kernel , so restricting it to gives an exact resolution with replacing and the initial removed. This has length , contradicting the definition of projective dimension. For , the nonzero is a finite projective module and a summand of some . A nonzero vector in that summand has a nonzero coordinate, so one coordinate projection restricts to a nonzero map . Thus the degree-zero Hom functor is nonzero as well. We have proved
This is top Ext detects finite projective dimension over a left Noetherian ring. The nonzero-module convention matters when : if one assigns projective dimension zero to the zero module, then is an exception. With the convention , it is outside the asserted finite nonnegative case.
For an example of infinite projective dimension, take the dual numbers over a field , and . The periodic resolution over dual numbers is
It is exact because both the kernel and image of multiplication by are the ideal , and that is also the kernel of . Applying gives a copy of in every degree and zero differentials, since acts as zero on . Consequently
A finite projective resolution would make these groups zero above its length, so
The mod- Iwasawa algebra is the completed group algebra
where runs through open normal subgroups and the transition maps come from quotient maps. This is the mod- algebra, distinguished from the integral Iwasawa algebra .
Use the stated complete separated negative filtered ring structure, writing and for a nonzero element. In the usual odd-prime congruence-group situation,
The dimension-three assertion records the three independent entries of a trace-zero matrix; the argument below only needs the given graded polynomial-algebra property. Completeness and separatedness are with respect to this filtration and follow from the inverse-limit topology for the standard filtration. If , their leading symbols are nonzero, so their product in the graded domain is nonzero. Therefore and . This proves the domain assertion by filtered-graded transfer for complete rings.
For a left ideal , its leading symbols form a homogeneous left ideal of the polynomial ring. The Hilbert basis theorem gives finitely many homogeneous generators; choose lifts . Given , express its leading symbol using these generators, lift the homogeneous coefficients, and subtract the resulting . The remainder is still in and has strictly larger valuation. Repeat. At a stage where the remainder has valuation , the coefficient contribution for has valuation at least . Thus each accumulated coefficient is a Cauchy series, converging to an element of . The remainder tends to zero, and separatedness gives . Hence is algebraically generated by these finitely many lifts; no prior assumption that is closed was used. This proves under the stated filtration hypothesis. The same proof for right ideals also gives right Noetherianity.
For the classical fractions, a left Noetherian domain satisfies the left Ore condition. Here is the common-multiple argument. If two nonzero principal left ideals had zero intersection, the ideals , , would form a direct sum: from a finite relation, its first term lies in , and then cancellation of the nonzero proves the assertion inductively. Their partial sums give an infinite ascending chain, impossible in a left Noetherian ring. Thus , giving common left multiples for every two nonzero denominators. The right-handed argument also applies. Ore localization at all nonzero elements therefore produces the classical division ring of fractions, with expressions or ; every nonzero fraction is invertible.
There is a genuine prime restriction behind the auxiliary hypothesis. For , the matrix is a nonidentity element of of order two. In , the nonzero element satisfies . It is nonzero already in a finite quotient separating from one. Thus the actual algebra is not a domain, and cannot have the supplied separated graded-domain filtration. The intended conclusion applies for odd ; at it instead applies to a suitable deeper torsion-free congruence subgroup, such as the kernel modulo four.
A uniform module is a nonzero module in which any two nonzero submodules intersect nontrivially. An essential extension means that is an essential submodule of : every nonzero submodule of meets . Since is a left Noetherian ring, the finitely generated is a Noetherian module.
Every nonzero Noetherian module contains a uniform submodule. Otherwise split a nonuniform submodule into two disjoint nonzero submodules, retain one for further splitting and set the other aside. If no uniform submodule is reached, the pieces set aside form an infinite direct sum, whose partial sums contradict the ascending chain condition. Now successively choose uniform submodules disjoint from the current direct sum. The process again must stop by Noetherianity, giving . At termination no nonzero submodule is disjoint from , so
This proves the finite uniform decomposition of a Noetherian module.
An injective hull is an injective module containing essentially. It is equivalently a minimal injective extension; we use the general existence theorem for injective hulls. To prove uniqueness, let be two hulls of . Injectivity of extends the identity on to . Its kernel is disjoint from and therefore zero by essentiality. Its image is injective, so its inclusion splits in . The complementary summand is disjoint from , hence zero. Thus is an isomorphism fixing .
A finite direct sum of injective modules is injective, and a finite direct sum of essential inclusions is essential. For the latter assertion, start with a nonzero vector and process its coordinates in turn: if a coordinate lies outside its specified essential submodule, multiply by a ring element taking that coordinate nontrivially into that submodule. Already processed coordinates stay inside their submodules; the chosen coordinate keeps the vector nonzero. Essentiality is also transitive. Consequently both and are injective hulls of , so uniqueness gives
The essential extension of a uniform module is uniform, since intersecting any two nonzero submodules with the original uniform module already gives a nonzero common intersection.
Write and . If is injective, its image is isomorphic to the injective module , hence is a direct summand. Uniformity leaves no nonzero complementary summand, so is an automorphism. Therefore the nonunits are exactly the noninjective endomorphisms. Let be their set. Two such maps have nonzero kernels, whose intersection is nonzero by uniformity; their sum kills this intersection. For a product, composition on the left preserves the original kernel. Composition on the right either has a noninjective right factor, or that factor is an automorphism and transports the original nonzero kernel. Thus is a proper two-sided ideal. Every element outside is a unit, so every nonzero residue class is invertible and every proper left or right ideal is contained in . This proves the local endomorphism ring of a uniform injective module assertion:
For the whole hull, let . Its endomorphism ring is the ring of finite block matrices
with multiplication given by summing compositions. The diagonal entries have the local rings just proved. Off-diagonal entries are homomorphism groups, not necessarily zero; in particular this ring is not generally the product of its diagonal rings. Repeated isomorphic summands give matrix blocks over their common local endomorphism ring.
For the left regular module of , the Bernstein filtration has graded ring , so finite leading-term cancellation proves that is left and right Noetherian and a domain. Let be its classical division ring of fractions. It is an essential extension of : a nonzero fraction satisfies in .
To prove that is injective, use the Baer criterion. For a homomorphism on a nonzero left ideal, fix . For any nonzero , take common left multiples with . Then , so in the division ring
Thus right multiplication by extends from to . The zero ideal is harmless. Hence is injective and . For any -linear endomorphism of , clearing the left denominator in gives . These are all right multiplications, and their composition reverses the multiplying elements. Therefore
The opposite ring in the injective hull of an Ore domain computation is essential for left-module conventions.
A ring is left Noetherian when its left ideals satisfy the ascending-chain condition, equivalently when every left ideal is finitely generated; right Noetherian is defined analogously.
Filter by word degree in . The equality lets every coefficient move past one at the cost of lower-degree terms, so
For a left ideal , the leading coefficients in degree at most form an ascending chain of left ideals of . Since is left Noetherian, this chain stabilizes and each term is finitely generated. Lift finitely many generators through the finitely many degrees before stabilization. Division by their leading terms reduces every element of to lower degree, and induction shows that these lifts generate . Thus is left Noetherian.
We first prove that any two nonzero principal left ideals and intersect nontrivially. Suppose instead that . The nonzero left ideals
then form a direct sum. Indeed, take a finite relation
It implies
As is a noncommutative domain and , this gives . Right cancellation of the nonzero element reduces the remaining relation to one of the same form with one fewer term. Repetition gives , proving the asserted direct sum.
Consequently its finite partial sums give a strictly ascending chain of left ideals, contradicting the ascending chain condition in a left Noetherian ring. Thus whenever . This is the left Noetherian domain Ore lemma.
Now take and . If , choose and . Otherwise choose
Since , the coefficient is nonzero and hence belongs to . This proves the left Ore set condition in all cases.
For an automorphism of a left Noetherian ring , the skew polynomial ring of an automorphism is left Noetherian. For a left ideal , the normalized leading-coefficient ideals form an ascending chain of left ideals of . Choose finite generating lifts through the stabilization degree. Every element of has its leading coefficient cancelled by a suitable left multiple of one of these lifts, and induction on degree proves finite generation. Passing to the skew Laurent polynomial ring preserves the property by clearing negative powers. The right-sided statement follows by applying the argument to the opposite ring.
Skew polynomial ring of an automorphism Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-20
For an automorphism of a unital ring , this ring consists of finite sums , with multiplication determined by . Both left and right coefficient normal forms are available because is invertible. The noncommutative Hilbert basis theorem implies that it is a right Noetherian ring when is, and a left Noetherian ring when is. Invertibility of matters in this two-sided formulation.
For a nonzero left finitely generated module over a left Noetherian ring, take a finite projective resolution with finite projective modules. Vanishing of its top Ext functor would make the dual of its final injection surjective. These duals are right finite projective modules, so the surjection splits. Dualizing back and using finite projective double dual modules splits the original injection and shortens the resolution, contradicting the definition of projective dimension. When the dimension is zero, a coordinate map of a finite free module containing the nonzero projective summand supplies a nonzero map to . The left/right distinction in the duals is essential for a noncommutative ring.