Gorenstein Flat Covers and Gorenstein Cotorsion Modules Over Integral Group Rings

Abstract

Every module over an Iwanaga–Gorenstein ring has a Gorenstein flat cover [13] (however, only a few nontrivial examples are known). Integral group rings over polycyclic-by-finite groups are Iwanaga–Gorenstein [10] and so their modules have such covers. In particular, modules over integral group rings of finite groups have these covers. In this article we initiate a study of these covers over these group rings. To do so we study the so-called Gorenstein cotorsion modules, i.e. the modules that split under Gorenstein flat modules. When the ring is ℤ, these are just the usual cotorsion modules. Harrison [16] gave a complete characterization of torsion free cotorsion ℤ-modules. We show that with appropriate modifications Harrison's results carry over to integral group rings ℤG when G is finite. So we classify the Gorenstein cotorsion modules which are also Gorenstein flat over these ℤG. Using these results we classify modules that can be the kernels of Gorenstein flat covers of integral group rings of finite groups. In so doing we necessarily give examples of such covers. We use the tools we develop to associate an integer invariant n with every finite group G and prime p. We show 1≤n≤|G : P| where P is a Sylow p-subgroup of G and gives some indication of the significance of this invariant. We also use the results of the paper to describe the co-Galois groups associated to the Gorenstein flat cover of a ℤG-module.