Rings of finite representation type and modules of finite Morley rank

Abstract

This paper deals with rings whose modules have very pleasant decomposition properties: the right pure semisimple rings. The category of right modules over such a ring is, in many ways, similar to the category of modules over a semisimple artinian ring. Yet it is still an open question whether or not pure semisimplicity actually is a two-sided property (and hence [30] coincides with being of finite representation type). Most of the arguments in this paper are model-theoretic-algebraic in nature: it seems that ideas from model theory, and from the model theory of modules, find natural application in the context considered here. The paper is organized into three sections. The first is introductory and with it I attempt to make the other sections accessible to a reasonably wide readership. In the second section are gathered together various equivalents to right pure semisimplicity. Their equivalence is given a comparatively short, unified, essentially model-theoretic-algebraic proof. The main theorem, in the third section, is that a ring is of finite representation type if and only if all its (right) modules have finite Morley rank. A number of related results are developed. Most of these involve some model theory in their statement, but many are, in essense, algebraic. Since a good deal of information has been compressed into the introductory section, this section should, perhaps, first be read through quickly, and then referred back to as the need arises. This section also is meant to serve as background to a sequel, in which I consider pp formulas and types in terms of the corresponding matrices, and in which the main aim is more purely algebraic. The global conventions are: R denotes a ring with identity; “module”