Graded-irreducible modules are irreducible

Abstract

We show that if a graded submodule of a Noetherian module cannot be written as a proper intersection of graded submodules, then it cannot be written as a proper intersection of submodules at all. More generally, we show that a natural extension of the index of reducibility to the graded setting coincides with the ordinary index of reducibility. We also investigate the question of uniqueness of the components in a graded-irreducible decomposition, as well as the relation between the index of reducibility of a non-graded ideal and that of its largest graded subideal.