Lattice decomposition of modules

Abstract

The first aim of this work is to characterize when the lattice of all submodules of a module is a direct product of two lattices. In particular, which decompositions of a module $M$ produce these decompositions: the \emph{lattice decompositions}. In a first \textit{\'etage} this can be done using endomorphisms of $M$, which produce a decomposition of the ring $\textrm{End}_R(M)$ as a product of rings, i.e., they are central idempotent endomorphisms. But since not every central idempotent endomorphism produces a lattice decomposition, the classical theory is not of application. In a second step we characterize when a particular module $M$ has a lattice decomposition; this can be done, in the commutative case in a simple way using the support, $\textrm{Supp}(M)$, of $M$; but, in general, it is not so easy. Once we know when a module decomposes, we look for characterizing its decompositions. We show that a good framework for this study, and its generalizations, could be provided by the category $\sigma[M]$, the smallest Grothendieck subcategory of $\textbf{Mod}-{R}$ containing $M$.