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The Stacks project

10.95 Descending properties of modules

We address the faithfully flat descent of the properties from Theorem 10.93.3 that characterize projectivity. In the presence of flatness, the property of being a Mittag-Leffler module descends:

reference

Lemma 10.95.1. Let R \to S be a faithfully flat ring map. Let M be an R-module. If the S-module M \otimes _ R S is Mittag-Leffler, then M is Mittag-Leffler.

Proof. Write M = \mathop{\mathrm{colim}}\nolimits _{i\in I} M_ i as a directed colimit of finitely presented R-modules M_ i. Using Proposition 10.88.6, we see that we have to prove that for each i \in I there exists i \leq j, j\in I such that M_ i\rightarrow M_ j dominates M_ i\rightarrow M.

Take N the pushout

\xymatrix{ M_ i \ar[r] \ar[d] & M_ j \ar[d] \\ M \ar[r] & N }

Then the lemma is equivalent to the existence of j such that M_ j\rightarrow N is universally injective, see Lemma 10.88.4. Observe that the tensorization by S

\xymatrix{ M_ i\otimes _ R S \ar[r] \ar[d] & M_ j\otimes _ R S \ar[d] \\ M\otimes _ R S \ar[r] & N\otimes _ R S }

Is a pushout diagram. So because M \otimes _ R S = \mathop{\mathrm{colim}}\nolimits _{i\in I} M_ i \otimes _ R S expresses M\otimes _ R S as a colimit of S-modules of finite presentation, and M\otimes _ R S is Mittag-Leffler, there exists j \geq i such that M_ j\otimes _ R S\rightarrow N\otimes _ R S is universally injective. So using that R\rightarrow S is faithfully flat we conclude that M_ j\rightarrow N is universally injective too. \square

Lemma 10.95.2. Let R \to S be a faithfully flat ring map. Let M be an R-module. If the S-module M \otimes _ R S is countably generated, then M is countably generated.

Proof. Say M \otimes _ R S is generated by the elements y_ i, i = 1, 2, 3, \ldots . Write y_ i = \sum _{j = 1, \ldots , n_ i} x_{ij} \otimes s_{ij} for some n_ i \geq 0, x_{ij} \in M and s_{ij} \in S. Denote M' \subset M the submodule generated by the countable collection of elements x_{ij}. Then M' \otimes _ R S \to M \otimes _ R S is surjective as the image contains the generators y_ i. Since S is faithfully flat over R we conclude that M' = M as desired. \square

At this point the faithfully flat descent of countably generated projective modules follows easily.

Lemma 10.95.3. Let R \to S be a faithfully flat ring map. Let M be an R-module. If the S-module M \otimes _ R S is countably generated and projective, then M is countably generated and projective.

All that remains is to use dévissage to reduce descent of projectivity in the general case to the countably generated case. First, two simple lemmas.

Lemma 10.95.4. Let R \to S be a ring map, let M be an R-module, and let Q be a countably generated S-submodule of M \otimes _ R S. Then there exists a countably generated R-submodule P of M such that \mathop{\mathrm{Im}}(P \otimes _ R S \to M \otimes _ R S) contains Q.

Proof. Let y_1, y_2, \ldots be generators for Q and write y_ j = \sum _ k x_{jk} \otimes s_{jk} for some x_{jk} \in M and s_{jk} \in S. Then take P be the submodule of M generated by the x_{jk}. \square

Lemma 10.95.5. Let R \to S be a ring map, and let M be an R-module. Suppose M \otimes _ R S = \bigoplus _{i \in I} Q_ i is a direct sum of countably generated S-modules Q_ i. If N is a countably generated submodule of M, then there is a countably generated submodule N' of M such that N' \supset N and \mathop{\mathrm{Im}}(N' \otimes _ R S \to M \otimes _ R S) = \bigoplus _{i \in I'} Q_ i for some subset I' \subset I.

Proof. Let N'_0 = N. We construct by induction an increasing sequence of countably generated submodules N'_{\ell } \subset M for \ell = 0, 1, 2, \ldots such that: if I'_{\ell } is the set of i \in I such that the projection of \mathop{\mathrm{Im}}(N'_{\ell } \otimes _ R S \to M \otimes _ R S) onto Q_ i is nonzero, then \mathop{\mathrm{Im}}(N'_{\ell + 1} \otimes _ R S \to M \otimes _ R S) contains Q_ i for all i \in I'_{\ell }. To construct N'_{\ell + 1} from N'_\ell , let Q be the sum of (the countably many) Q_ i for i \in I'_{\ell }, choose P as in Lemma 10.95.4, and then let N'_{\ell + 1} = N'_{\ell } + P. Having constructed the N'_{\ell }, just take N' = \bigcup _{\ell } N'_{\ell } and I' = \bigcup _{\ell } I'_{\ell }. \square

Theorem 10.95.6. Let R \to S be a faithfully flat ring map. Let M be an R-module. If the S-module M \otimes _ R S is projective, then M is projective.

Proof. We are going to construct a Kaplansky dévissage of M to show that it is a direct sum of projective modules and hence projective. By Theorem 10.84.5 we can write M \otimes _ R S = \bigoplus _{i \in I} Q_ i as a direct sum of countably generated S-modules Q_ i. Choose a well-ordering on M. Using transfinite recursion we are going to define an increasing family of submodules M_{\alpha } of M, one for each ordinal \alpha , such that M_{\alpha } \otimes _ R S is a direct sum of some subset of the Q_ i.

For \alpha = 0 let M_0 = 0. If \alpha is a limit ordinal and M_{\beta } has been defined for all \beta < \alpha , then define M_\alpha = \bigcup _{\beta < \alpha } M_{\beta }. Since each M_{\beta } \otimes _ R S for \beta < \alpha is a direct sum of a subset of the Q_ i, the same will be true of M_{\alpha } \otimes _ R S. If \alpha + 1 is a successor ordinal and M_{\alpha } has been defined, then define M_{\alpha + 1} as follows. If M_{\alpha } = M, then let M_{\alpha +1} = M. Otherwise choose the smallest x \in M (with respect to the fixed well-ordering) such that x \notin M_{\alpha }. Since S is flat over R, (M/M_{\alpha }) \otimes _ R S = M \otimes _ R S/M_{\alpha } \otimes _ R S, so since M_{\alpha } \otimes _ R S is a direct sum of some Q_ i, the same is true of (M/M_{\alpha }) \otimes _ R S. By Lemma 10.95.5, we can find a countably generated R-submodule P of M/M_{\alpha } containing the image of x in M/M_{\alpha } and such that P \otimes _ R S (which equals \mathop{\mathrm{Im}}(P \otimes _ R S \to M \otimes _ R S) since S is flat over R) is a direct sum of some Q_ i. Since M \otimes _ R S = \bigoplus _{i \in I} Q_ i is projective and projectivity passes to direct summands, P \otimes _ R S is also projective. Thus by Lemma 10.95.3, P is projective. Finally we define M_{\alpha + 1} to be the preimage of P in M, so that M_{\alpha + 1}/M_{\alpha } = P is countably generated and projective. In particular M_{\alpha } is a direct summand of M_{\alpha + 1} since projectivity of M_{\alpha + 1}/M_{\alpha } implies the sequence 0 \to M_{\alpha } \to M_{\alpha + 1} \to M_{\alpha + 1}/M_{\alpha } \to 0 splits.

Transfinite induction on M (using the fact that we constructed M_{\alpha + 1} to contain the smallest x \in M not contained in M_{\alpha }) shows that each x \in M is contained in some M_{\alpha }. Thus, there is some large enough ordinal S satisfying: for each x \in M there is \alpha \in S such that x \in M_{\alpha }. This means (M_{\alpha })_{\alpha \in S} satisfies property (1) of a Kaplansky dévissage of M. The other properties are clear by construction. We conclude M = \bigoplus _{\alpha + 1 \in S} M_{\alpha + 1}/M_{\alpha }. Since each M_{\alpha + 1}/M_{\alpha } is projective by construction, M is projective. \square


Comments (5)

Comment #5778 by alexis bouthier on

The proof might be shorter if one shows that being a direct sum of countably generated modules is fpqc local. This is a simple lemma due to Drinfeld (Lem. 13.7 in loc.cit) : http://math.uchicago.edu/~drinfeld/langlands/gelf.pdf

Comment #5781 by on

@Alexis: I could not understand your comment. Please comment on the page of the tag you are saying something about -- that always helps a lot. I think there is no 13.7 in the document you linked to.

Comment #5793 by alexis bouthier on

What I meant is that to prove theorem tag. 05A9, one can directly prove that being a direct sum of countably generated modules if fpqc local, so this would shorten the argument. The link to Drinfeld's paper is not the right one, I've sent the right version to stacks.project@gmail.com

Comment #8510 by saskia kern on

There's a small typo in the second line of the second paragraph of the proof of Theorem 05A9. Should be I think?


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