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Keith Kearnes
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To which extent all infinite commutative unital rings $R$ with the following property have been classified?

Every $R$-module cannot be equal to a union of finite number of its proper submodules.

I will classify these rings without assuming commutativity. I claim

Thm. The following are equivalent for a ring $R$.

  1. There is an $R$-module $M$ that is the union of finitely many proper submodules.

  2. $R$ has a nontrivial finite module.

  3. $R$ has a proper ideal of finite index.

  4. $R$ has a nontrivial finite quotient ring.

[2 implies 3] If $M$ is a nontrivial finite left $R$-module, then its left annihilator is a proper ideal of finite index. \\\

[3 implies 4] If $I$ is a proper ideal of finite index in $R$, then $R/I$ is a nontrivial finite quotient ring. \\\

[4 implies 1] Suppose that the ring $S=R/I$ is a nontrivial finite quotient of $R$. The left $S$-module $S\oplus S$ is a left $R$-module, by restriction of scalars. Since $S\oplus S$ is free of rank 2 as an $S$-module, and it is finite, it cannot be cyclic as an $S$-module. Hence it cannot be cyclic as an $R$-module. Write it as a sum of its nontrivial cyclic $R$-submodules $S\oplus S = M_1+\cdots + M_n$, each of which must be a proper submodule. This is a representation of an $R$-module as a finite sum of proper submodules. \\\

[1 implies 2] First suppose that $R$ has a finite module $M$ that is a sum of finitely many proper submodules. Then $M$ is surely a nontrivial finite $R$-module.

Next suppose that $R$ has an infinite module $M$ that is a finite union of proper submodules, $M=\sum_{i=1}^n M_i$. I now employ an old and famous result of B. H. Neumann which asserts that if a group $G$ is a union of finitely many cosets of subgroups, say $G = \cup_{i=1}^n a_iH_i$, then one can discard all cosets of subgroups of infinite index and the remaining union still covers $G$. In particular, since modules have underlying group structure, the representation $M=\sum_{i=1}^n M_i$ forces some $M_i$ to have finite index in $M$. That is, $M/M_i$ is a nontrivial finite $R$-module. \\\

Neumann, B. H. Groups covered by permutable subsets. J. London Math. Soc. 29, (1954). 236–248.

Keith Kearnes
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