Open Access
Issue
Wuhan Univ. J. Nat. Sci.
Volume 30, Number 5, October 2025
Page(s) 447 - 452
DOI https://doi.org/10.1051/wujns/2025305447
Published online 04 November 2025

© Wuhan University 2025

Licence Creative CommonsThis is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

0 Introduction

The famous "flat cover conjecture", that is, all modules have a flat cover over any ring, is addressed by Enochs[1]. It has now been settled by Bican et al[2]. It is natural to consider the Gorenstein version of "flat cover conjecture". Thus, the existence of Gorenstein flat covers of moduls is concerned by many scholars[3-5]. In particular, Yang and Liu[4] proved that all modules have Gorenstein flat covers over a left ring over which the class of Gorenstein flat modules is closed under extensions (GF-closed). Recently, Šaroch and Št'ovíček[6] proved that every ring is always GF-closed in terms of the notion of projectively coresolved Gorenstein flat (PGF) modules. Thus, the Gorenstein version of flat cover conjecture holds as well. Recently, the researcheres extend the notion of PGF modules to the category of complexes, and call it PGF complexes[7].

The definition of recollements of triangulated categories was first introduced by Beilinson et al[8] to study the triangulated categories of perverse sheaves over singular spaces, and later was used by Scott et al[9] to stratify the derived categories of quasi-hereditary algebras arising from the representation theory of semisimple Lie algebras and algebraic groups.

Homological dimension plays an important role in homological algebra, and has been extended to the setting of complexes by many researchers. Avramov and Foxby[10] defined the notion of projective dimension for a complex X, pd(X), as the infimum of the set {sup P | P is a DG-projective resolution of X}. They showed that for any complexes X,

p d ( X ) = i n f n Z | s u p   H ( P ) n ,   C o k e r δ n + 1 P   i s   p r o j e c t i v e ,   w h e r e   P X    i s   a   D G - p r o j e c t i v e   r e s o l u t i o n .

Note that if  f : P  X is a quasi-isomorphism then Ext1(Q, Kerf)=0 for every DG-projective complex Q. Thus, the DG-projective resolution P  X is a special DG-projective precover. This means that for any complex X,

p d ( X ) = i n f n Z | s u p   H ( P ) n ,   C o k e r δ n + 1 P   i s   p r o j e c t i v e ,   w h e r e   P X    i s   a   s p e c i a l   D G - p r o j e c t i v e   p r o c o v e r .

Gorenstein projective dimension of complexes, Gpd(X), was introduced by Veliche and it follows from Ref. [11] that

G p d ( X ) = i n f n Z | s u p   H ( P ) n ,   C o k e r δ n + 1 P   i s   G o r e n s t e i n   p r o j e c t i v e   ,   w h e r e   P X    i s   a   D G - p r o j e c t i v e   r e s o l u t i o n

= i n f n Z | s u p   H ( P ) n ,   C o k e r δ n + 1 P   i s   G o r e n s t e i n   p r o j e c t i v e ,   w h e r e   P X    i s   a   s p e c i a l   D G - p r o j e c t i v e   p r o c o v e r   o f   X

In Ref. [12], the authors introduced and studied the dimension of complexes, which is related to special Gorenstein projective precovers:

G p p d ( X ) = i n f { n Z | s u p   H ( G ) n ,   a n d   C o k e r δ n + 1 G   i s   G o r e n s t e i n   p r o j e c t i v e ,   w h e r e   G X    i s   a   s p e c i a l   G o r e n s t e i n  

p r o j e c t i v e   p r e c o v e r   o f   X }

If no such G exists, set Gppd(X)=.

Inspired by the above, in this article, we study the recollement and dimension related to PGF complexes.

1 Preliminaries

In this section we recall some necessary notations and definitions. Throughout the article, let R denote an associative ring with an identity and by the term "module" we always mean a left R-module.

A complex X of modules is often displayed as a sequence

    X n + 1 δ n + 1 X   X n δ n X   X n - 1    

with δnXδn+1X=0 for all nZ. The n-th cycle (resp., homology) module is defined as KerδnX (resp., KerδnX/Imδn+1X) and denoted by Zn(X) (resp., Hn(X)). The homology complex H(X) is defined by setting H(X)i=Hi(X) and δiH(X)=0 for all iZ. A complex X is called exact if Hi(X)=0 for all iZ. For a complex X, we associate the numbers

s u p   X = s u p { i Z   |   X i 0 } a n d i n f   X = i n f { i Z   |   X i 0 } .

The complex X is called bounded above (resp., bounded below) if sup X< (resp., inf X>-). It is called bounded if it is both bounded above and bounded below.

In the following, we will use C (R) and D (R) to denote the category of complexes of modules and the derived category. The symbol is used to designate quasi-isomorphisms in C (R). For complexes X and Y, denote by Hom(X,Y) the Abelian group of morphisms from X to Y in C (R) and Exti(X, Y) for i1 will denote the groups we get from the right derived functor of Hom(-,-).

For two complexes X and Y, denote by HomR(X, Y) the complex with HomR(X, Y)n=iZHomR(Xi, Yi+n) for all nZ and with the boundary operator given by δnHomR(X, Y)(f )=(δn+iYfi-(-1)|f |fi-1δiX)iZ for every fHomR(X, Y)n. We denote by ExtRn(-,-) the right derived functors of HomR(-,-) and call it the absolute cohomology functors. Two morphisms α and β in Hom(X, Y)=Kerδ0HomR(X, Y) are called homotopic, denoted by α~β, if there exists a homomorphism μ of degree 1 such that δ1HomR(X, Y)(μ)=α-β.

Let X be a complex of right R-modules and Y a complex of left R-modules, denote the usual tensor product of X and Y, where(XRY)n=tZXtRYn-t and δ(xy)=δtX(x)y+(-1)txδn-tY(y) for xXt, yYn-t. We define X¯Y to be (XRY)B(XRY) with the maps

( X R Y ) m B m ( X R Y ) ( X R Y ) m - 1 B m - 1 ( X R Y ) ,   x y δ X ( x ) y ,

where xy is used to denote the coset in (XRY)mBm(XRY). Then we get a complex. Since X¯-: C(R)C(Z) is a right exact functor between Abelian categories with enough projectives, we can construct left derived functors which we denote by Tor¯i(C,-).

Let A  be an Abelian category and X a subcategory of A . For an object MA write MX, if ExtA1(M, X)=0 for each object XX. Dually, one can define MX.

Recall that a pair (X,Y) of subcategories of A  is called a cotorsion pair or cotorsion theory provided that X=Y and Y=X. A morphism ϕ: XM with XX is called an X-precover of M if for any morphism f : X'M with X'X, there is a morphism g: X'X such that ϕg=f. An epimorphism ψ : XM with XX is said to be a special X-precover of M if ψ is an X-precover of M and KerψX.

A cotorsion pair (X,Y) is said to be complete provided that every object in A  has a special Y-preenvelope and a special X-precover. A cotorsion pair (X,Y) cogenerated by a set S of objects, i.e. such that Y=S, is complete, see Ref. [13]. A cotorsion pair (X,Y) is said to be hereditary provided that ExtA2(X, Y)=0 for each object XX and each object YY. Ref. [3] is a standard reference for cotorsion pairs[3]. A complete cotorsion pair (X,Y) is said to be a projective cotorsion pair[14] if Y  is thick and XY coincides with the class of projective objects. Recall from Ref. [14] that a class WA is called thick provided that it is closed under direct summands, exte nsions, and taking kernels of epimorphisms and cokernels of monomorphisms.

2 A Recollement Related to PGF Complexes

We begin with the definition of PGF modules and PGF complexes. Note that PGF modules not only are Gorenstein flat, but also Gorenstein projective[6].

Definition 1[6-7] A module M is said to be PGF if there exists an exact sequence of projective modules

Q 1 Q 0 Q - 1

with M=Ker(Q0Q-1) and which remains exact after applying ER- for any injective right R-modules E.

A complex X is said to be PGF if there exists an exact sequence of projective complexes

P 1 P 0 P - 1

with X=Ker(P0P-1) and which remains exact after applying I¯- for any injective complex I of right R-modules.

In the following, we will use PGF and PG to denote the category of PGF modules and the category of PGF complexes.

We give some basic results for PGF modules and PGF complexes which are obtained by Refs. [6-7, 14].

Lemma 1   (1) The class of PGF modules is projectively resolving, closed under arbitrary direct sums, under direct summands and transfinite extensions.

(2) (PGF,PGF) is hereditary complete cotorsion pair.

(3) (PGF,PGF) is a projective cotorsion pair which is cogenerated by a set.

(4) If M is a PGF module, then TornR(E, M)=0 for any injective right R-modules E and any n1.

(5) A complex G is a PGF complex if and only if Gn is a PGF module for each nZ.

Remark 1   Gorenstein flat complexes are exactly the complexes with Gorenstein flat components over right coherent rings, independently[6, 15]. Šaroch and Št'ovíček[6] showed that the class of Gorenstein flat modules is always closed under extensions over any ring. Yang and Liu[15] proved that Gorenstein flat complexes are exactly the complexes with Gorenstein flat components whenever the class of Gorenstein flat modules is closed under extensions. Thus, Gorenstein flat complexes are exactly the complexes with Gorenstein flat components.

We obtain the following result which gives equivalent characterizations of that Gorenstein projective modules are Gorenstein flat by Ref. [7].

Lemma 2   The following statements are equivalent:

(1) Every Gorenstein projective modules are Gorenstein flat modules.

(2) Every Gorenstein projective modules are PGF modules.

(3) Every Gorenstein projective complexes are Gorenstein flat complexes.

(4) Every Gorenstein projective complexes are PGF complexes.

Proof   ( 1 ) ( 2 ) follows from Ref. [6].

( 1 ) ( 3 ) follows by Ref. [16] and Remark 1.

( 2 ) ( 4 ) holds by Ref. [7].

Definition 2[14] Let D , D' and D be triangulated categories. We say that D  is a recollement of D' and D if there are six triangle functors as in Fig. 1 such that

thumbnail Fig. 1 The definition of recollement

(1) (Fλ, F, Fρ) and (Gλ, G, Gρ) are adjoint triples;

(2) F, Gλ and Gρ are fully faithful;

(3) For any object XD, we have GX=0 if and only if XFX' for some XD'.

Recall from Ref. [17] that a triple =(Q,W,) of classes of objects in an Abelian category is called a Hovey triple if (QW , ) and (Q , W) are complete cotorsion pairs and the class W  is thick. As a consequence of Refs. [6-7, 14], we obtain the following result.

Lemma 3   There exist two projective cotorsion pairs (PG,PG) and (PG,PG) which are cogenerated by sets, where PG denote the class of all exact PGF complexes. Moreover, (PG, PG, C(R)) and (PG, PG, C(R)) are Hovey triples. In particular, every complex has a special PGF precover and a special exact PGF precover.

Using Lemma 3 and Ref. [17], we also obtain two projective model structures on C (R) in which every object is fibrant, the objects in PG (resp., PG) are cofibrant, and the objects in PG (resp., PG) are trivial. We call these PGF model structures (resp., exact PGF model structures).

We use Kex(PGF) and K(PGF) to denote the homotopy category of all exact PGF complexes and the homotopy category of all PGF complexes, respectively. Then we obtain the following conclusion.

Theorem 1   Let R be a ring. There is a recollement in Fig. 2 where E(E) and E(EPGF) represent special exact preenvelopes and special EPGF-preenvelopes, respectively, C(DG) and C(EPGF) represent special DG-projective precovers and special exact PGF precovers, respectively, I denotes the inclusion functor.

thumbnail Fig. 2 The recollement of PGF

Proof   We can see that (PG,PG) and (PG,PG) are projective cotorsion pairs in C(R) by Lemma 3. We also notice that (DGP, ) is a projective cotorsion pair in C (R), PG=PG and DGPPG by Ref. [7]. As we know, the homotopy category of all DG-projective complexes K(DGP) is isomorphic to D(R). Thus, the result is obtain by Ref. [14].

3 PGF Dimension of Complexes

In this section, we will investigate the dimension with respect to PGF complexes.

Since (PGF,PGF) is a projective cotorsion pair cogenerated by a set, thus by Ref. [14], we conclude that (dwPGF̃, dwPGF̃), in which each degree component of the associated graded object is a PGF module, forms a projective cotorsion pair. By Lemma 1, the complexes in dwPGF̃ are precisely the PGF complexes. Then by Ref. [18], we obtain the following definition.

Definition 3   Let X be a complex. The dimension of X related to special PGF precovers, PGF(X), is defined as

P G F ( X ) = i n f n Z | s u p   H ( G ) n ,   a n d   C o k e r δ n + 1 G   i s   a   P G F   m o d u l e ,   w h e r e   G X    i s   a   s p e c i a l   P G F   p r e c o v e r   o f   X .

If no such G exists, set PGF(X)=.

Definition 4   Let A and G be two PGF complexes. An epimorphism of complexes f :GA is said to be PGF almost isomorphic if Kerf is exact and bounded below. It is clear that Kerf is a PGF complex.

Theorem 2   Suppose that G is a PGF complex. Then

P G F ( G )   = i n f { n Z   |   s u p H ( G ) n ,   C o k e r δ n + 1 G   i s   a   P G F   m o d u l e } = i n f { s u p A   | G A   i s   a   P G F   a l m o s t   i s o m o r p h i s m } .

Proof   Set s=inf {nZ |supH(G)n, Cokerδn+1G is a PGF module} and t=inf {supA |GA is an PGF almost 

i s o m o r p h i s m }

Since G is a PGF complex, it can be seen that PGF(G)s. We only need to concentrate on PGF(G)s. If PGF(G)= then the proof is evident. Suppose that PGF(G)=nZ. Then there exists a special PGF precover φ: FG such that supH(F)n, Cokerδn+1F is a PGF module and Ext1(G, Kerφ)=0. Hence the short exact sequence of complexes

0 K e r φ F G 0

is splits. Then we have FGKerφ. This implies that supH(G)n. We can conclude that sn. If PGF(G)=-, then for any integer n, we can find a PGF precover FG such that supH(F)n and Cokerδn+1F is a PGF module. Similar discussion yields that s=-. This leads to the conclusion that supH(G)n, which is to say PGF(G)s. Thus PGF(G)=s.

We show that ts. If s=, then the proof is trivial. Assume s is an integer. Then supH(G)s, and Cokerδn+1G is a PGF module. Consider the commutative diagram (Fig. 3). Define K and A as the following sequences

K = G s + 2 G s + 1 I m δ s + 1 G 0     ,

A = 0 C o k e r δ n + 1 G G s - 1 G s - 2   .

thumbnail Fig. 3 The commutative diagram about G

It is clealy that K is exact and Imδs+1G is PGF amodule. Then the map GA is a PGF almost isomorphic and supAs. Consequently, ts. Suppose s=-, hence for any integer n, supH(G)n and Cokerδn+1G is a PGF module. Thus G is exact. Using a similar diagram, we can obtain GA is a PGF almost isomorphism such that supAn. This leads to the conclusion t=-. Thus ts.

Next, we demonstrate that st. If t=-, then the proof is trivial. Assume t is an integer. Then there exists a PGF almost isomorphism GA with supA=t. Let E=Ker(GA). Then E is exact and bounded below, which implies that Cokerδn+1E is a PGF module. Consider the commutative diagram (Fig. 4) with exact rows and the exact middle column, then it is evident that the final column of the diagram is exact, which implies that Cokerδn+1G is a PGF module. Additionally, it is evident that supH(G)n. Consequently, we can conclude that st.

thumbnail Fig. 4 The commutative diagram about E

Now, consider the case where t=-. For any integer n, there is a PGF almost isomorphism GA such that supA<n, hence G is exact at n+1 and Cokerδn+1G is a PGF module. This means that G is an exact complex, and Cokerδn+1G is a PGF complex for any integer n. This leads to the conclusion that s=-.

The following result is an immediate consequence of Definition 3 and Theorem 2.

Theorem 3   Let X be a complex. Then

P G F ( X ) = i n f { s u p A   | t h e r e   e x i s t s   a   d i a g r a m   o f   m o r p h i s m s   o f   c o m p l e x e s   A G X   s u c h   t h a t   G X    i s   a   s p e c i a l   P G F  

p r e c o v e r   o f   X   a n d   G A   i s   a   P G F   a l m o s t   i s o m o r p h i s m }

Take A=PGF in Ref. [18], we get the following definition.

Definition 5   Let X be a complex. Then for any complex Y and any integer n, the n-th relative cohomology group ExtPGn(X,Y) is defined by the equality ExtPGn(X, Y)=Hn(HomR(G, Y)) where GX is a special PGF precover of X.

As an immediate consequence of Ref. [18], we obtain the following result, which gives an equivalent characterization on PGF dimensions.

Corollary 1   Let X be a complex and n an integer. Then the following conditions are equivalent.

(1) PGF(X)n;

(2) ExtPGi(X, Y)=0 for all i>n-t and any bounded complex Y such that all Yj and Ker(YtYt-1) are in PGF, where t=sup H(Y);

(3) ExtPGi(X,Y)=0 for all i>n and any module Y in PGF;

(4) sup H(X)n and for any special PGF precover GX of X, the module Coker(Gn+1Gn) is in PGF.

References

  1. Enochs E E. Injective and flat covers, envelopes and resolvents[J]. Israel Journal of Mathematics, 1981, 39(3): 189-209. [Google Scholar]
  2. Bican L, El Bashir R, Enochs E. All modules have flat covers[J]. Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society, 2001, 33(4): 385-390. [Google Scholar]
  3. Hochschild G. Relative homological algebra[J]. Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 1956, 82(1): 246-269. [Google Scholar]
  4. Yang G, Liu Z K. Gorenstein flat covers over GF-closed rings[J]. Communications in Algebra, 2012, 40(5): 1632-1640. [Google Scholar]
  5. Yang G, Liang L. All modules have Gorenstein flat precovers[J]. Communications in Algebra, 2014, 42(7): 3078-3085. [Google Scholar]
  6. Šaroch J, Št'ovíček J. Singular compactness and definability for ⅀-cotorsion and Gorenstein modules[J]. Selecta Mathematica, 2020, 26(2): 23. [Google Scholar]
  7. Wu D J, Zhao Z H. Projectively coresolved Gorenstein flat complexes[J]. Journal of Lanzhou University of Technology, 2020, 46(6): 153-158(Ch). [Google Scholar]
  8. Beilinson A, Bernstein J, Deligne P, et al. Faisceaux Pervers[M]. Paris: Société Mathématique de France, 2018. [Google Scholar]
  9. Scott L, Parshall B, Cline E. Finite-dimensional algebras and highest weight categories[J]. Journal fur die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik, 1988, 391: 85-99. [Google Scholar]
  10. Avramov L L, Foxby H B. Homological dimensions of unbounded complexes[J]. Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra, 1991, 71(2-3): 129-155. [Google Scholar]
  11. Veliche O. Gorenstein projective dimension for complexes[J]. Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 2006, 358(3): 1257-1283. [Google Scholar]
  12. Liu Z K, Di Z X, Lu B. Relative cohomology of complexes II: Vanishing of relative cohomology[J]. Journal of Algebra, 2021, 565: 309-323. [Google Scholar]
  13. Göbel R, Trlifaj J. Approximations and Andomorphism Algebras of Modules[M]. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2006. [Google Scholar]
  14. Gillespie J. Gorenstein complexes and recollements from cotorsion pairs[J]. Advances in Mathematics, 2016, 291: 859-911. [Google Scholar]
  15. Yang G, Liu Z K. Stability of Gorenstein flat categories[J]. Glasgow Mathematical Journal, 2012, 54(1): 177-191. [Google Scholar]
  16. Yang X Y, Liu Z K. Gorenstein projective, injective, and flat complexes[J]. Communications in Algebra, 2011, 39(5): 1705-1721. [Google Scholar]
  17. Hovey M. Cotorsion pairs, model category structures, and representation theory[J]. Mathematische Zeitschrift, 2002, 241(3): 553-592. [Google Scholar]
  18. Liu Z K, Li J L, Wang Z P. Relative cohomology dimensions of complexes based on degreewise cotorsion pairs[J]. Publicationes Mathematicae Debrecen, 2022, 101(1-2): 103-117. [Google Scholar]

All Figures

thumbnail Fig. 1 The definition of recollement
In the text
thumbnail Fig. 2 The recollement of PGF
In the text
thumbnail Fig. 3 The commutative diagram about G
In the text
thumbnail Fig. 4 The commutative diagram about E
In the text

Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.

Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.

Initial download of the metrics may take a while.