The model-theoretic investigation of modules has led to ideas, techniques and results which are of algebraic interest, irrespective of their model-theoretic significance. It is these aspects that I will discuss in this article, although I will make some comments on the model theory of modules per se.Our default is that the term "module" will mean (unital) right module over a ring (associative with 1) R. The category of such modules is denoted Mod-R, the full subcategory of finitely presented modules will be denoted mod-R, the notation R-Mod denotes the category of left R-modules. By Ab we mean the category of abelian groups.In Part 1 we introduce the general concepts and in Part 2 we discuss these in more specific contexts.References within the text, as well as those in the bibliography, are neither complete nor comprehensive but are intended to lead the reader to a variety of sources.
PurityPurity (pure embeddings, pure-injective modules) undoubtedly plays the central role so we will start with that. The notion of a pure embedding between modules was introduced by Cohn [30]. We say that the module A is a pure submodule of the module B if every finite system i x i r ij = a j (j = 1, ..., m) of R-linear equations with constants from A (so r ij ∈ R and a j ∈ A) and with a solution in B has a solution in A (a solution being elements b 1 , ..., b n such that i b i r ij = a j for all j). We extend this in the obvious way to define the notion of a pure embedding between modules and we also say 1 that an exact sequence 0 −→ A f − → B −→ C −→ 0 is pure-exact if f is a pure embedding.Functor categories Let D(R) = (R-mod, Ab) denote the category of additive functors (from now on we use the term "functor" to mean additive functor) from the category of finitely presented left modules to the category of abelian groups. This is a Grothendieck abelian category. It has a generating set consisting of finitely presented objects: indeed, the representable functors (L, −) for L ∈ R-mod are the finitely generated projective objects and, together, are generating. This category is locally coherent -any finitely generated subfunctor of a finitely presented functor is itself finitely presented -and of global dimension less than or equal to 2. A functor is finitely presented iff it is the cokernel of a map between two representable functors. The full subcategory C(R) = (R-mod, Ab) fp of finitely presented functors is an abelian category and the inclusion of (R-mod, Ab)fp into (R-mod, Ab) preserves exact sequences. Notice that the category (R-mod, Ab) is just the category of "modules" over the "ring with many objects" R-mod (better, over a small version of this). Concepts for modules over a ring generally make good sense in this context and largely can be understood in this way (that is, as having the same content that they have for modules). There is a full embedding of Mod-R into (R-mod, Ab) which is given on objects by sending M ∈ Mod-R to the functor M ⊗ R − : R-mod −→ Ab and which is given in the natural way on morphisms. The image o...