Covers and direct limits: a contramodule-based approach

Abstract

We present applications of contramodule techniques to the Enochs conjecture about covers and direct limits, both in the categorical tilting context and beyond. In the $n$-tilting-cotilting correspondence situation, if $\mathsf A$ is a Grothendieck abelian category and the related abelian category $\mathsf B$ is equivalent to the category of contramodules over a topological ring $\mathfrak R$ belonging to one of certain four classes of topological rings (e.g., $\mathfrak R$ is commutative), then the left tilting class is covering in $\mathsf A$ if and only if it is closed under direct limits in $\mathsf A$, and if and only if all the discrete quotient rings of the topological ring $\mathfrak R$ are perfect. More generally, if $M$ is a module satisfying a certain telescope Hom exactness condition (e.g., $M$ is $\Sigma$-pure-$\operatorname{Ext}^1$-self-orthogonal) and the topological ring $\mathfrak R$ of endomorphisms of $M$ belongs to one of certain seven classes of topological rings, then the class $\mathsf{Add}(M)$ is closed under direct limits if and only if every countable direct limit of copies of $M$ has an $\mathsf{Add}(M)$-cover, and if and only if $M$ has perfect decomposition. In full generality, for an additive category $\mathsf A$ with (co)kernels and a precovering class $\mathsf L\subset\mathsf A$ closed under summands, an object $N\in\mathsf A$ has an $\mathsf L$-cover if and only if a certain object $\Psi(N)$ in an abelian category $\mathsf B$ with enough projectives has a projective cover. The $1$-tilting modules and objects arising from injective ring epimorphisms of projective dimension $1$ form a class of examples which we discuss.