Elementary divisor rings and finitely presented modules

Abstract

Throughout, rings are commutative with unit and modules are unital. We prove that <italic>R</italic> is an elementary divisor ring if and only if every finitely presented module over <italic>R</italic> is a direct sum of cyclic modules, thus providing a converse to a theorem of Kaplansky and answering a question of Warfield. We show that every Bezout ring with a finite number of minimal prime ideals is Hermite. So, in particular, semilocal Bezout rings are Hermite answering affirmatively a question of Henriksen. We show that every semihereditary Bezout ring is Hermite. Semilocal adequate rings are characterized and a partial converse to a theorem of Henriksen is established.