On precover classes

Sunto LetG andH be abstract classes of modules. The classH is said to have theG-property if to each infinite cardinal λ there exists a cardinal κ>λ such that for everyF∈H with |F|≥κ and every its submoduleK with |F/K|≤λ there exists a submoduleL ofK such thatF/L/teG and |F/L|<κ. This condition is stronger than the condition (P) requiringL≠0 instead of |F/L|<κ, which was introduced and investigated in [8]. In this note we are going to study the relations of this more general condition to the existence of precovers with respect to some classes of modules. As an application we obtain some sufficient conditions for the existence of σ-torsionfree precovers related to a given hereditary torsion theory σ for the categoryR-mod. This result is closely related to and in some sense extends that of [5]. The research has been partially supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, grant #GAČR 201/03/0937 and also by the institutional grant MSM 113 200 007.