Abstract :
Let R be a commutative ring with identity. We give some general results on non-Noetherian commutative rings with the property that each finitely generated ideal can be generated by n elements, and characterize the quasi-local reduced group rings R[G], and closely related group rings which have this property for n = 2. It is then shown that finitely generated torsionfree R[G]-modules are direct sums of ideals if R[G] is a reduced quasi-local group ring with this 2-generator property. The group rings R[G] which have only finitely many isomorphism classes of finitely generated torsionfree modules are also determined, where the coefficient ring R is as in the above-mentioned characterization of when R[G] has the 2-generator property. These results depend on a determination of when a simple ring extension of the form R[X]/(Φpr(X)) is a valuation domain for a prime power pr, where Φpi(X) = Xpi−1(p−1) + ··· +Xpi−1 + 1, and some related results, which are given in Section 3. The relationship between the 2-generator property and stability of finitely generated regular ideals is also considered.
