Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2009
If (A′, B′), (B′, C′) and (A, B), (B, C) are torsion-torsion free theories on RM and MR respectively which are generated by an idempotent ideal I of R, then M ∈ RM is said to be relatively flat if (·) ⊗ RM preserves short exact sequences 0 → L → X → N → 0 in MR with N ∈ B. Several characterizations of relatively flat modules are given and it is shown that any module M ∈ RM which is codivisible with respect to (A′, B′) is relatively flat. In addition, when (A′, B′) is hereditary, it is proven that M ∈ RM is relatively flat if and only if M/IM is a flat R/I-module. Finally, a relatively flat dimension for M ∈ RM and a left global relatively flat dimension for R are defined and it is shown, again when (A′, B′) is hereditary, that the left global relatively flat dimension of R coincides with the left global flat dimension of R/I.