The Cartan matrix C of a left artinian ring A, with indecomposable projectives P1,…,Pn and corresponding simples Si=Pi/JPi, is an n×n integral matrix with entries Cij, the number of copies of the simple sj which appear as composition factors of Pi. A relationship between the invertibility of this matrix (as an integral matrix) and the finiteness of the global dimension has long been known: gl dim A < ∞⇒det C = ± 1 (Eilenberg [3]). More recently Zacharia [9] has shown that gl dim A ≦ 2⇒det C = 1, and in fact no rings of finite global dimension are known with det C = −1. The converse, det C = l⇒gl dim A < ∞, is false, as easy examples show ([[1) or [3]). However if A is left serial, gl dim A < ∞iff det C = l [1]. If A = ⊕n ≧ 0 An is ℤ-graded and the radical J = ⊕n ≧ 0 An, Wilson [8] calls such rings positively graded. Here there is a graded Cartan matrix with entries from ℤ[X] and gl dim A < ∞⇒det = 1 and, hence, det C = l [8, Prop. 2.2].
On the Cartan matrix of an artin algebra of global dimension two
