Pure Projective Approximations

A notion of good behavior is introduced for a definable subcategory of left R-modules. It is proved that every finitely presented left R-module has a pure projective left -approximation if and only if the associated torsion class of finite type in the functor category (mod-R, Ab) is coherent, i.e., the torsion subobject of every finitely presented object is finitely presented. This yields a bijective correspondence between such well-behaved definable subcategories and preenveloping subcategories of the category Add(R-mod) of pure projective left R-modules. An example is given of a preenveloping subcategory ⊆ Add(R-mod) that does not arise from a covariantly finite subcategory of finitely presented left R-modules. As a general example of this good behavior, it is shown that if R is a ring over which every left cotorsion R-module is pure injective, then the smallest definable subcategory (R-proj) containing every finitely generated projective module is well-behaved.