Cohen-Macaulay type of orders, generators and ideal classes

Abstract

In this paper we study the (Cohen-Macaulay) type of orders over Dedekind domains in étale algebras. We provide a bound for the type, and give formulas to compute it. We relate the type of the overorders of a given order to the size of minimal generating sets of its fractional ideals, generalizing known results for Gorenstein and Bass orders. Finally, we give a classification of the ideal classes with multiplicator ring of type 2, with applications to the computations of the conjugacy classes of integral matrices and the isomorphism classes of abelian varieties over finite fields.