Ideal approximation theory in Frobenius categories

Abstract: Let $\mathcal{A}$ be a Frobenius category and $\omega$ the full subcategory consisting of projective objects. The relations between special precovering (resp., precovering) ideals in $\mathcal{A}$ and special precovering (resp., preenveloping) ideals in the stable category $\mathcal{A}/\omega$ are explored. In combination with a result due to Breaz and Modoi, we conclude that every precovering or preenveloping ideal $\mathcal{I}$ in $\mathcal{A}$ with $1_{X}\in{\mathcal{I}}$ for any $X\in{\omega}$ is special. As a consequence, it is proved that an ideal cotorsion pair $(\mathcal{I},\mathcal{J})$ in $\mathcal{A}$ is complete if and only if $\mathcal{I}$ is precovering if and only if $\mathcal{J}$ is preenveloping. This leads to an ideal version of the Bongartz-Eklof-Trlifaj Lemma in $\mathcal{A}/\omega$, which states that an ideal cotorsion pair in $\mathcal{A}/\omega$ generated by a set of morphisms is complete. As another consequence, we provide some partial answers to the question about the completeness of cotorsion pairs posed by Fu, Guil Asensio, Herzog and Torrecillas.