Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 June 2017
Given a non-negative integer n and a complete hereditary cotorsion triple , the notion of subcategories in an abelian category is introduced. It is proved that a virtually Gorenstein ring R is n-Gorenstein if and only if the subcategory of Gorenstein injective R-modules is with respect to the cotorsion triple , where stands for the subcategory of Gorenstein projectives. In the case when a subcategory of is closed under direct summands such that each object in admits a right -approximation, a Bazzoni characterization is given for to be . Finally, an Auslander–Reiten correspondence is established between the class of subcategories and that of certain subcategories of which are -coresolving covariantly finite and closed under direct summands.