Definition
A subgroup of a (typically abelian) group is said to be pure if whenever an element of has an root in , it necessarily has an root in . Formally: , the existence of an in G such that the existence of a in S such that . [1]
In mathematics, especially in the area of algebra studying the theory of abelian groups, a pure subgroup is a generalization of direct summand. It has found many uses in abelian group theory and related areas.
A subgroup of a (typically abelian) group is said to be pure if whenever an element of has an root in , it necessarily has an root in . Formally: , the existence of an in G such that the existence of a in S such that . [1]
Pure subgroups are also called isolated subgroups or serving subgroups and were first investigated in Prüfer's 1923 paper [2] , which described conditions for the decomposition of primary abelian groups as direct sums of cyclic groups using pure subgroups. The work of Prüfer was complemented by Kulikoff [3] where many results were proved again using pure subgroups systematically. In particular, a proof was given that pure subgroups of finite exponent are direct summands. A more complete discussion of pure subgroups, their relation to infinite abelian group theory, and a survey of their literature is given in Irving Kaplansky's little red book. [4]
Since in a finitely generated abelian group the torsion subgroup is a direct summand, one might ask if the torsion subgroup is always a direct summand of an abelian group. It turns out that it is not always a summand, but it is a pure subgroup. Under certain mild conditions, pure subgroups are direct summands. So, one can still recover the desired result under those conditions, as in Kulikoff's paper. Pure subgroups can be used as an intermediate property between a result on direct summands with finiteness conditions and a full result on direct summands with less restrictive finiteness conditions. Another example of this use is Prüfer's paper, where the fact that "finite torsion abelian groups are direct sums of cyclic groups" is extended to the result that "all torsion abelian groups of finite exponent are direct sums of cyclic groups" via an intermediate consideration of pure subgroups.
Pure subgroups were generalized in several ways in the theory of abelian groups and modules. Pure submodules were defined in a variety of ways, but eventually settled on the modern definition in terms of tensor products or systems of equations; earlier definitions were usually more direct generalizations such as the single equation used above for n'th roots. Pure injective and pure projective modules follow closely from the ideas of Prüfer's 1923 paper. While pure projective modules have not found as many applications as pure injectives, they are more closely related to the original work: A module is pure projective if it is a direct summand of a direct sum of finitely presented modules. In the case of the integers and abelian groups a pure projective module amounts to a direct sum of cyclic groups.
In mathematics, an abelian group, also called a commutative group, is a group in which the result of applying the group operation to two group elements does not depend on the order in which they are written. That is, the group operation is commutative. With addition as an operation, the integers and the real numbers form abelian groups, and the concept of an abelian group may be viewed as a generalization of these examples. Abelian groups are named after early 19th century mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
In abstract algebra, an abelian group is called finitely generated if there exist finitely many elements in such that every in can be written in the form for some integers . In this case, we say that the set is a generating set of or that generate.
In the theory of abelian groups, the torsion subgroupAT of an abelian group A is the subgroup of A consisting of all elements that have finite order. An abelian group A is called a torsion group if every element of A has finite order and is called torsion-free if every element of A except the identity is of infinite order.
In mathematics, the rank, Prüfer rank, or torsion-free rank of an abelian group A is the cardinality of a maximal linearly independent subset. The rank of A determines the size of the largest free abelian group contained in A. If A is torsion-free then it embeds into a vector space over the rational numbers of dimension rank A. For finitely generated abelian groups, rank is a strong invariant and every such group is determined up to isomorphism by its rank and torsion subgroup. Torsion-free abelian groups of rank 1 have been completely classified. However, the theory of abelian groups of higher rank is more involved.
In mathematics, a free abelian group is an abelian group with a basis. Being an abelian group means that it is a set with an addition operation that is associative, commutative, and invertible. A basis, also called an integral basis, is a subset such that every element of the group can be uniquely expressed as an integer combination of finitely many basis elements. For instance the two-dimensional integer lattice forms a free abelian group, with coordinatewise addition as its operation, and with the two points (1,0) and (0,1) as its basis. Free abelian groups have properties which make them similar to vector spaces, and may equivalently be called free-modules, the free modules over the integers. Lattice theory studies free abelian subgroups of real vector spaces. In algebraic topology, free abelian groups are used to define chain groups, and in algebraic geometry they are used to define divisors.
In mathematics, particularly in algebra, the class of projective modules enlarges the class of free modules over a ring, by keeping some of the main properties of free modules. Various equivalent characterizations of these modules appear below.
In mathematics, specifically in the field of group theory, a divisible group is an abelian group in which every element can, in some sense, be divided by positive integers, or more accurately, every element is an nth multiple for each positive integer n. Divisible groups are important in understanding the structure of abelian groups, especially because they are the injective abelian groups.
In mathematics, especially in the area of abstract algebra known as module theory, an injective module is a module Q that shares certain desirable properties with the Z-module Q of all rational numbers. Specifically, if Q is a submodule of some other module, then it is already a direct summand of that module; also, given a submodule of a module Y, any module homomorphism from this submodule to Q can be extended to a homomorphism from all of Y to Q. This concept is dual to that of projective modules. Injective modules were introduced in and are discussed in some detail in the textbook.
In algebra, a finitely generated group is a group G that has some finite generating set S so that every element of G can be written as the combination of finitely many elements of S and of inverses of such elements.
The direct sum is an operation between structures in abstract algebra, a branch of mathematics. It is defined differently, but analogously, for different kinds of structures. To see how the direct sum is used in abstract algebra, consider a more elementary kind of structure, the abelian group. The direct sum of two abelian groups and is another abelian group consisting of the ordered pairs where and . To add ordered pairs, we define the sum to be ; in other words addition is defined coordinate-wise. For example, the direct sum , where is real coordinate space, is the Cartesian plane, . A similar process can be used to form the direct sum of two vector spaces or two modules.
In mathematics, specifically in ring theory, a torsion element is an element of a module that yields zero when multiplied by some non-zero-divisor of the ring. The torsion submodule of a module is the submodule formed by the torsion elements. A torsion module is a module consisting entirely of torsion elements. A module is torsion-free if its only torsion element is the zero element.
In group theory, a branch of mathematics, a torsion group or a periodic group is a group in which every element has finite order. The exponent of such a group, if it exists, is the least common multiple of the orders of the elements.
In mathematics, specifically in group theory, the Prüfer p-group or the p-quasicyclic group or p∞-group, Z(p∞), for a prime number p is the unique p-group in which every element has p different p-th roots.
In mathematics, in the field of abstract algebra, the structure theorem for finitely generated modules over a principal ideal domain is a generalization of the fundamental theorem of finitely generated abelian groups and roughly states that finitely generated modules over a principal ideal domain (PID) can be uniquely decomposed in much the same way that integers have a prime factorization. The result provides a simple framework to understand various canonical form results for square matrices over fields.
In mathematics, a Prüfer domain is a type of commutative ring that generalizes Dedekind domains in a non-Noetherian context. These rings possess the nice ideal and module theoretic properties of Dedekind domains, but usually only for finitely generated modules. Prüfer domains are named after the German mathematician Heinz Prüfer.
In mathematics, the Krull–Schmidt theorem states that a group subjected to certain finiteness conditions on chains of subgroups, can be uniquely written as a finite direct product of indecomposable subgroups.
Module theory is the branch of mathematics in which modules are studied. This is a glossary of some terms of the subject.
In mathematics, two Prüfer theorems, named after Heinz Prüfer, describe the structure of certain infinite abelian groups. They have been generalized by L. Ya. Kulikov.
In mathematics, the height of an element g of an abelian group A is an invariant that captures its divisibility properties: it is the largest natural number N such that the equation Nx = g has a solution x ∈ A, or the symbol ∞ if there is no such N. The p-height considers only divisibility properties by the powers of a fixed prime number p. The notion of height admits a refinement so that the p-height becomes an ordinal number. Height plays an important role in Prüfer theorems and also in Ulm's theorem, which describes the classification of certain infinite abelian groups in terms of their Ulm factors or Ulm invariants.
In abstract algebra, a basic subgroup is a subgroup of an abelian group which is a direct sum of cyclic subgroups and satisfies further technical conditions. This notion was introduced by L. Ya. Kulikov and by László Fuchs in an attempt to formulate classification theory of infinite abelian groups that goes beyond the Prüfer theorems. It helps to reduce the classification problem to classification of possible extensions between two well understood classes of abelian groups: direct sums of cyclic groups and divisible groups.
