Let $$G=\mathbb{Z}/p_1^{e_1}\times\cdots\times\mathbb{Z}/p_n^{e_n}$$ be any finite abelian group.
What are $G$'s subgroups? I can get many subgroups by grouping the factors and multiplying them by constants, for example: If $$G=\mathbb{Z}/3\times \mathbb{Z}/9\times \mathbb{Z}/4\times \mathbb{Z}/8,$$ then I can take $$H=3(\mathbb{Z}/3\times \mathbb{Z}/9)\times 2(\mathbb{Z}/4) \times \mathbb{Z}/8.$$ Do I get all subgroups that way? (I'm interested in all subgroups, not just up-to-isomorphism).
Which are the subgroups $H$ in $G$ for which $G/H$ is primary cyclic?
Best Answer
These three answers were originally comments. I am answering the part of the question which was deleted:
Is there anything else (interesting) to say about the collection of subgroups of an [finite] abelian group.
Update. The answer by Amritanshu Prasad, comments by Derek Holt and Robin Chapman here provide much more (very interesting) information about enumerating subgroups.
On the other hand, the elementary theory of pairs $(A,H)$ where $A$ is a finite Abelian group and $H$ is its subgroup is undecidable (see Taĭclin, M. A. Elementary theories of lattices of subgroups, Algebra i Logika 9 1970 473–483 and references there). Hence there cannot be a nice description of subgroups of finite Abelian groups (say, one cannot represent a pair $(A,H)$ as a direct product of pairs of sizes bounded in terms of the period of $A$).
This is a better reference than Taiclin. Slobodskoĭ, A. M.; Fridman, È. I.: Theories of abelian groups with predicates that distinguish subgroups. Algebra i Logika 14 (1975), no. 5, 572–575.
Update In fact, in the paper, Sapir, M. V. Varieties with a finite number of subquasivarieties. Sibirsk. Mat. Zh. 22 (1981), no. 6, 168–187, I proved that for every prime $p$ one cannot find finitely many pairs $(A_i,H_i)$ such that every pair $(A,H)$ where $A$ is Abelian group of period $p^6$ (it is not true for $p^5$) is a direct product of copies of $(A_i,H_i)$.