Group Theory – Torsion Subgroup as Direct Summand

gr.group-theoryshort-exact-sequences

For an abelian group $G$, let $G[\operatorname{tors}]$ be its torsion subgroup.

Consider the torsion sequence:

$0 \rightarrow G[\operatorname{tors}] \rightarrow G \rightarrow G/G[\operatorname{tors}] \rightarrow 0$.

For which torsion abelian groups $T$ is it the case that for all abelian groups $G$ with $G[\operatorname{tors}] \cong T$, the torsion sequence splits?

I know some sufficient conditions:

  1. $T$ is divisible. Indeed, this holds iff $T$ is injective as a $\mathbb{Z}$-module iff any short exact sequence $0 \rightarrow T \rightarrow G \rightarrow G/T \rightarrow 0$ splits.

Thus divisibility is necessary and sufficient if one considers arbitrary short exact sequences, but in the special case $T = G[\operatorname{tors}]$ divisibility is not necessary. The torsion sequence also splits if:

  1. $T$ has bounded order: $T = T[n]$ for some $n \in \mathbb{Z}^+$. (For this see e.g. see Corollary 20.14 of these notes of K. Igusa.)

I do know some examples where the torsion sequence does not split, e.g., when $G = \prod_{n=1}^{\infty} \mathbb{Z}/p^n \mathbb{Z}$.

But in fact I am interested in the case in which $T$ has "cofinite type", i.e., $T$ can be injected into $(\mathbb{Q}/\mathbb{Z})^n$ for some $n \in \mathbb{Z}^+$. (I am making up the terminology here; if I ever knew what the infinite abelian group people call this, it's not coming to mind at the moment.)

So for instance the simplest case that I don't know at the moment would be something like $T = \mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z} \oplus \mathbb{Q}_p/\mathbb{Z}_p$.

Not that it makes any difference as to what the answer is, but I would be very pleased to hear that the torsion sequence splits whenever $G[\operatorname{tors}]$ has "cofinite type". If you care why, see Theorem 5 here.

Best Answer

These are the (torsion) cotorsion groups. The following follows from a theorem of Baer:

A torsion abelian group is cotorsion if and only it is direct sum of a divisible torsion abelian group and an abelian group of bounded exponent.

The original paper of R. Baer is "The subgroup of the elements of finite order of an abelian group", Ann. of Math. 37 (1936), 766-781. (See in particular Theorem 8.1.)

[I have made Baer's paper available here. --PLC]

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