Splitting the automorphism group of an Abelian \(p\)-group (Q5931989): Difference between revisions

Let \(G=\bigoplus_{i\leq r}G_i\) be an Abelian \(p\)-group where \(r\) is a fixed ordinal and \(G_i\) is a homocyclic group of exponent \(p^{n_i}\) and finite rank \(r_i\). We let \({\mathcal A}(G)\) denote the automorphism group of \(G\) and \(\sigma\) the natural epimorphism of \({\mathcal A}(G)\) onto the product \(\prod_i{\mathcal A}(G_i/pG_i)\). This yields the following exact sequence \[ 1\to\ker\sigma\to{\mathcal A}(G)\to\prod_i{\mathcal A}(G_i/pG_i)\cong\prod_i\text{GL}_{r_i}(\mathbb{Z}_p)\to 1.\tag{1} \] Similarly, for each \(i\leq r\) we have the exact sequences \[ 1\to\ker\lambda_i\to{\mathcal A}(G_i)\to\text{GL}_{r_i}(\mathbb{Z}_p)\to 1.\tag{\(2_i\)} \] In this short paper, the author establishes the following theorem: (A) For \(p\geq 5\), the exact sequence (1) splits if and only if each exact sequence \((2_i)\) splits for \(i\leq r\). (B) If \(p\) is any prime and \(n_{i+1}-n_i>1\) for all \(i\leq r\), then the exact sequence (1) splits if and only if each exact sequence \((2_i)\) splits for \(i\leq r\). Aviñó's results are particularly useful when combined with Morgado and Beletskij's works which establish necessary and sufficient conditions for \((2_i)\) to split.