On thickness and decomposability of abelian \(p\)-groups (Q1802757)

All groups in this paper are separable abelian \(p\)-groups, \(p\) a fixed but arbitrary prime integer. Let \(B = \bigoplus_{n < \omega} \mathbb{Z}(p^ n)\) be the direct sum of cyclic groups of order \(p^ n\). If \(G\), \(H\) are \(p\)-groups, let \(\text{Hom}_ s(G,H)\) be the group of all small homomorphisms \(\varphi\) from \(G\) into \(H\), i.e. for all \(n < \omega\) there is \(m < \omega\) such that \(\varphi((p^ mG)[p^ n]) = 0\). A \(p\)- group \(G\) is called thick if \(\text{Hom}(G,B) = \text{Hom}_ s(G,B)\). A group \(H\) is essentially finitely indecomposable if whenever \(H = \bigoplus_{i\in I} H_ i\), all but finitely many of the \(H_ i\)'s are uniformly bounded by some \(p^ n\). Any thick group is essentially finitely indecomposable. The main purpose of this paper is to construct groups that are essentially finitely indecomposable but not thick. The authors also showed that their counterexamples are not pure complete. At the end of the paper, the authors pose the following open question: Are there separable abelian \(p\)-groups \(A\) with a countable basic subgroup such that \(A\) is essentially finitely indecomposable but not thick?