Construction of regulating subgroups in almost completely decomposable groups. (Q1887468)

A `completely decomposable group' is a direct sum of subgroups of the rational numbers. An `almost completely decomposable group' (acd) is a finite essential (Abelian) extension of a completely decomposable group of finite rank. Lady initiated the systematic study of regulating subgroups of acd groups which are defined as the completely decomposable subgroups of least index. Writing an acd group \(X\) inside its divisible hull \(\mathbb{Q} X\) as \(X=A+\sum_i\mathbb{Z} x_i\) with \(A\) completely decomposable of finite rank, it is not clear how to find the regulating subgroups of \(X\). A recent result of Dittmann shows that any acd group \(X\) containing a completely decomposable subgroup \(A\) such that the quotient \(X/A\) is generated by \(n\) elements also contains a regulating subgroup with quotient generated by \(n\) elements. The authors give a constructive proof of Dittmann's theorem which can be implemented in the computer algebra system Maple \(8\). The algorithm involves properties and manipulations of matrices with integer entries. Thus the paper provides a computational method of finding regulating subgroups in an acd group given in standard form. Various examples are considered and the Maple procedures as well as the algorithm are explained separately from the theoretical parts.