Almost completely decomposable torsion-free groups (Q1201208)

A torsion-free abelian group \(A\) of finite rank is almost completely decomposable (ACD) if \(A\) contains a subgroup of finite index that is isomorphic to a direct sum of subgroups of the additive rationals. The authors investigate the problem: Determine when every homomorphic image of an ACD group is ACD. A simpler version of the problem is solved first. Call a list of types well-formed if for every subset \(S\) of \(\{1,2,\dots,n\}\) that contains at least two elements, there exist \(i,j \in S\) and a nontrivial partition \(I\), \(J\) of \(S\) such that \(\sup\{\tau_ i,\tau_ j\} = \sup\{\inf_{i\in I}\tau_ k,\inf_{\ell\in J}\tau_ \ell\}\). Theorem. Suppose \(A\) is an ACD group that contains \(A_ 1\oplus\dots\oplus A_ n\) as a subgroup of finite index, where each \(A_ i\) is a rank one group of type \(\tau_ i\). Then \(A/B\) is almost completely decomposable for all rank one subgroups \(B\) of \(A\) if and only if \(\tau_ 1,\dots,\tau_ n\) is well-formed. -- Using the theorem, a partial solution of the problem is given. Corollary. Suppose \(A\) is an ACD group that contains \(A_ 1 \oplus \cdots \oplus A_ n\) as a subgroup of finite index, where each \(A_ i\) is a rank one group of type \(\tau_ i\) and assume the list \(\tau_ 1,\dots,\tau_ n\) is closed under suprema. Then, for every \(m \geq 1\), any torsion-free homomorphic image of \(A^ m\) is ACD if and only if \(A/B\) is ACD for all rank one pure subgroups \(B\) of \(A\). Using the well-known Butler duality, the above results are dualized. A connection is made to Butler's result that if \(L\) is a lattice of types in which each element has at most two covers, then every Butler group with typeset in \(L\) is ACD. Indeed, any subset of a lattice satisfying Butler's two-cover condition is well-formed. Moreover, the two-cover condition is equivalent to \(L\) being both well-formed and co-well-formed (the obvious dual property).