On products of primary abelian groups (Q1204420)

The categorical direct product of a family \(\{G_ i\}_{i\in I}\) of \(p\)-groups in the category of abelian \(p\)-groups is the so-called \(t\)- product \(\prod^ t_{i\in I}G_ i\) which is the maximal torsion subgroup of the ordinary product \(\prod_{i\in I}G_ i\). The author studies \(t\)-products which include as a special case the torsion-complete \(p\)-groups. The first part of the paper concerns the existence of epimorphisms \[ \prod_{i\in I}G_ i\to\prod_{i\in I}^ t\;G_ i,\quad\prod_{i\in I}G_ i\to\bigoplus_{i\in I}G_ i,\quad\prod_{i\in I}^ t\;G_ i\to\bigoplus_{i\in I}G_ i. \] The most striking results among many more are the following. Corollary 1. The group \(L =\prod^ t_{i\in I}G_ i\) or \(=\bigoplus_{i\in I}G_ i\) is an epimorphic image of \(\prod_{i\in I}G_ i\) if and only if \(p^ nL\) is the epimorphic image of \(p^ n\prod_{i\in K}G_ i\) for some \(n\) and some finite subset \(K\) of \(I\). Corollary 2. Suppose that \(\{G_ i\}_{i\in I}\) is an infinite collection of unbounded reduced \(p\)-groups of cardinality at most \(| I|\). Then \(\prod^ t_{i\in I}G_ i\) is not the epimorphic image of \(\prod_{i\in I}G_ i\). Theorem 2. If \(\{G_ i\}_{i <\omega}\) is a sequence of \(p\)-groups, then \(\bigoplus_{i <\omega}G_ i\) is an epimorphic image of \(\prod^ t_{i <\omega}G_ i\). Corollary 3. Suppose that \(\{A_ i\}_{i\in I}\), \(\{G_ j\}_{j\in J}\) are families of abelian \(p\)-groups such that each \(G_ j\) is separable. Given a homomorphism \(\prod^ t_{i\in I}A_ i\to\bigoplus_{j\in J}G_ j\), there are countable subsets \(I_ c\) of \(I\), \(J_ c\) of \(J\), such that the composition \[ \prod_{i\in I_ c}^ t\;A_ i\to\prod_{i\in I}^ t\;A_ i\to\bigoplus_{j\in J}G_ j\to\bigoplus_{j\in J_ c}G_ j \] is small. The second part of the paper deals with the \(\oplus_ c\)-topology, which is the topology on a \(p\)-group \(G\) for which a neighborhood basis at 0 consists of all subgroups \(U\) of \(G\) such that \(G/U\) is a direct sum of cyclic groups. It is shown that the class of all \(p\)-groups which are complete in the \(\oplus_ c\)-topology, is closed under direct summands, \(t\)-products, and direct sums (Corollary 10). The class of \(\oplus_ c\)- complete groups is compared with two other related classes of groups. In all this the knowledge of epimorphic images that are direct sums of cyclic groups is important. The most impressive theorem in this direction is Theorem 5. Suppose that \(\{A_ i\}_{i\in I}\) is a collection of \(p\)- groups and \((\prod^ t_{i\in I}A_ i)/S\) is a quotient group that is a direct sum of cyclic groups. Then there are subgroups \(R_ i\) of \(A_ i\) such that \(\prod^ t_{i\in I}R_ i\subset S\) and \((\prod^ t_{i\in I}A_ i)/(\prod^ t_{i\in I}R_ i)\) is a direct product of cyclic groups.