On the Cayley-Hamilton property in abelian groups (Q1205613)

An abelian group \(A\) is Cayley-Hamilton if it satisfies the property: \(\forall \phi: A \to A\), \(\exists\) monic \(F\in \mathbb{Z}(t)\) with \(F(\phi)(A) = 0\). An abelian group \(A\) is called almost Cayley-Hamilton if for \(\forall \phi: A \cong A\), \(\exists\) non-zero \(F \in \mathbb{Z}(t)\) with \(F(\phi)(A) = 0\). Obviously, Cayley-Hamilton implies almost Cayley- Hamilton. However, the converse is not true. In this paper the author shows that if \(A\) is an abelian group whose torsion-free quotient is \(\mathbb{Z}\)-like and if, for an infinite number of primes \(p\), \(TA_ p\) contains either \(\mathbb{Z}/p^{n(p)}\oplus \mathbb{Z} p^{n(p)}\) or \(\mathbb{Z}/p^{n(p)} \oplus \mathbb{Z} p^{n(p)+1}\) as a direct summand, then \(A\) is not almost Cayley-Hamilton. The author generalizes the results by replacing the condition that the torsion-free quotient is \(\mathbb{Z}\)-like by the condition that the torsion-free quotient is \(\mathbb{Z}^ k\)-like for some positive integer \(k\). Theorem. Suppose that for infinitely many \(p\), \(T_ p\) is not cyclic, and \(k(p) \neq 0\). Call this set of primes \(S\). For each \(p \in S\), write \(T_ p = \mathbb{Z}/p^{m(p)} \oplus \mathbb{Z}/p^{n(p)} \oplus\) (finite abelian \(p\)-group), where, for each \(p\), \(m(p)\) and \(n(p)\) are positive integers with \(n(p) \geq m(p)\). Let \(\langle x_ p\rangle = \mathbb{Z}/p^{m(p)}\) and \(\langle y_ p\rangle = \mathbb{Z}/p^{n(p)}\) and write \(w_ p = (r_ px_ p,q_ py_ p,\dots)\) for some integers \(r_ p\) and \(q_ p\) which depend on \(p\). If any of the following conditions holds, then \(A\) is not almost Cayley-Hamilton. (a) \(q_ p\) or \(r_ p\) may be chosen to be equal to 0 for infinitely many \(p \in S\). (b) \(q_ p\), \(r_ p\) may be chosen so that \(| q_ p|_ p \leq | r_ p|_ p\) for infinitely many \(p \in S\). (c) \(q_ p\), \(r_ p\) may be chosen so that \(| r_ p|_ p + n(p) \leq | q_ p|_ p + m(p)\) for infinitely many \(p \in S\). (Here \(| t|_ p\) is the exact power of \(p\) which divides \(t\)).