Properties of endomorphism rings of Abelian groups. I. (Q1407380)

This paper contains the first four chapters of what is now a book: Endomorphism Rings of Abelian Groups, Kluwer Academic Publishers (2003; Zbl 1044.20037). Why study endomorphism rings of Abelian groups? The authors provide three reasons. First, to acquire additional information about Abelian groups, develop new concepts and methods, and determine new interesting classes of groups to examine. Second, to stimulate the development of the theory of more general modules and endomorphism rings. Third, to illuminate the structure of the additive groups of rings and modules, as well as the homological properties of Abelian groups. In this book, the variety of methods, the beauty of the results, and the appeal of the open problems provide ample justification for the authors' rationale. Given an Abelian group \(A\), we can form the ring of endomorphisms \(\text{End}_\mathbb{Z}(A)\) and then view the group \(A\) as an \(\text{End}_\mathbb{Z}(A)\)-module in a natural way. A wide variety of tools are available for studying such objects, and the reader of ``Endomorphism Rings'' is assumed to have some familiarity with the theories of Abelian groups, rings, and modules. The book is divided into seven chapters, the first four comprising the paper under review. Chapter I (General Results on Endomorphism Rings). Two sections of basic definitions and results are followed by a section of examples and properties of endomorphism rings. Then there are four sections on torsion-free Abelian groups, including a discussion of the quasi-endomorphism ring and the irreducible groups of J. D. Reid. Chapter II (Groups as Modules over Their Endomorphism Rings). Some of the examined properties of such ``endo-modules'' are respectively Artinian, Noetherian, flat, finitely generated, and projective. Chapter III (Ring Properties of Endomorphism Rings). After a section on the finite topology, the chapter deals with endomorphism rings that have the dcc or the acc, as well as with regular, commutative, and local rings. Chapter IV (Jacobson Radical). The importance of the Jacobson radical in ring theory is well known. Here is examined the radical of endomorphism rings of \(p\)-groups, torsion-free finite rank groups, algebraically compact groups, and completely decomposable groups. The remaining chapters in the book are V (Isomorphism and Realization), VI (Hereditary Endomorphism Rings), and VII (Fully Transitive Groups). The material is largely self-contained, although some proofs are given by reference when space becomes an issue. Helpful and challenging sets of exercises appear at the end of each section and open problems are listed at the end of each chapter. This work is valuable as a text for a graduate course, a reference on a lively area of mathematics, and a guide to appealing research problems.