Sharp types revisited. (Q1415014)

The main result of the paper states that for any almost completely decomposable (= acd) (Abelian) group \(X\) (i.e. a torsion-free extension of a completely decomposable group of finite rank by a finite group) its subgroup \(X^\#(\sigma)\) (i.e. the purification of the subgroup of elements of type strictly greater than \(\sigma\)) is a direct summand for any sharp type \(\sigma\) and the complementary summand is acd. This implies that an acd group with some special critical typeset is a direct sum of groups with ranks 1 and 2.