The existence of certain pure dense subgroups of Abelian p-groups is not decidable in ZFC (Q1825285)

Every separable abelian p-group is imbedded as a pure dense subgroup in a torsion-complete group. It is therefore natural to fix a torsion-complete group \(\bar B\) and to study its pure dense subgroups. It was once hoped that the socle H[p] of a pure dense subgroup H of \(\bar B\) might determine H up to isomorphism. This was quickly disproved by Hill and Megibben in 1966. But there are positive results also. The \(p^ n\)-socle of a p-group G is defined to be \(G[p^ n]=\{x\in G:\) \(p^ nx=0\}\). Let \({\mathcal C}\) be a family of p-groups. The groups of \({\mathcal C}\) are said to be determined by their \(p^ n\)-socles if for every \(G,H\in {\mathcal C}\) the existence of a height-preserving isomorphism \(G[p^ n]\to H[p^ n]\), with heights computed in G and H, implies \(G\cong H\). Direct sums of cyclic groups and torsion-complete groups are determined by their p- socles, and the author (1987) showed that \(p^{\omega +n}\)-projective p- groups are determined by their \(p^{n+1}\)-socles. A p-group G is \(p^{\omega +n}\)-projective if there exists a subgroup H of \(G[p^ n]\) such that G/H is a direct sum of cyclic groups. The paper being reviewed shows that answers to the questions described above depend on set theory. Theorem 1.1: (V\(=L\)). Let n be a positive integer and \(\kappa\) a regular uncountable cardinal. Let G be a separable p-group and H a proper pure dense subgroup of G with a \(\kappa\)-filtration \(H=\cup_{\alpha \in \kappa}H_{\alpha}\) such that \(E=\{\alpha \in \kappa:\) \(p^{\omega +n}(H/H_{\alpha})\neq 0\}\) is stationary in \(\kappa\). Then there exist \(2^{\kappa}\) pairwise non-isomorphic subgroups K of G such that \(K[p^ n]=H[p^ n]\). The assumption that E is stationary prevents H from being \(p^{\omega +n}\)-projective, a necessary condition according to the author's result of 1987. Also note that G is not assumed to be torsion- complete. On the other hand it is shown (Theorem 2.1): \((MA+\neg CH)\). There exists an \(\omega_ 1\)-separable p-group G of cardinality \(\omega_ 1\) and a pure dense subgroup H of countable corank in G such that any pure subgroup K of G with \(K[p^ n]=H[p^ n]\) is isomorphic to H. This shows that it is not decidable in ZFC - ordinary set theory - whether separable p-groups are determined by their \(p^ n\)-socles. In a similar vein it is shown that it is undecidable in ZFC whether all high subgroups of a p-group are isomorphic or not. A high subgroup of A is a subgroup of A which is maximal disjoint from \(p^{\omega}A\).