On vanishing of the homomorphism group of abelian groups (Q2246858)

The ambient category is that of abelian groups. In 1986, the reviewer defined any abelian group \(A\) to be coslender, if \(\Hom(A,\mathbb{Z})=0\) [\textit{R. Dimitrić}, Glas. Mat., III. Ser. 21(41), 327--329 (1986; Zbl 0618.20038)]. \(A\) is coslender if and only if \(\mathbb{Z}\) is not a direct summand of \(A\), if and only if its torsion-free component \(A/T(A)\) is coslender [the reviewer, Pitman Res. Notes Math. Ser. 204, 41--50 (1989; Zbl 0671.20053); the reviewer and \textit{B. Goldsmith}, Glas. Mat., III. Ser. 23(43), No. 2, 241--246 (1988; Zbl 0674.20032)]. In 2005, \textit{S. Ya. Grinshpon} [Acta Appl. Math. 85, No. 1--3, 143--146 (2005; Zbl 1085.20034)] posed a more general question to characterize groups \(A\), such that \(\Hom(A,C)=0\), for every completely decomposable torsion-free group \(C\). The current paper under review examines conditions (on \(A\) and \(C\)) that will ensure \(\mathrm{Hom}(A,C)=0\), for arbitrary groups \(A\) and \(C\). Clearly the class of such groups \(A\) must be a subclass of coslender groups as the new condition is more restrictive. If \(A\) and \(C\) are any abelian groups, then \(\mathrm{Hom}(A,C)=0\) if and only if (1) \(A\) is coslender and (2) for every homomorphism \(f:A\to C\), and the \(C\)-generator map \(\pi:F\to C\), there is a homomorphism \(g:A\to F\) such that \(\pi\circ g=f\). Apart from the straightforward cases when \(A\) is torsion, \(C\) torsion-free, or when \(C\) has a non-trivial divisible subgroup and \(A\) is divisible, the non-trivial case consideration, involving types of elements, leads to the main result as follows: Assume that \(C\) is a reduced torsion-free group and that \(A\) is neither torsion nor divisible. Denote the reduced part of \(A\) by \(A^\prime\). Then \(\mathrm{Hom}(A,C)=0\), if an only if, the following conditions (a) and (b) hold: (a) If torsion part \(T(A^\prime)=0\), one of the following conditions (i), (j) holds: (i) \(A^\prime\) is coslender and, for every \(f\in\Hom(A^\prime,C)\), there exists a non-zero \(c\in C\) with \(\operatorname{im}(f)\subseteq\langle c\rangle\); (j) for any homomorphism \(\phi\in\Hom(A^\prime,C)\) the following hold: (j1) \(C\) contains a pure subgroup \(C^\prime\supset\operatorname{im}(\phi)\) of rank one and type \(t_1\); (j2) for every \(a\in A^\prime\) with \(t(a)<t_1\) one has \(a\in\operatorname{ker}(\phi)\); (j3) \(A^\prime\) does not contain a rank 1 direct summand isomorphic to \(C^\prime\); (b) On the other hand, if \(T(A^\prime)\neq 0\) the group \(A^\prime/T(A^\prime)\) is either a non-torsion divisible group or else it satisfies (a).