How rigid are reduced products? (Q2570179)

This paper deals with reduced products. Recall that for any cardinal \(\mu\) the additive group of all integer-valued functions from \(\mu\) to \(\mathbb{Z}\) is denoted by \(\mathbb{Z}^\mu\). If \(f\colon\mu\to\mathbb{Z}\), then the support of \(f\) is defined as \([f]=\{i\in\mu:f(i)=f_i\not=0\}\). As usual the reduced product is now defined as the quotient \(\mathbb{Z}_\mu=\mathbb{Z}^\mu/\mathbb{Z}^{<\mu}\) where \(\mathbb{Z}^{<\mu}=\{f\in\mathbb{Z}^\mu:|[f]|<\mu\}\). The easiest example is for instance \(\mathbb{Z}^{\aleph_0}/\mathbb{Z}^{(\aleph_0)}=\mathbb{Z}_{\aleph_0}\). The authors study the question when \(\Hom(\mathbb{Z}_\mu,\mathbb{Z}_\lambda)=0\) for regular cardinals \(\mu\leq\lambda\). A complete characterization is obtained assuming the generalized continuum hypothesis GCH. As an application of these results the authors then focus on norms of groups. The norm \(||G||\) of a group \(G\) is the smallest cardinal \(\mu\) with \(\Hom(\mathbb{Z}_\mu,G)\not=0\) which is always an infinite regular cardinal or \(\infty\). It is shown which cardinals may appear as the norm of groups, in particular in models of GCH. Similarly, the norm \(||R||\) of a radical \(R\) is the smallest cardinal \(\mu\) for which there is a family \(\{G_i:i \in\mu\}\) of groups \(G_i\) such that \(R\) does not commute with the product \(\prod_{i\in\mu}G_i\). As before, the norm of a radical is an infinite regular cardinal and the authors characterize those cardinals which may appear as the norm of some radical. This paper is a very elegant and comprehensive manuscript on reduced products and norms of radicals. Moreover, it is easy accessible and shows one more time the interesting interplay between set-theory, model theory and algebra.