Subgroups which admit extensions of homomorphisms. (Q494961)

For an abelian group \(G\), let \(\mathcal Q(G)\) (respectively, \(\mathcal P(G)\)) be the family of all subgroups of \(G\) such that every homomorphism (respectively, monomorphism) \(H\to G\) extends to an endomorphism of \(G\). Clearly, \(\mathcal Q(G)\subseteq\mathcal P(G)\) and \(\mathcal Q(G)\) contains the family of all direct summands of \(G\). For an abelian \(p\)-group \(G\) (with \(p\) a prime), the finite subgroups in \(\mathcal Q(G)\) are characterized as the valuated direct sums of cyclic subgroups in \(\mathcal Q(G)\) (here the valuation is the one induced by the height of the elements of \(G\)). Similarly, a characterization is given of special finite subgroups of \(G\) that belong to the family \(\mathcal W(G)\) of all subgroups \(H\) of \(G\) such that every endomorphism of \(H\) extends to an endomorphism of \(G\). A consequence of these results is that, for an abelian group \(G\), the finitely generated subgroups in \(\mathcal P(G)\) are actually in \(\mathcal Q(G)\) (i.e., \(\mathcal P(G)\cap\mathcal F(G)=\mathcal Q(G)\cap\mathcal F(G)\), where \(\mathcal F(G)=\{H\leq G:H\text{ is finitely generated}\}\)), namely, for a finitely generated subgroup \(H\) of \(G\), the extendibility of monomorphisms \(H\to G\) implies the extendibility of homomorphisms \(H\to G\). This partially answers the open problem of establishing whether there exists an abelian group \(G\) such that \(\mathcal Q(G)\neq\mathcal P(G)\).