The Pierce decomposition and Pierce embedding of endomorphism rings of abelian \(p\)-groups (Q6133254)

All groups considered in the paper under this review are assumed to be additively written abelian \(p\)-groups. The paper is based on the fundamental paper by \textit{R. S. Pierce} [``Homomorphisms of primary abelian groups'', in: Topics in abelian groups. Chicago, IL: Scott, Foresman \& Co. 215--310 (1963)]. The authors investigate the Pierce decomposition of the endomorphism ring \(\mathrm{End}(G) =\hat{F}\oplus\mathrm{End}_s(G) \) of an abelian \(p\)-group \(G\) and its application to the recent studies of groups with minimal full inertia and of thick-thin groups. They improve one theorem from [\textit{B. Goldsmith} at al., Period. Math. Hung. 85, No. 1, 1--13 (2022; Zbl 1513.20059)] and prove the following theorem: Theorem. Let \(G\) be a separable semi-standard \(p\)-group such that in the Pierce decomposition \(\mathrm{End}(G) =A\oplus\mathrm{End}_s(G) \), \(A\) is the completion in the \(p\)-adic topology of a free \(J_p\)-module \(F\) of rank strictly smaller than the continuum. If \(H\) is a countably infinite subgroup of \(G\), then the higher socles \(H^F[p^k]\) (\(k \geq1\)) of the subgroup \(H^F = \sum_{\alpha\in F}\alpha(H)\) are fully inert in \(G\), but not commensurable with any fully invariant subgroup of \(G\). It is investigated if the Pierce embedding \(\Psi :\mathrm{End}(G)/H(G)\rightarrow\prod\limits_n M_{f_n(G)}\) is surjective and if it is not surjective.