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Modules, Submodules, Quotient Modules and the Isomorphism Theorems
1 · Prerequisites
- Binary Operations, Monoids, Groups and Subgroups
- Construction of the Natural Numbers
- Construction of the Real Numbers via Cauchy Sequences
- Construction of the Real Numbers via Dedekind Cuts
- Cosets, Index and Lagrange's Theorem
- Countability and Uncountability
- Finite Counting, Factorials and Binomial Coefficients
- Group Homomorphisms and the Isomorphism Theorems
- Ideals, Quotient Rings and the Isomorphism Theorems for Rings
- Normal Subgroups and Quotient Groups
- Relations, Functions, and Quotients
- Rings, Subrings, Integral Domains and Fields
- The ZFC Axioms and the Basic Set Constructions
2 · Summary
Rings and ideals provide the scalars and quotient constructions used here, while vector spaces supply the motivating special case over a field. Earlier group results establish the pattern for kernels, quotient maps, factorisations, and first isomorphism theorems.
This page defines left and right modules, submodules, generated and free modules, simple modules, annihilators, torsion, quotient modules, and module homomorphisms. It proves the submodule criterion, kernel and image laws, quotient-module laws, the quotient universal property, and the first isomorphism theorem for modules.
3 · Logical flowchart
4 · Definitions, theorems and proofs
Unital left and right modules over a ring; unqualified module means left module
Definition
Let be a ring. A left -module is an abelian group with a scalar action , , satisfying
A right -module has an action , , with the analogous right-handed axioms. Unless “right” is stated, module means a unital left module.
In a module, , , and
Statement
For every left -module , scalar , and element ,
Facts & Assumptions
Given: A left -module , , and .
The module action distributes over both addition operations, and is an abelian group (Unital left and right modules over a ring; unqualified module means left module).
The additive structure is an abelian group, so (Ring: an abelian group under addition and a monoid under multiplication, with multiplication distributing over addition on both sides).
Cancellation holds in every group, hence in the additive groups of and (Cancellation in a group: or forces ; equivalently left and right translation by are bijections of , so and each have exactly one solution).
Proof
Since , distributivity gives ; cancellation yields .
Since , distributivity gives ; cancellation yields .
From , distributivity and step 1.1 give , so .
From , distributivity and step 1.2 give , so .
Submodule of a module
Definition
Let be a left -module. A subset is a submodule when it is a subgroup of the additive group of and is closed under scalars:
The operations on are the restrictions of those of . Write when the ring and module are understood.
The one-step submodule criterion; intersections and sums of submodules are submodules
Statement
Let be a left -module. A nonempty subset is a submodule if and only if
Consequently, the intersection of every nonempty family of submodules is a submodule, and, for submodules ,
is a submodule of .
Facts & Assumptions
Given: A left -module .
The module axioms include and distributivity of scalar multiplication over both additions (Unital left and right modules over a ring; unqualified module means left module).
In a module, ; taking and using [L1] gives (In a module, , , and ).
A nonempty subset of a group is a subgroup exactly when it is closed under (One-step subgroup test: a nonempty is a subgroup iff for all ; the identity and the inverses of are then those of ).
A submodule is an additive subgroup closed under scalar multiplication (Submodule of a module).
Proof
If is a submodule, then implies , and then for and .
Conversely, suppose the displayed closure condition holds and choose . With and both elements equal to , it gives .
If , the same condition with scalar , first element , and second element gives .
The additive subgroup test applies by steps 1.2--1.3; scalar closure follows from the displayed condition with . Thus is a submodule.
For a nonempty family of submodules, lies in every ; and if lie in their intersection, then lies in every . The criterion proves is a submodule.
For and in , distributivity gives ; moreover . The criterion proves is a submodule.
Generated submodule, cyclic and finitely generated modules, module basis and free module
Definition
Let be a left -module and . The submodule generated by is
The family is nonempty because , and its intersection is a submodule by The one-step submodule criterion; intersections and sums of submodules are submodules. Thus is the smallest submodule of containing , just as The subgroup generated by a subset, the cyclic subgroup , and cyclic groups defines a generated subgroup.
The module is cyclic if for some , and finitely generated if for some finite . A subset is a basis if every element of has a unique expression as a finite -linear combination of elements of . A module possessing a basis is a free -module.
Simple module: a nonzero module with no proper nonzero submodule
Definition
A left -module is simple if and its only submodules are and . Equivalently, has no proper nonzero submodule.
Annihilators, torsion elements and the torsion subset of a module
Definition
For a left -module and , the annihilator of is
and the annihilator of is
If is an integral domain, an element is a torsion element when for some nonzero . The set of all torsion elements is denoted ; is torsion-free when .
Quotient module with scalar multiplication on additive cosets
Definition
Let be a submodule of a left -module. Since the additive group of is abelian, is normal, so the additive quotient group consists of the cosets . Its proposed scalar action is
The well-definedness and module laws are established in The quotient action is well defined and makes a module ↗. The resulting module is the quotient module .
Module homomorphism and isomorphism, kernel, image and cokernel
Definition
For left -modules , a function is an -module homomorphism if
for all and . It is a module isomorphism if it is a bijective module homomorphism.
Its kernel and image are
Once Kernels and images of module homomorphisms are submodules, and injectivity is equivalent to trivial kernel ↗ establishes that the image is a submodule, the cokernel of is the quotient module .
Kernels and images of module homomorphisms are submodules, and injectivity is equivalent to trivial kernel
Statement
For an -module homomorphism , both and are submodules. Moreover,
Facts & Assumptions
Given: A homomorphism of left -modules.
A module homomorphism preserves addition and scalar multiplication, and the displayed definitions give its kernel and image (Module homomorphism and isomorphism, kernel, image and cokernel).
A nonempty subset of a module is a submodule exactly when it is closed under (The one-step submodule criterion; intersections and sums of submodules are submodules).
The additive underlying function of a module homomorphism is a group homomorphism and therefore sends to ; moreover (Module homomorphism and isomorphism, kernel, image and cokernel, A group homomorphism automatically satisfies and , and for every ; for monoid homomorphisms preservation of the identity must be assumed, In a module, , , and ).
A group homomorphism is injective exactly when its kernel is trivial (A group homomorphism is injective if and only if its kernel is trivial).
Proof
The kernel contains because . If and , then , so .
The image contains . If and , then lies in the image.
The additive underlying function has the same kernel described in [L1], so the group-homomorphism theorem gives injective exactly when .
The submodule criterion applied to steps 1.1 and 1.2 proves that and are submodules.
Together, steps 1.3 and 2.1 prove both assertions.
The quotient action is well defined and makes a module
Statement
Let be a submodule of a left -module. The rule
is independent of the representative and, together with the additive quotient group, makes a left -module.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: A left -module and a submodule .
Additive cosets satisfy exactly when ( iff , and iff ).
A submodule is closed under scalar multiplication and is an additive subgroup (Submodule of a module).
The additive cosets form a quotient group with the inherited addition (For , the cosets form a group with identity and inverse ).
The module axioms give distributivity, associativity of scalar action, and (Unital left and right modules over a ring; unqualified module means left module).
Scalar multiplication preserves additive negatives (In a module, , , and ).
Proof
If , then by [L1]. Thus by [L2, L4, L5], and [L1] gives ; the proposed scalar action is well defined.
The quotient addition is an abelian group operation: it is a quotient-group operation by [L3], and .
For cosets, the module identities in give , , , and .
Steps 1.1--1.3 verify a well-defined scalar action on an abelian group satisfying all module axioms; hence is a left -module.
The canonical map is a surjective module homomorphism with kernel ; thus every submodule is a kernel
Statement
For a submodule , the canonical map
is a surjective -module homomorphism and has kernel . Hence every submodule is the kernel of a module homomorphism.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: A left -module and a submodule .
The quotient action is a well-defined module action (The quotient action is well defined and makes a module).
The canonical projection of the underlying additive groups is a surjective group homomorphism (The canonical projection , , is a surjective group homomorphism).
A module homomorphism preserves addition and scalar multiplication, and its kernel is the inverse image of zero (Module homomorphism and isomorphism, kernel, image and cokernel).
The additive group of a submodule is closed under inverses, and the coset criterion consequently gives if and only if (Submodule of a module, iff , and iff ).
Proof
The underlying additive map is a homomorphism and is surjective.
The quotient action gives .
Since exactly when , its kernel is .
Steps 1.1--1.2 show that is a surjective module homomorphism.
Together with step 1.3, this proves the claim and shows that every submodule is a kernel.
A module homomorphism vanishing on factors uniquely through
Statement
Let be a module homomorphism and let satisfy . There is a unique module homomorphism
such that , equivalently .
Facts & Assumptions
Given: A module homomorphism and a submodule with .
The canonical map is a surjective module homomorphism with kernel (The canonical map is a surjective module homomorphism with kernel ; thus every submodule is a kernel).
A group homomorphism that kills a normal subgroup factors uniquely through the group quotient (A homomorphism that kills a normal subgroup factors uniquely through the quotient group).
A module homomorphism is additive and scalar-preserving, and its kernel is the preimage of zero (Module homomorphism and isomorphism, kernel, image and cokernel).
Proof
By [L1], the canonical map is an additive-group quotient map with kernel . Viewing the modules as additive groups, [L3] makes a group homomorphism and the hypothesis says it kills . By [L2], define the unique additive homomorphism by , with .
For every coset, , so is scalar-preserving.
Thus is a module homomorphism with the required factorisation.
Any module-homomorphism factor is in particular an additive-group factor, so the uniqueness in step 1.1 proves its uniqueness as a module homomorphism.
First isomorphism theorem for modules:
Statement
For every module homomorphism , there is a module isomorphism
given by .
Facts & Assumptions
Given: A module homomorphism .
Its kernel and image are submodules, and a module homomorphism is injective exactly when its kernel is trivial (Kernels and images of module homomorphisms are submodules, and injectivity is equivalent to trivial kernel).
A homomorphism vanishing on a submodule factors uniquely through the quotient module (A module homomorphism vanishing on factors uniquely through ).
Module isomorphisms are precisely bijective module homomorphisms; kernel and image have their displayed definitions (Module homomorphism and isomorphism, kernel, image and cokernel).
Proof
Since is a submodule and vanishes on it, [L2] gives a module homomorphism with .
Every value of lies in , and every is the value of at ; hence its corestriction is a surjective module homomorphism.
The corestriction has trivial kernel: means , hence and .
The corestriction is injective by [L1], so it is bijective.
By [L3], this bijective module homomorphism is the claimed module isomorphism.
5 · Examples, counterexamples and false statements
None yet.
Sources
Standard references
Recommended treatments; not extraction sources.