Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-algebra-2-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/2/a/solution

A Euclidean domain is a principal ideal domain. The structure theorem for finitely generated modules over a principal ideal domain therefore gives, for every finitely generated module over ,
where the are nonzero nonunits and . The factors are unique up to multiplication by units; is uniquely determined.
The rank of a module is this integer . Equivalently, with the field of fractions of ,
The tensor product of modules kills each displayed torsion summand after extending scalars to , while sending to , explaining the equality.
If is a torsion-free module, no summand can occur: its nonzero element is killed by the nonzero scalar . Hence and
This also covers , with .

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