Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/iii/paper-7/2/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 7 2 a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Take , , and the short exact sequenceMultiplication by two is injective, and the reduction map has image all of and kernel , proving exactness. Any module homomorphism from to is zero: its generator must map to an integer killed by two. On the other hand, a homomorphism from to itself is determined arbitrarily by the image of its generator, so its Hom group is . Applying the Hom functor therefore givesThis sequence is not exact at : the incoming image is zero while the outgoing kernel is the whole nonzero group. In particular, the identity of cannot lift through the reduction map to a map .
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