Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/iii/paper-138/5/a/solution

For the preliminary definitions, a block is for a primitive central idempotent , and a module belongs to it when . For a semisimple algebra, the Artin–Wedderburn theorem identifies its blocks with the factors in its product decomposition. Each factor is a block of a finite-dimensional algebra.
We prove Ext separation of finite-length modules. The extension hypothesis is for simples in opposite sets. First, for a simple and a module of finite composition length with factors in , we have . Induct on the length of : for with simple, the long exact sequence of the Ext functor contains
whose outer groups are zero. The same argument works with the two sets interchanged.
Now induct on the length of , with immediate. Take a simple quotient in . By induction, with factors in the respective sets. Suppose ; the other case is symmetric. Quotienting by gives
This splits by the preceding Ext vanishing. Let be the inverse image in of the chosen complementary copy of . Then , , and . Thus has only factors in , while has only factors in .
If two finite-length modules have factors in disjoint sets, any homomorphism between them is zero: a nonzero image would, by the Jordan–Hölder theorem, have a simple factor belonging to both sets. For any submodule of with factors in , projection onto is consequently zero, so . The analogous argument applies to . Hence
In particular both summands are preserved by every endomorphism of .

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