Abelian group

An abelian group is a group whose operation is commutative: $gh=hg$ for every $g,h$ in the group.

A class of abelian groups closed under isomorphisms, subgroups, quotients and extensions. For the homotopical Serre-class theorems one also uses tensor/Tor closure and homology closure for Eilenberg–MacLane spaces. A homomorphism is an isomorphism modulo the class when its kernel and cokernel lie in the class.

The class of all finitely generated abelian groups has the closure properties needed for the Hurewicz theorem modulo a Serre class. In a simply connected space, degreewise membership of homotopy groups and integral homology groups in this class is equivalent.

An abelian group in which no nonzero element has finite order. Free abelian groups are torsion-free, but torsion-free groups need not be free, as the additive rationals show. This algebraic meaning differs from the torsion-free connection in differential geometry.

For a torsion-free abelian group $G$, its rational divisible hull is $G{\otimes }_{\mathbb{Z}}\mathbb{Q}$. It consists of fractions $g/n$, with $n>0$ and $g/n=h/m$ exactly when $mg=nh$. The natural map $G\to G\otimes \mathbb{Q}$ is injective. Every homomorphism from $G$ into a torsion-free divisible Abelian group extends uniquely through this hull.

An abelian subgroup is a subgroup that is an abelian group under the restricted operation.

A finitely generated abelian group has a finite generating set. Equivalently, it is the cokernel of a homomorphism between finitely generated free abelian groups.

The rank of a finitely generated abelian group $G$ is the number $r$ of infinite cyclic factors in its invariant-factor decomposition, equivalently ${\dim }_{\mathbb{Q}}(G{\otimes }_{\mathbb{Z}}\mathbb{Q})$.

Every finitely generated abelian group is isomorphic toThe rank $r$ and invariant factors $d_i>1$ are unique.

For a prime $p$, the Prüfer group $C_{p^{\infty }}$ is the union of an ascending chain of cyclic groups of orders $p,p^2,p^3,\dots$. As a $\mathbb{Z}$-module it is Artinian but not Noetherian.

An additive group is an abelian group whose operation is written as addition, with identity $0$ and inverse of $x$ written $-x$.

A nonzero finitely generated subgroup of the additive rational numbers is an infinite cyclic group. Put the generators over a common positive denominator. Their integer numerators generate the ideal given by their greatest common divisor, and Bezout identity expresses that divisor as an integer combination of them. Dividing back by the denominator gives a single generator.

An element $a$ of an abelian group is infinitely divisible when, for every positive integer $n$, there is an element $b$ with $nb=a$. Compactness can create a nonzero infinitely divisible element in a nonstandard model even when the original group has none.

A finite abelian group is a finite group whose operation is commutative.

An elementary abelian $p$-group is a finite abelian group in which every nonidentity element has order $p$. It is equivalently a finite-dimensional vector space over ${\mathbb{F}}_p$ under addition.

Pontryagin duality associates to a locally compact abelian group the group of its continuous characters and identifies the double dual canonically with the original group.

The character group $\hat{G}$ consists of the group homomorphisms $\gamma :G\to {\mathbb{C}}^{\times }$. Pointwise multiplication makes it a finite abelian group isomorphic to $G$.

If $H$ is a subgroup of a finite abelian group, $a\notin H$, and $k$ is the least positive integer with $ka\in H$, then each character of a finite abelian group on $H$ has exactly $k$ extensions to $H+⟨a⟩$. The displayed root choice makes the extension well-defined. Starting with the trivial subgroup and adjoining generators proves that the number of characters equals the group order without using a decomposition into cyclic groups.

A character of a finite abelian group is a homomorphism into the complex unit circle. Equivalently it is a linear character; finite order forces each character value to be a root of unity. These are the elements of the character group of a finite abelian group and form the orthogonal Fourier basis of functions on the group.

For a linear character $\chi$ of a finite group $K$,Indeed, if $\chi (h)\ne 1$, the bijection $k\mapsto hk$ gives ${\sum }_k\chi (k)=\chi (h){\sum }_k\chi (k)$, forcing the sum to vanish. The trivial character gives $|K|$ directly. The same argument applies to the restriction of a linear character of a larger group to a subgroup.

For a subgroup $K$ of a finite abelian group $G$, its annihilator isThese are exactly the linear characters that descend to the quotient group $G/K$. The character group of a finite abelian group has the same size as the group, so $|K^{\perp }|=|G/K|=|G|/|K|$. The annihilator is what abelian hidden-subgroup Fourier sampling measures.