In the direct sum of modules , every has a unique expression , with and . Define
The uniqueness makes this well-defined. For , and ,
so is a module homomorphism. Finally, exactly when , equivalently . Therefore . Its image is , and , so it is the projection onto that direct summand.
Under the temporary assumption that is a basis of a module for , part (a)(v) applied to the countably generated submodule gives a countable set such that . By part (a)(iv),
Use part (a)(iii) to project onto the second direct summand. This gives a module homomorphism with
It remains to check the required size of this kernel. Enumerate as , with the finite case treated the same way. Every element of is a finite sum of these elements with integer coefficients. For each , the set is the image of the countable set , so it is countable. Taking their countable union proves
This is the countability of countably generated abelian groups argument; it uses the countability of the scalar ring .
A projective module is a direct summand of a free module. Free modules are flat because tensoring with a free module produces a direct sum of copies of the original module and map. If is flat, tensoring an injection with is the direct sum of its tensor maps with and , so each component is injective. Applying this to a free module containing proves that is flat.
In an abelian category with enough projectives, a projective object has a resolution concentrated in degree zero, so every first left derived functor vanishes on it. Conversely choose with projective and use the additive functor with target the opposite of the category of abelian groups. This functor is right exact in that target. If , the derived exact sequence makes monic, meaning that is surjective in abelian groups. Extending gives a retraction of , so the sequence splits and is a direct summand of the projective .
For an indecomposable module with vertex of an indecomposable module , a source is an indecomposable -module which is a direct summand of and for which is a direct summand of . It has vertex as a -module. Sources at a fixed vertex are conjugate by its normalizer.
Trivial source module 2026-10-14
Over a modular field or a complete discrete valuation coefficient ring, an indecomposable module has trivial source when a source is the rank-one trivial module of its vertex. These are precisely the indecomposable direct summands of permutation modules. A general trivial source module is a direct sum of these indecomposables.
Integer row vectors forming a square unimodular matrix are a basis of the corresponding free abelian group: the adjugate formula makes the inverse integral. The subgroup spanned by any subset of that basis is therefore a direct summand, complemented by the remaining basis vectors. In contrast, a proper finite-index subgroup of a free abelian group cannot be a direct summand: its nonzero finite quotient would have to embed as a subgroup of a torsion-free group.