Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / Paper 2 / 8 / c

Let $T$ be the set of torsion elements of the given Abelian group. It contains the identity element, which has order one. If $g,h\in T$ have orders $m,n$, set $\ell =\mathrm{lcm}(m,n)$. Commutativity permits powers of the product to split:Hence $g{h}^{-1}$ has finite order, dividing $\ell$, and lies in $T$. The nonempty set $T$ therefore satisfies the subgroup test and is a subgroup:This is the torsion subgroup. The proof uses commutativity exactly when rearranging the factors in $(g{h}^{-1}{)}^{\ell }$; one cannot use that step in an arbitrary noncommutative group. The subgroup need not itself be a finite set.