A torsion-free divisible Abelian group is naturally a vector space over the rational numbers: for and , define as the unique with . Divisibility supplies existence and torsion-freeness supplies uniqueness.
In the usual group first-order language , a model of the universal part of DAG is a torsion-free group which is Abelian. If the language instead uses only , a substructure can be merely a torsion-free cancellative commutative monoid. Handle this convention by first taking its Grothendieck group : its elements are formal differences , with
The cancellative commutative monoid condition makes injective. If , then , and torsion-freeness gives ; hence is a torsion-free abelian group. In the full group language simply take .
For form its rational divisible hull
Concretely its elements are fractions with , where if . The canonical embedding of into is injective, and is nontrivial, divisible, Abelian and torsion-free, so it satisfies DAG.
Let be any structure embedding into a model of DAG. Extend it first to formal differences if necessary. Its unique extension to the rational divisible hull sends to the unique element with . This is a group homomorphism fixing the given copy of . It is injective: an element mapped to zero has , hence . Thus every embedding into a DAG model factors through .
The zero case must be treated separately: its rational divisible hull is zero and does not satisfy DAG. Instead choose . Given any nontrivial DAG model , choose ; the map embeds into over zero. Therefore DAG has algebraically prime models, including over the trivial base.
Rational divisible hull 2026-10-06
For a torsion-free abelian group , its rational divisible hull is . It consists of fractions , with and exactly when . The natural map is injective. Every homomorphism from into a torsion-free divisible Abelian group extends uniquely through this hull.
A cancellative commutative monoid is torsion-free in this sense when implies for every positive integer . Its Grothendieck group is then a torsion-free abelian group, because forces . This is the condition inherited by a submonoid of a torsion-free abelian group.