C OMPOSITIO M ATHEMATICA
P EDRO P ABLO S ANCHEZ
On automorphism groups of finite dimensional modules
Compositio Mathematica, tome 28, n
o1 (1974), p. 21-31
<http://www.numdam.org/item?id=CM_1974__28_1_21_0>
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21
ON AUTOMORPHISM GROUPS OF FINITE DIMENSIONAL MODULES
Pedro Pablo Sanchez
Noordhoff International Publishing Printed in the Netherlands
The
object
of this paper is to obtain arepresentation
forlocally
finitegroups G
of automorphisms
of finite dimensional modules. This represen- tation is one in which the group isexpressed
as a direct sum of a finitenumber of linear groups modulo a
unipotent
normalsubgroup.
As aconsequence of this
representation,
several theorems on linear groupscan be extended to a new
setting.
The structure of the paper is as follows. First we recall some facts from
ring theory
which aregoing
to be usedthroughout
the paper. Then weprove the main theorems
concerning
therepresentation
of G as a directsum of a finite number of linear groups modulo a
unipotent
radical.Finally, general
consequences are derived from therepresentation
theorem.
1. Preliminaries on
rings
and modulesWe
begin
with somepreliminary
results onrings,
which have been lifted from[3].
If R is a
ring (associative
withidentity 1),
we let Rad R denote the Ja-cobson radical of R. This is the
largest
ideal K such that for all r inK,
1- r is a unit.Equivalently,
Rad R is the intersection of all the maximalright
ideals.Thus,
the Jacobson radical contains everyleft, right
and 2-sided nil ideal of R.
A ring R
issemisimple
if Rad R = 0. For any arbi-trary ring R,
we have thatR/Rad
R issemisimple.
Aring R
is Artinian(Noetherian)
if it is Artinian(Noetherian)
as aright R-module; i.e.,
ifit satisfies the
descending (ascending)
chain condition onright
ideals.It can be seen that the Jacobson radical of an Artinian
ring
is anilpotent
ideal. The classical theorem of
Wedderburn-Artin
says that aring R
is anonzero
semisimple
Artinianring
if andonly
if R isisomorphic
to a directsum of a finite number of
rings,
each of which is acomplete
matrixring
over some division
ring.
A nonzero
right
ideal I of aring
R isindecomposable
if it is not iso-morphic
to the direct sum of nonzeroright
ideals. Two nonzero idem-potents e
andf
areorthogonal
ifef
=fe
= 0. A nonzeroidempotent
e ofR is called
primitive
if it cannot be written as the sum of two nonzeroorthogonal idempotents.
This iseasily
seen to beequivalent
to the factthat the
right
ideal eR isindecomposable.
LEMMA 1.1: An
idempotent
e :0 0of
R isprimitive if
andonly if
thering
eRe contains no
idempotents
other than 0 and e.PROOF: See
[3] ]
Let N be an ideal of a
ring
R. We say thatidempotents
modulo N can belifted
if for every element u of R such thatu2 - u
is inN,
there exists anelement e2
= e in R such that e - u is in N.LEMMA 1.2: Let Rad R be a nil ideal. Then
any finite
or countable setof orthogonal
nonzeroidempotents
modulo N can belifted
to anorthogonal
set
of
nonzeroidempotents of
R.PROOF: See
[3 ]
LEMMA 1.3: Let R be a
ring
such that Rad R is a nil ideal. Then anyprimitive idempotent of R remains primitive
modulo N = Rad R.PROOF: Let e be a
primitive idempotent
of R.By
Lemma1.1,
eRe con-tains no
idempotents
other than 0 and e. For any r inR,
let r be theimage
of r under the canonical
homomorphism
of R onto R =R/Rad
R. Toprove the
proposition,
it isenough
to prove thatéRé
does not contain anyidempotent
different from 0 or é.Suppose,
on thecontrary,
that èîê is anonzero
idempotent
ofêRê
different from ê. Then1- é
and éré areorthogonal idempotents
inR.
Now we prove thatthey
can be lifted toorthogonal idempotents
ofR,
where one of them isprecisely
1- e.By
Lemma
1.2,
we may lift éré to h =h2
such that h-ere is in N. It followsthat h(1-e)
and(1-e)h
are in N. Inparticular, 1-h(1-e)
has aninverse in R. Consider the element
This is an
idempotent
such thath’(1-e)
= 0.Furthermore,
implies
thatso that
since the
right
hand side is inN,
we have that h iscongruent
to h’ modulo N. Now letThen
(1-e)f=f(1-e)
= 0.Also, f is congruent
to ere moduloN,
forwe have
that f-eh
is in N and eh-h is in N.Moreover,
Thus 1- e
and f are orthogonal idempotents
that lift 1- é and êié respec-tively.
Since(1-e)f=f(1-e)
= 0 we have thatThus , f ’ is
anidempotent
in eRe different from 0 and e, which is a contra-diction.
Q.E.D.
LEMMA 1.4:
If
e is anidempotent of R,
and N = RadR,
thenPROOF: See
[3].
LEMMA 1.5 : Let R be a
semisimple ring
and lete 2 =
e ~ 0 be in R. Then eR is a minimalright
idealif
andonly if
eRe is a divisionring.
PROOF: See
[3].
LEMMA 1.6: Let R be an Artinian
ring
and let I be anon-nilpotent right
ideal
of
R. Then I contains a nonzeroidempotent.
PROOF: See
[3].
The
argument
for the nextproposition
is standard.PROPOSITION 1.7: Let R be an
arbitrary ring
and letRo
be an Artiniansubring.
ThenRo
n Rad R is a nil ideal.PROOF: See
[3,
Theorem1,
p.38].
We say that a
ring
islocally finite
if every finite set of elementsgenerates
a finite
subring.
The next lemma is an easy consequence of a well-known theorem of Wedderburn.
LEMMA 1.8:
Any locally finite
divisionring
D is commutative.Finally,
we consider finite dimensionalmodules,
and discuss aproperty
of theirrings
ofendomorphisms.
Finite dimensional modules were first considered
by
A. Goldie in con-nection with the
study
of noncommutativerings
with maximum condi- tion. The motivation for theirstudy
was togeneralize
and combine the basic theories ofArtinian rings
and commutative Noetherianrings.
DEFINITION: Let M be a module over an
arbitrary ring
R. Then M is afinite
dimensional module if every direct sum of nonzero submodules ofM has but a finite number of terms.
PROPOSITION 1.9: Let M be an R-module
offinite
dimension. Then there is aninteger
n ~ 0 such that every direct sumof
nonzero submodulesof
Mhas at most n terms.
PROOF: See
[1,
Theorem(3.3)].
The
preceding
result allows for thefollowing
definition.DEFINITION: A finite dimensional R-module M has dimension n if M contains a direct sum of n nonzero submodules and each direct sum of
nonzero submodules of M has at most n terms. Let Dim M denote the dimension of M.
The purpose of the next lemma is to prove that any
subring
of the endo-morphism ring
of any finite dimensional module is a direct sum of afinite number of
indecomposable right
ideals.LEMMA 1.10: Let M be a
finite
dimensional module over anarbitrary ring
R with Dim M = n. Let T be anysubring of
thefull ring of
endo-morphisms EndR
M. Then T is the sumof indecomposable right
idealsof the form ei T,
where i ~ n and ei is aprimitive idempotent of T.
PROOF: Let E be any set of nonzero
orthogonal idempotents
of T. Thenis a direct sum of nonzero submodules of M. Since Dim M = n, there can
only
be at most nidempotents
inE. If e1, ···,
em is a maximal set of ortho-gonal idempotents
ofT,
we caneasily
see that 1= e1 + ···
+ em and that each ei, i~ m ~
n, is aprimitive idempotent.
Thusand the lemma is
proved. Q.E.D.
2. The radical Rad G of the group G and the
quotient G/Rad
GThroughout
this section G will denote alocally
finite group of auto-morphisms
of a finite dimensional module M over aring R
ofarbitrary
nonzero characteristic. The purpose of this section is to
study
a certainunipotent
normalsubgroup
ofG,
to be defined below. Thissubgroup
will be denoted
by
RadG,
and is constructed in G from the Jacobson radical of a certainring.
Thesubgroup
Rad G is also studied under stron- ger conditions for M.We remind the reader that a group G is said to be
nilpotent
of class cif the upper central series has the form
Also,
a group G is said to belocally nilpotent
if everyfinitely generated subgroup
isnilpotent.
Let
Ro
denote thesubring
of Rgenerated by
theidentity.
Since R hasnon-zero
characteristic, Ro
is a finitering. Throughout
thissection,
we will letR0G
denote theRo-span
of G inEndR M. Thus,
the elements ofRo
G consist of finite sums of the formwhere ri , ..., rn are elements in
Ro
and g1, ···, gn are elements in G.Thus, only
a finite number of members of G intervene in the represen- tation of any element ofRo
G. Since G is assumed to belocally finite,
the elements g1, ···, gngenerate
a finite groupGo.
LetRo Go
denote theRo-span
of thesubgroup Go
inEndR M.
ThenRo Go is
a finitering. Thus,
every element of
Ro G
is a member of an Artiniansubring
ofRo
G.DEFINITION: The radical
of G,
denotedby
RadG,
is defined to be thesubset of G of the form
Where
Ro
is thesubring
of Rgenerated by
theidentity
element.First we observe a crucial
property
of RadRo
G.PROPOSITION 2.1 : The Jacobson radical
of Ro
G is a nil ideal.PROOF : Let r be an element of Rad
Ro G.
Then r =r1g1 + ··· +rngn,
and the elements g1, ···, gngenerate
a finitesubgroup Go
of G. Conse-quently,
r is an element ofSince
Ro Go is Artinian,
we haveby
Lemma 1.7 that N is a nil ideal ofRo Go. Therefore,
the element r isnilpotent
and RadRo
G is a nil ideal.Q.E.D.
PROPOSITION 2.2: The radical Rad G
of
G is aunipotent, locally nilpotent,
normal
subgroup of
G.PROOF: We first observe that 1
+ Rad R0 G is
a group undermultipli-
cation.
Indeed, by Proposition 2.1,
RadRo
G is a nil ideal.Thus,
if r is an element of RadRo G,
we have thatrn+1
= 0. ThenSince
r-r2+···±rn is an
element of RadRo G,
we see that1 + Rad Ro G
is a group.Thus,
Rad G = G n(1 + Rad Ro G)
is asubgroup
of G.Furthermore,
since RadRo
G is anideal,
Rad G is a normalsubgroup.
Since every element of Rad G has the form 1 +r, where r is a
nilpotent element,
it is clear that G is aunipotent
group. We are left to proveonly
that Rad G is
locally nilpotent.
Let g1, ···, gm be the elements of a finitesubgroup
G’ of Rad G.Then,
forevery i,
1~ i ~
m, we havethat gi
=1
+ni, where ni
is a member of RadRo G.
Furthermore ni =r 1 i g 1 i + ... +rniignii,
and the elements gli’ ..., gnih for all
i,
1i ~
m,generate
a finitegroup, say
Go.
The Jacobson radical of theArtinian ring Ro Go is
nil-potent. Also, by
Lemma 1.7consequently, by
a theorem of P. Hall[see 2,
p.17]
is a
nilpotent
group. Sincewe have that
G’
is anilpotent
group.Thus,
Rad G islocally nilpotent.
Q.E.D.
We remind the reader that a module M has finite
length n
if it has acomposition
series oflength
n.THEOREM 2.3: Let M be a module
of finite length
n over aring
Rof arbitrary
nonzero characteristic. Then Rad G is anilpotent
group withnilpotency
class less than orequal
to n.PROOF:
By Proposition 2.1,
RadRo
G is a nil idealof Ro
G.Consequent- ly,
RadRo
G consists ofnilpotent endomorphisms
of the Artinian andNoetherian module M. Thus we have that Rad
Ro
G is anilpotent set,
with index ofnilpotency
less than orequal
to n.By
the theorem of P.Hall,
1 + RadRo
G is anilpotent
group withnilpotency
class less than orequal
to n. Sincewe see that Rad G is also a
nilpotent
group withnilpotency
class lessthan or
equal
to n.Q.E.D.
We will prove later that Rad G is the maximal normal
unipotent
sub-group of
G,
but before that we must consider thequotient G/Rad
G.Let
again
G denote alocally
finite group ofautomorphisms
of a finitedimensional module M over the
ring
R. The results that follow show thatGJRad
G can berepresented
as a direct sum of a finite number of lineargroups over
locally
finite fields. This reduces further considerations ofG/Rad
G to countable groups. To obtain theseresults, Ro G/Rad Ro
Gis
proved
to be asemisimple Artinian ring. Thus,
the Wedderburn-Artin Theorem isapplicable,
and thering Ro G/Rad Ro G
isisomorphic
to adirect sum of
complete rings
of matrices over divisionrings.
These di-vision
rings
turn out to belocally finite,
andconsequently
commutative fields. Theisomorphism
betweenRo G/Rad Ro G
and the direct sum ofrings
of matrices over fields extends to a grouphomomorphism
from Gto a direct sum of linear groups. The kernel of this
homomorphism
isprecisely
Rad G.THEOREM 2.4: The
quotient Ro G/Rad Ro
G isisomorphic
to a directsum
of
afinite
numberof complete
matrixrings
overlocally finite fields.
PROOF: Since
Ro G
is asubring
ofEndR M, by
Lemma 1.10 we have thatRo
G is a sum of a finite number ofindecomposable right
ideals. Further- more, these ideals have the forme1 R0 G, ···, en R0 G where,
foreach i,
1
i ~
n, ei is aprimitive idempotent.
We claim that
Ro G/Rad Ro G is
asemisimple
Artinianring. By Propo-
sition
2.1,
we have that RadRo G
is a nil ideal.Thus, by
Lemma1.3, pri-
mitive
idempotents
remainprimitive
modulo RadRo
G. Thenwhere
éi,
1~ i ~ n,
denotes theimage of ei
under the canonical homo-morphism
fromRo G
ontoRo G/Rad Ro
G. This is adecomposition
ofRo G/Rad Ro
G onto a direct sum of a finite number ofindecomposable right
ideals. We prove thatthey
areactually
minimalright
ideals. SinceRo G/Rad Ro G
is asemisimple ring,
Lemma 1.5implies
thatis a minimal
right
ideal if andonly
ifis a division
ring. By
Lemma 1.4 it isenough
to prove thatis a division
ring.
Consider anyright
ideal I ofei Ro Gei
whoseimage 1
underthe canonical
homomorphism
ofei R0 Gei
onto(ei Ro Gei)/Rad(eiRoG(ei)
is not zero. Then I contains an element r which is not
nilpotent.
Letr =
ei tei,
whereThe elements 91’ ..., gn
generate
a finite groupGo,
so that r is an elementof
(ei Ro Go ei) n I
=h .
Since I is anideal,
we have thath
is an idealof the finite
ring eiRoGOei. By
Lemma1.6, h
contains anidempotent e,
which is also an
idempotent
of I.Since ei
is aprimitive idempotent,
wehave that e =
ei, so that h - ei R0 G0 ei and I = ei R0 Gei. Consequently,
and this
ring
has no nonzero proper ideals. Thereforeis a division
ring.
Withthis,
we haveproved
the claim.The Wedderburn-Artin Theorem now
implies
thatRo G/Rad Ro G
isisomorphic
to a direct sum of a finite number ofrings Rj,
1~ j ~
m,each of which is a
complete
matrixring
over acorresponding
divisionring. Thus,
letRj = (Dj)nj nj,
whereDi
is a divisionring.
Thelocally
finiteness of
Ro G/Rad Ro
Gimplies
thatDj
is alocally
finite divisionring. By
Lemma1.8, Di
iscommutative,
and the theorem isproved.
Q.E.D.
The
preceding
theoremyields immediately
arepresentation
for the lo-cally
finite group G.THEOREM 2.5: The
quotient G/Rad
G can be embedded as a direct sumof a fznite
numberof linear
groups overlocally finite fields.
PROOF: The
isomorphism
betweenRo G/Rad Ro G
and the finite directsum of
complete
matrixrings
overalgebraically
closed fields extends to agroup
homomorphism
on G whose kernel isprecisely
Rad G.Q.E.D.
Collecting together Proposition
2.2 and Theorem 2.5 we have the fol-lowing
extension of a theorem of D. Winter[6].
THEOREM 2.6: Let M be
a finite
dimensional module over aring
Rof
ar-bitrary
nonzero characteristic.If
G is alocally finite
groupof automorphisms of M,
then G is a countable extensionof a unipotent locally nilpotent
group.PROOF:
Any locally
finite field isobviously algebraic
over itsprime
field.
Also,
anyalgebraic
field over a finite field is countable. Hence any group of matrices over such a field iscountable,
and the result follows.Q.E.D.
We are now in a
position
tostudy
further the radical of G.DEFINITION : For any
subgroup
H ofG, let 1-H>
be the ideal ofRo
Ggenerated by
all elements of the form1 - h,
where h is an element of H.THEOREM 2.7: The group Rad G contains every
unipotent
normal sub-group
of
G.PROOF: Let H be a
unipotent
normalsubgroup
of G. Theequation
implies that 1-H>
is theRo
span of the elements of the formwhere each
hi,
1~ i ~
n, is an element of H. Since H isunipotent, by Proposition
2.4 and Kolchin’s Theorem[see 4],
thehomomorphic image H
of H onRo G/Rad Ro G
isunitriangular. Hence,
for somepositive
in-teger
m,(1-H)m =
0. Thus(1 - H)’
is contained in RadRo G. By
Pro-position 2.1,
RadRo
G is a nilideal,
so that1-H>
is nil.Consequently
1-
H>
is contained in the Jacobson radical ofRo
G. ThusCOROLLARY 2.8:
If
G isunipotent,
then G islocally nilpotent,.
PROOF: If G is
unipotent,
then G = Rad Gby
Theorem 2.7. Conse-quently,
G islocally nilpotent by Proposition
2.2.Q.E.D.
COROLLARY 2.8a: Rad G is the maximal normal
unipotent subgroup of G.
It is now easy to see how a
large
number of classical theorems on lineargroups can be extended to a new
setting.
As anexample,
we prove thefollowing
theorem.THEOREM 2.9 : Let G be a
locally
solvable torsion groupof
R-automor-phisms of a
moduleMR offinite length
n. Then there exists aninteger
valuedfunction f
whichdepends only
on n such that G contains a normalsubgroup
H with
and with
nilpotent
derived group H’ :PROOF: Since G is a
locally
solvable torsion group, we have that G islocally
finite.By
Theorem2.4, Ro G/Rad Ro
G isisomorphic
to a directsum of
complete
matrixrings
overfields,
saySince
Ro
G cannot contain a set oforthogonal idempotents
with more thann elements and
idempotents
modulo RadRo
G can belifted,
we have thatLet
Fj
denote thering homomorphism
fromRo
G onto each summand(Fj)nj nj.
Since(G)Fj
=Gj
is alocally
solvable linear group, it is solv-able, by
Zassenhaus’ Theorem[see 7]. Furthermore, by
Malcev’sTheorem
[see 5],
there is afunction¡(nj)
whichdepends only
onnj,
suchthat for some
triangularizable
normalsubgroup Hj
ofGj
we have|Gj : Hj| ~ f(nj).
Consider thesubgroup
This is a normal
subgroup
of finiteindex, and,
infact,
for some functionf(n),
whichdepends only
on n, we havethat G : H| ~ f(n). Furthermore,
Hj
is aunipotent
group;therefore,
H’ isunipotent,
for we have thatBy
Theorem2.3,
thesubgroup
H’ isnilpotent,
and the theorem has beenproved. Q.E.D.
As a
particular
case of theabove,
let now Y be an n-dimensional vector space over a divisionring
D of nonzero characteristic. Then V is a finite dimensionalmodule,
also of dimensionn; besides,
the characteristic of D isnecessarily
aprime
number p. Let G be alocally
finite group of auto-morphisms
ofVD.
In this case, Rad G isnecessarily
a p-group.Indeed, if g
is an element of Rad G such that(1 - g)’ = 0,
then for some powerof p, say pe,
we have that(1-g)pe = 0,
andconsequently gpe =
1. Thequotient G/Rad G,
as we have seen, is a direct sum of linear groups. But in this case, the characteristic of the fields involved in therepresentation
is the same, so that
G/Rad
G isisomorphic
to a group of n x n matricesover the
algebraic
closure of theprime
fieldwith p
elements.Thus,
wecan
immediately
extend to thissetting
known theorems on linear groups.For
example,
if G is alocally
finite group of matrices over a divisionring
D of characteristic p, then the
Sylow p-subgroups
areconjugate. Again,
if G is a
locally
finite group of matrices over a divisionring
D of charac-teristic p,
and G does not contain elementsof order p,
then G has an Abe-lian normal
subgroup H
suchthat G : HI ~ f(n), where f is
aninteger
valued function of n
only.
In
concluding,
1 would like to thank David J. Winter for manylong
and
helpful
discussions.REFERENCES
[1] ALFRED W. GOLDIE: Rings with Maximum Condition. Yale University Notes, 1964.
[2] P. HALL: Nilpotent Groups. Canadian Mathematical Congress, Summer Seminar, University of Alberta, 1957.
[3] N. JACOBSON: Structure of Rings. Amer. Math. Soc. Colloquium, Providence, 1964.
[4] E. R. KOLCHIN: On Certain Concepts in the Theory of Algebraic Matrix Groups.
Ann. Math., 2 49 (1948) 774-789.
[5] A. I. MALCEV: On Certain Classes of Infinite Soluble Groups. Amer. Math. Soc.
Transl., 2, No. 2 (1956) 1-21.
[6] D. J. WINTER: Representations of Locally Finite Groups. Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.,
74 (1968) 145-148.
[7] H. ZASSENHAUS: Beweis eines Satzes uber diskrete Gruppen. Abh. Math. Sem.
Univ. Hamburg, 12 (1938) 289-312.
(Oblatum 17-VII-1973) Department of Mathematics The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104 U.S.A.
ADDENDUM
This research constitutes