ALGEBRA HOMEWORK 2

AARON GEELON SO

1. Rings and Ideals

Problem 1.9. A division ring is a nonzero ring R with the property
0 6= a R = b R such that ba = 1.
Show that every nonzero element a of a division ring has a two-sided inverse (i.e. there is a b R
such that ab = ba = 1.
Fix 0 6= a R, and let b R such that ba = 1. Clearly, b 6= 0, so there exists some c R
such that cb = 1. In particular, this implies that
c = c(ba) = (cb)a = a.
But this implies that ab = 1 = ba. Thus, b is a two-sided inverse of a.
2. Modules
Problem 2.2. The center of a ring R is Z(R) = {c R : a R, ca = ac}. If M is an
R-module and a R define aM : M M by aM (v) = av for all v M . Let a R.
Prove that aM : M M is an R-module homomorphism for every R-module M if and only if
a Z(R).
Suppose a Z(R). To show that aM is an R-module homomorphism, we just need
aM (u + v) = a (u + v) = a u + a v = aM (u) + aM (v).

(1)

aM (rv) = arv = rav = raM (v).

(2)

and also,
Now, to show the converse, if aM is a R-module homomorphism for all R-modules M ,
then Equation 2 holds. This implies that for all r R and v M , arv = rav. In particular,
consider the R-module, R, and let v = 1R . This implies that ar = ra, so a Z(R).
Problem 2.3. An R-module M is cyclic if there exists s M such that < s >= M . Consider
the statement:
If M is a cyclic module and f : M M be an R-module homomorphism, then there exists
a R such that f = aM .
(1) Prove that the above statement is true for every commutative ring R.
(2) Prove that the above statement is false for every noncommutative ring R.
1

AARON GEELON SO

Part A. Let R be a commutative ring, and f : M M is cyclic, so that < s >= M . That
is, M = {as : a R}. Then, f (s) = as for some a R. In general, an arbitrary element of
M can be denoted by bs where b R. Therefore,
f (bs) = bf (s) = bas = abs = a(bs),
where the equalities are due to f being an R-module homomorphism, f (s) = as, the commutativity of R, and M being an R-module. This shows that f = aM for all v M . This
implies that the above statement is true for all R commutative.
Part B. Suppose R is a noncommutative ring. Then, there exists some a, b R such that
ab 6= ba. Consider the R-module homomorphism f : R R where f (1) = a. (Note
that this homomorphism is uniquely defined by f (1), with f = ra , right multiplication). If
f = aM , then, it follows that
ab = f (b) = bf (1) = ba.
This contradiction implies that the above statement is false for R noncommutative.
Problem 2.6. Let N be an R-submodule of an R-module M . Show that if N and M/N both
have finite length, then M has finite length. Show also that
length(M ) = length(N ) + length(M/N ).
Denote by : M M/N the projection R-module homomorphism. Let
N/N = M0 M1 Mn = M/N
denote a composition series on M/N . Let Pk := 1 (Mk ), submodules of M , since is a
R-module homomorphism. In particular, we claim that
N = P0 P1 Pn = M.
Clearly, if Mk Mk+1 , then 1 (Mk ) 1 (Mk+1 ). Further, (M ) = M/N , so that we get
1 (M/N ) M , so that Pn = M . It is clear that the kernel of is N , so that 1 ({0}) = N .
Thus, P0 = N . Finally, notice that Pk /N ' Mk . This is trivially true by definition, since
(Pk ) = Pk /N = Mk . Now, we apply the Third Isomorphism Theorem, which states that
Mk /Mk1 = (Pk /N )/(Pk1 /N ) ' Pk /Pk1 .
This implies that the chain from N to M has quotients Pk /Pk1 that are simple. The length
of this chain is finite, m = length(M/N ).
Now, N itself has a chain, also of finite length n. Denote the chain by
N0 N1 Nm = N.
Then, we can compose these two chains together to get
{0} = N0 N1 Nm = N = P0 P1 Pm = M.

ALGEBRA HOMEWORK 2

Every Nk /Nk1 is simple, so that this chain is a composition series, with length n + m. This
proves that if N and M/N both have finite length, then so does M . In particular, the length
is the sum of the two lengths
length(M ) = length(N ) + length(M/N ).
Problem 2.7. Show that every submodule and quotient module of a module of finite length also
has finite length. Hint: Recall that given a chain {Mi : 0 i n} of submodules of M , and
a submodule N M , we get the chains {Mi N } (resp. {Mi + N/N }) of submodules of N
(resp. M/N ).
Let M be a module of finite length, and N M a submodule. Let
{0} = M0 M1 Mn = M
be a composition series. Then, the following is a chain of N
{0} = M0 N M1 N Mn N = N.
Consider the quotient
(Mk N )/(Mk1 N ) ' (Mk N )/(Mk Mk1 N ) ' [(Mk N ) + Mk1 ]/Mk1 ,
since Mk Mk1 = Mk1 , and the Second Isomorphism theorem. Notice since Mk N Mk
and Mk+1 Mk , Mk N + Mk1 Mk . Therefore, the quotient is
(Mk N )/(Mk1 N ) , Mk /Mk1 .
Thus, the group quotient (Mk N )/(Mk1 N ) is isomorphic to either Mk /Mk1 or {0}. In
the first case, then (Mk N )/(Mk1 N ) is simple. In the second case, the sets Mk N =
Mk1 N . So, we remove Mk N from the chain. By iterating through the chain, we
necessarily end up with a composition series of N whose length is less than n, since each
quotient is then simple, having removed the repeated submodules in the chain. Hence, every
submodule of a module of finite length also has finite length.
Now, to show that a quotient module of a module of finite length also has finite length,
consider the composition series {Mk } as above. We have
{0} = (M0 + N )/N (M1 + N )/N (Mn + N )/N = M/N.
Now, we take a quotient
(Mk + N/N )/(Mk1 + N/N ) ' (Mk + N )/(Mk1 + N )
= (Mk + Mk1 + N )/(Mk1 + N )
' Mk /[Mk (Mk1 + N )],
where we rely on the Third Isomorphism theorem, the fact that Mk+1 Mk , and the Second
Isomorphism theorem. Notice that
Mk1 Mk (Mk1 + N ) Mk ,

AARON GEELON SO

which implies that the middle term is either equal to Mk1 or Mk . Thus, the quotient
(Mk +N/N )/(Mk1 +N/N ) is either isomorphic to Mk /Mk1 , and hence simple, or isomorphic
to {0}. If the latter case is true, then we remove Mk + N/N from the chain. As before, by
iterating through the chain, we necessarily end up with a composition series of M/N whose
length is less than n, since each successive quotient is simple, having removed the repeated
submodules from the chain. Every quotient of a module of finite length has finite length.

3. Definitions and Basic Theory

Problem 1. Let V = Rn and let a = (a1 , . . . , an ) be a fixed vector in V . Prove that the collection
of elements (x1 , . . . , xn ) of V with a1 x1 + + an xn = 0 is a subspace of V . Determine the
dimension of this subspace and find a basis.
Consider the linear transformation T : Rn R defined by T x = x a. To see that this
function is linear, we have
T (x + y) = a1 (x1 + y1 ) + + an (xn + yn ) = T x + T y.
The set of elements of V such that a1 x1 + + an xn = 0 is the kernel of this linear transformation. Therefore, it is a subspace of V .
If a = 0, then the subspace has dimension n, since it is obvious the whole space, when
dotted with the zero vector is 0. Otherwise, the dimension of this subspace is n 1. In this
case, we use the first isomorphism theorem to see that T is a surjection onto R, so that R is
isomorphic to Rn / ker(T ). Applying Theorem 7 from the book, see that
dim(V ) = dim(ker(T )) + dim(V / ker(T )),
implying that dim(ker(T )) = n 1.
If a = 0, then the standard basis is a basis. So, assume a 6= 0. In particular, not every
ak = 0 where a. Let ak be the first non-zero term in the sequence (a1 , . . . , ak , . . . , an ).
Let Bk1 = {e1 , . . . , ek1 }, where e1 , . . . , ek1 are the 1st to (k 1)th basis vectors. Since
a1 , . . . , ak1 = 0, these vectors are contained in the kernel of T . Now, we induct through
the (k + 1)th to nth components of a. If aj where j > k is 0, then let Bj1 = Bj2 {ej }.
Otherwise, let Bj1 = Bj2 {bj } where
bj = (01 , . . . , 0k1 ,1 /ak , 0k+1 , . . . , 0j1 ,1 /aj , 0j+1 , . . . , 0n ).
(Note that ak and aj are not zero, so we can take inverses). By how we defined this vector,
it is easy to see that it a bj = 0, and that it is linearly independent with the set Bj2 since
every vector in Bj2 has as its jth component 0, while bj or ej does not. In this way, we get
a set of n 1 linearly independent vectors. Since the dimension of the space is n 1, that
implies that the set is a basis.
Problem 3. Let be the linear transformation : R4 R1 such that
((1, 0, 0, 0)) = 1 ((1, 1, 0, 0)) = 0

ALGEBRA HOMEWORK 2

((1, 1, 1, 0)) = 1 ((1, 1, 1, 1)) = 0.

Determine ((a, b, c, d)).
Note that:

a
1
1
b
0
1

= (a + b) (b + c)
c
0
0
d
0
0

+ (c + d)

1
0

1
1

Since is a linear transformation, this implies that ((a, b, c, d)) is equal to a + b + c + d.

Problem 6. Let V be a vector space of finite dimension. If is any linear transformation from
V to V , prove there is an integer m such that the intersection of the image m and the kernel
of m is {0}.
First, note that the intersection of two R-submodules is a R-submodule, so the intersection
of two subspaces is a subspace of V . Furthermore, recall the image and kernel of a subspace
of a linear transformation from V to V are subspaces of V .
Let K0 = {0}, K1 = ker , K2 = ker 2 , . . . , and let L0 = V , L1 = Im , L2 = Im 2 , . . . .
Since n+1 (Kn ) = (n (Kn )) = ({0}) = {0}, it follows that
K0 K1 K2
This implies the dimension of the kernel is monotonic increasing, but bounded above by n,
where n is the dimension of V . Furthermore, notice that L0 L1 . Suppose Lk1 Lk .
Then, that implies (Lk1 ) (Lk ), so that Lk Lk+1 . By induction, this shows that
L0 L1 L2
That is, the dimension of the image is monotonic decreasing, bounded below by 0. Therefore,
there exists some m such that Lm and Lm+1 have the same dimension. That is, Lm = Lm+1 .
In particular, the first isomorphism theorem tells us that
Lm ' V /Km and Lm+1 ' V /Km+1 .
Since Lm = Lm+1 , this implies that Km ' Km+1 . But Km Km+1 implies Km = Km+1 .
Since the image of m is equal to the image of m+1 , and the kernel of m is also equal to
the kernel of m+1 , we see that Lm+2 = Lm+1 and Km+2 = Km+2 , and so on. Thus, every
set LM = Lm and KM = Km for M > m.
We claim that this implies that the subspace attained by intersecting Km Lm = {0}.
Suppose this were not the case. Then, there exists some nonzero vector v Km Lm . Let
u V such that m (u) = v. Notice that u
/ Km . That implies that 2m (u) = m (v) = 0
since v is in the kernel. However, u K2m . This is a contradiction because K2m = Km .
Therefore, there exists an integer m such that the intersection of the image m and the kernel
of m is {0}.

AARON GEELON SO

Problem 7. Let be a linear transformation from a vector space V of dimension n to itself that
satisfies 2 = 0. Prove that the image of is contained in the kernel of and hence that the
rank of is at most n/2.
Let v Im . That means that v = u for some u V . Thus, v = 2 u = 0. This
implies that v ker . The first isomorphism theorem states that
V / ker ' Im .
We get that if k is the dimension of the kernel, then, the image has dimension n k. The
statement that the image of is contained in the kernel implies that (n k) k. Solving
this equation for k, we see that n/2 k. Hence, the rank of must satisfy
rank = dim(Im ) = (n k) n/2.