Module homomorphism

In algebra, a module homomorphism is a function between modules that preserves module structures. Explicitly, if M and N are left modules over a ring R, then a function $f:M\to N$ is called a module homomorphism or an R-linear map if for any x, y in M and r in R,

f(x+y)=f(x)+f(y),

f(rx)=rf(x).

If M, N are right modules, then the second condition is replaced with

f(xr)=f(x)r.

The pre-image of the zero element under f is called the kernel of f. The set of all module homomorphisms from M to N is denoted by Hom_R(M, N). It is an abelian group but is not necessarily a module unless R is commutative.

The composition of module homorphisms is again a module homomorphism. Thus, all the (say left) modules together with all the module homomorphisms between them form the category of modules.

Terminology

A module homomorphism is called an isomorphism if it admits the inverse homomorphism. A module homomorphism is an isomorphism if and only if it is an ismormosphim between the underlying abelian groups. In other words, an inverse function of a module homomorphism, when it exists, is necessary a homomorphism.

The isomorphism theorems hold for module homomorphisms.

A module homomorphism from a module M to itself is called an endomorphism and an isomorphism from M to itself an automorphism. One writes $\operatorname {End} _{R}(M)=\operatorname {Hom} _{R}(M,M)$ for the set of all endomorphisms between a module M. It is not only an abelian group but is also a ring with multiplication given by function composition; it is called the endomorphism ring of M.

Schur's lemma says that a homomorphism between simple modules (a module having only two submodules) must be either zero or an isomorphism. In particular, the endomorphism ring of a simple module is a division ring.

To use the language of the category theory, an injective homomorphism is also called a monomorphism and a surjective homomorphism an epimorphism.

Examples

The zero map M → N that maps every element to zero.
A linear transformation between vector spaces.
$\operatorname {Hom}_{{{\mathbb {Z}}}}({\mathbb {Z}}/n,{\mathbb {Z}}/m)={\mathbb {Z}}/\operatorname {gcd}(n,m)$ .
For a commutative ring R and ideals I, J, there is the canonical identification
$\operatorname {Hom} _{R}(R/I,R/J)=\{r\in R|rI\subset J\}/J$

given by

f\mapsto f(1)

. In particular,

\operatorname {Hom} _{R}(R/I,R)

is the annihilator of I.

Given a ring R and an element r, let $l_{r}:R\to R$ denote the left multiplication by r. Then for any s, t in R,
$l_{r}(st)=rst=l_{r}(s)t$ .

That is,

l_{r}

is right R-linear.

For any ring R,
- $\operatorname {End}_{R}(R)=R$ as rings when R is viewed as a right module over itself. Explicitly, this isomorphism is given by the left regular representation $R{\overset {\sim }{\to }}\operatorname {End} _{R}(R),\,r\mapsto l_{r}$ .
- $\operatorname {Hom}_{R}(R,M)=M$ through $f\mapsto f(1)$ for any left module M.^[1] (The module structure on Hom here comes from the right R-action on R; see #Module structures on Hom below.)
- $\operatorname {Hom}_{R}(M,R)$ is called the dual module of M; it is a left (resp. right) module if M is a right (resp. left) module over R with the module structure coming from the R-action on R. It is denoted by $M^*$ .
Given a ring homomorphism R → S of commutative rings and an S-module M, an R-linear map θ: S → M is called a derivation if for any f, g in S, θ(f g) = f θ(g) + θ(f) g.
If S, T are unital associative algebras over a ring R, then an algebra homomorphism from S to T is a ring homomorphism that is also an R-module homomorphism.

Module structures on Hom

In short, Hom inherits a ring action that was not used up to form Hom. More precise, let M, N be left R-modules. Suppose M has a right action of a ring S that commutes with the R-action; i.e., M is an (R, S)-module. Then

\operatorname{Hom}_R(M, N)

has the structure of a left S-module defined by: for s in S and x in M,

(s\cdot f)(x)=f(xs).

It is well-defined (i.e., $s\cdot f$ is R-linear) since

(s\cdot f)(rx)=f(rxs)=rf(xs)=r(s\cdot f)(x).

Similarly, $s\cdot f$ is a ring action since

(st\cdot f)(x)=f(xst)=(t\cdot f)(xs)=s\cdot (t\cdot f)(x)

Note: the above verification would "fail" if one used the left R-action in place of the right S-action. In this sense, Hom is often said to "use up" the R-action.

Similarly, if M is a left R-module and N is an (R, S)-module, then $\operatorname{Hom}_R(M, N)$ is a right S-module by $(f\cdot s)(x)=f(x)s$ .

A matrix representation of a module homomorphism

The relationship between matrices and linear transformations in linear algebra generalizes in a natural way to module homomorphisms. Precisely, given a right R-module U, there is the canonical isomorphism of the abelian groups

\operatorname {Hom} _{R}(U^{\oplus n},U^{\oplus m}){\overset {f\mapsto [f_{ij}]}{\underset {\sim }{\to }}}M_{m,n}(\operatorname {End} _{R}(U))

by viewing $U^{\oplus n}$ consisting of column vectors and then writing f as an m × n matrix. In particular, viewing R as a right R-module, one has

\operatorname {End} _{R}(R^{n})\simeq M_{n}(R)

which turns out to be a ring isomorphism.

Note the above isomorphism is canonical: if one is given a module homomorphism between finite-rank free modules, then a choice of an ordered basis corresponds to a choice of an isomorphism $F\simeq R^{n}$ . The above procedure then gives the matrix representation with respect to such choices of the bases.

To define a module homomorphism

In practice, one often defines a module homomorphism by specifying its values on a generating set of a module. More precise, let M and N be left R-modules. Suppose a subset S generates M; i.e., there is a surjection $F\to M$ with a free module F with a basis indexed by S and kernel K (i.e., the free presentation). Then to give a module homomorphism $M\to N$ is to give a module homomorphism $F\to N$ that kills K (i.e., maps K to zero).

Operations

If $f:M\to N$ and $g:M'\to N'$ are module homomorphisms, then their direct sum is

f \oplus g: M \oplus M' \to N \oplus N', \, (x, y) \mapsto (f(x), g(y))

and their tensor product is

f \otimes g: M \otimes M' \to N \otimes N', \, x \otimes y \mapsto f(x) \otimes g(y).

Let $f:M\to N$ be a module homomorphism between left modules. The graph Γ_f of f is the submodule of M ⊕ N given by

\Gamma _{f}=\{(x,f(x))|x\in M\}

It is a module since it is the image of the graph morphism M → M ⊕ N, x → (x, f(x)).

The transpose of f is

f^{*}:N^{*}\to M^{*},\,f^{*}(\alpha )=\alpha \circ f.

If f is an isomorphism, then the transpose of the inverse of f is called the contragredient of f.

Exact sequences

Main article: exact sequences

A short sequence of modules over a commutative ring

0\to A{\overset {f}\to }B{\overset {g}\to }C\to 0

consists of modules A, B, C and homomorphisms f, g. It is exact if f is injective, the kernel of g is the image of f and g is surjective. A longer exact sequence is defined in the similar way. A sequence of modules is exact if and only if it is exact as a sequence of abelian groups. Also the sequence is exact if and only if it is exact at all the maximal ideals:

0\to A_{{{\mathfrak {m}}}}{\overset {f}\to }B_{{{\mathfrak {m}}}}{\overset {g}\to }C_{{{\mathfrak {m}}}}\to 0

where the subscript ${{\mathfrak {m}}}$ means the localization of a module at ${{\mathfrak {m}}}$ .

Any module homomorphism f fits into

0\to K\to M{\overset {f}\to }N\to C\to 0

where K is the kernel of f and C is the cokernel, the quotien of N by the image of f.

If $f:M\to B,g:N\to B$ are module homomorphisms, then they are said to form a fiber square (or pullback square), denoted by M ×_B N, if it fits into

0\to M\times _{{B}}N\to M\times N{\overset {\phi }\to }B\to 0

where $\phi (x,y)=f(x)-g(x)$ .

Example: Let $B\subset A$ be commutative rings, and let I be the annihilator of the quotient B-module A/B (which is an ideal of A). Then canonical maps $A\to A/I,B/I\to A/I$ form a fiber square with $B=A\times _{{A/I}}B/I.$

Endomorphisms of finitely generated modules

Let $\phi :M\to M$ be an endomorphism between finitely generated R-modules for a commutative ring R. Then

$\phi$ is killed by its characteristic polynomial relative to the generators of M; see Nakayama's lemma#Proof.
If $\phi$ is surjective, then it is injective.^[2]

See also: Herbrand quotient (which can be defined for any endomorphism with some finiteness conditions.)

Variants

Additive relations

An additive relation $M\to N$ from a module M to a module N is a submodule of $M\oplus N.$ ^[3] In other words, it is a "many-valued" homomorphism defined on some submodule of M. The inverse $f^{-1}$ of f is the submodule $\{(y,x)|(x,y)\in f\}$ . Any additive relation f determines a homomorphism from a submodule of M to a quotient of N

D(f)\to N/\{y|(0,y)\in f\}

where $D(f)$ consists of all elements x in M such that (x, y) belongs to f for some y in N.

A transgression that arises from a spectral sequence is an example of an additive relation.

Notes

↑ Bourbaki, § 1.14
↑ Matsumura, Theorem 2.4.
↑

References

Bourbaki, Algebra
S. MacLane, Homology
H. Matsumura, Commutative ring theory. Translated from the Japanese by M. Reid. Second edition. Cambridge Studies in Advanced Mathematics, 8.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.