Homework 6

Math 55a, Fall 2018

Due Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Note: the first 6 problems deal with modules over commutative rings, a generalization of the
notion of vector spaces over fields. We’ll talk about modules in class on Friday, but if you want to
get started here are the basics.

Recall that a commutative ring R is a set with composition laws + and × satisfying all the
axioms of a field except possibly the existence of multiplicative inverses. Similarly, a module M over
the ring R is an abelian group, together with an action of R on M —that is, a map R × M → M —
satisfying the usual axioms of scalar multiplication. Homomorphisms of modules over R are defined
exactly as are homomorphisms of vector spaces. Finally, note that Rn = {(x1 , . . . , xn ) | xi ∈ R} is
a module over R; this is called the free module of rank n over R.

A subset Γ ⊂ M of a module over R is called a spanning set (or we just say that Γ generates
M ) if every element of M can be written as a linear combination of elements of Γ; it is said to be
independent if there are no non-trivial relations of linear dependence among elements of Γ.

All modules will be assumed finitely generated.

1. Show that any abelian group has naturally (and uniquely) the structure of a module over Z.

2. Define the direct sum M ⊕ N of two modules over a ring R. Show by example that if L ⊂ M
is a submodule, there need not exist a module N such that M ∼= L ⊕ N , in contrast to the
case of finite-dimensional vector spaces over a field.

3. Show by example over R = k[x, y] that—again in contrast to the case of vector spaces over a
field—a submodule of a free module need not be free.

4. Let M and N be modules over a ring R. Show that the set of homomorphisms φ : M → N can
itself be given the structure of an R-module, called HomR (M, N ), and describe the following
modules:

(a) HomZ (Zm , Zn )

(b) HomZ (Zm , Z/2)
(c) HomZ (Z/2, Z)
(d) HomZ (Z/2, Z/3)
(e) HomZ (Z/4, Z/6)

5. Let M be any module over the ring R. By the dual module we will mean the module
M ∗ := Hom(M, R).
 (a) Show that there exists a natural homomorphism φ : M → (M ∗ )∗ .
(b) Show by example over R = k[x] that—once more in contrast to the case of finite-
dimensional vector spaces over a field—the map φ need not be an isomorphism, even for
finitely generated R-modules.

6. Let R be a commutative ring. Show that R is in fact a field if and only if every finitely
generated R-module is free.

7. A reflection on an inner-product space V is a self-adjoint transformation such that P 2 = I

and ker(P + I) is 1-dimensional.

(a) Show that any reflection can be expressed in the form P (x) = x−2hx, viv, where |v| = 1.
(b) Prove that for any pair of distinct vectors x, y ∈ V of the same length, there is a reflection
such that P (x) = y.
(c) Prove that any T ∈ On (R) is a product of at most n reflections.

8. Let V be a finite-dimensional vector space over a field K and B : V ×V → K a nondegenerate

bilinear form on V . A subspace Λ ⊂ V is called isotropic for B if B(v, w) = 0 ∀v, w ∈ Λ.
Show that if Λ is isotropic, then
1
dim(Λ) ≤ dim(V ).
2

9. Let V be a complex vector space of dimension n, and denote by W the same set V viewed as
a 2n-dimensional vector space over R. If H : V × V → C is a Hermitian pairing, show that
the map

W ×W →R
(v, w) 7→ im H(v, w)

is a skew-symmetric bilinear form on W , nondegenerate if and only if H is.

10. Let V be a finite-dimensional inner product space, and T : V → V a self-adjoint map.

Suppose that v ∈ V is a vector such that ||v|| = 1 and hT v, vi ≥ hT w, wi for all w ∈ V
with ||w|| = 1. Prove that v is an eigenvector for T . (Once we’ve introduced the notion of
compactness in topology, this will give us another way to prove the spectral theorem: we can
find an eigenvector for T by seeing where the function w 7→ hT w, wi achieves its maximum
on the unit sphere.)