- Cyclic module
-
In mathematics, more specifically in ring theory, a cyclic module is a module over a ring which is generated by one element. The term is by analogy with cyclic groups, that is groups which are generated by one element.
Contents
Definition
A left R-module M is called cyclic if M can be generated by a single element i.e. M = (x) = R x = {rx | r ∈ R} for some x in M. Similarly, a right R-module N is cyclic, if N = y R for some y ∈ N.
Examples
- Every cyclic group is a cyclic Z-module.
- Every simple R-module M is a cyclic module since the submodule generated by any nonzero element x of M is necessarily the whole module M.
- If the ring R is considered as a left module over itself, then its cyclic submodules are exactly its left principal ideals as a ring. The same holds for R as a right R-module, mutatis mutandis.
- If R is F[x], the ring over polynomials over a field F, and V is an R-module which is also a finite-dimensional vector space over F, then the Jordan blocks of x acting on V are cyclic submodules. (The Jordan blocks are all isomorphic to F[x]/(x−λ)n; there may also be other cyclic submodules with different annihilators; see below.)
Properties
- Given a cyclic R-module M which is generated by x then there exists a canonical isomorphism between M and R / AnnRx, where AnnRx denotes the annihilator of x in R.
See also
References
- B. Hartley; T.O. Hawkes (1970). Rings, modules and linear algebra. Chapman and Hall. pp. 77,152. ISBN 0-412-09810-5.
- Pages 147–149 of Lang, Serge (1993), Algebra (Third ed.), Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., ISBN 978-0-201-55540-0
This algebra-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.