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For some reasons, homomorphism is a very hard area for me to make improvements. I've been hitting the brick wall for almost 2 hours.

Prove that no homomorphism exists from $Z_{16}\oplus Z_2$ onto $Z_4\oplus Z_4$.

Assume a homomorphism $\phi$ exists from $Z_{16}\oplus Z_2$ onto $Z_4\oplus Z_4$. Then $\phi$ is an isomorphism.

Note that the $\left | \ker \phi \right |=2$ The $\ker \phi$ is also a normal subgroup for $Z_{16}\oplus Z_{2}$. We want possible normal subgroup of order 2. I.e., 2 elements in each normal subgroups.

By Lagrange's theorem, the order of each element in a group divides the order of a group so the possible order of the elements are 1 or 2. If the elements has order 1, then the Ker \phi cannot have 2 elements.

Hence, $\ker\phi$ = $\left \{ (0,0),(8,0) \right \}$ ,$\left \{ (0,0),(0,8) \right \}$,$\left \{ (0,0),(8,1) \right \}$, possibly.

By the First isomorphism theorem:

$\phi: Z_{16}\oplus Z_2 \rightarrow Z_2\oplus Z_2$

$\Psi: G/\ker \phi \rightarrow \phi\left ( Z_16\oplus Z_2 \right )=Z_2\oplus Z_2$

$g\ker \phi \mapsto \phi(g)=\Psi(g\ker \phi)$

Any help is appreciated.

Edit: I know that $(2,0)$ has order $8$ in $Z_{16}\oplus Z_{2}$ but any elements in $Z_{4}\oplus Z_{4}$ does not have order $8$ which would have solved the question at the outset. But I would like a different route.

2 Answers2

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Let $f:Z_{16}\times Z_2\to Z_4\oplus Z_4$ be a map. The subgroup $f(Z_{16})$ is cyclic, so it has at most $4$ elements (as $4$ is the maximum order of an element in the codomain of $f$) Now the image of $f$ is equal to the subgroup $f(Z_{16})+f(Z_2)$, which has at most $8$ elements. The map $f$ is therefore not surjective.

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At first see below to observe that, isomorphism $\phi$ preserves the order of an element:

Isomorphism $f$ preserves the order of an element?



Suppose on contrary that such a homomorphism exists, and consider the induced isomorphism $\Psi$, as you defined.

The group $\mathbb{Z}_4 \oplus \mathbb{Z}_4$ has exactly $12=16-4$ elements of order $4$; i.e. all elements which does not lie in the sub-group $\{0, 2\} \oplus \{0, 2\}$.

On the other hand $\mathbb{Z}_{16} \oplus \mathbb{Z}_2$ has only $6=8-2$ elements of order $4$; i.e. all elements of the sub-group $\{ 0, 4, 8, 12 \} \oplus \{ 0, 2 \}$ which does not lie in the sub-group $\{0\} \oplus \{0, 2\}$.



So the quoteint group appeared in the induced isomorphism $\Psi$ will only have at most $6$ elements of order $4$, which is a contradiction.

Davood
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