Free module

For a ring ${\displaystyle R}$ and an ${\displaystyle R}$-module ${\displaystyle M}$, the set ${\displaystyle E\subseteq M}$ is a basis for ${\displaystyle M}$ if:

• ${\displaystyle E}$ is a generating set for ${\displaystyle M}$; that is to say, every element of ${\displaystyle M}$ is a finite sum of elements of ${\displaystyle E}$ multiplied by coefficients in ${\displaystyle R}$; and
• ${\displaystyle E}$ is linearly independent, that is, for every subset ${\displaystyle \{e_{1},e_{2},\ldots ,e_{n}\}}$ of distinct elements of ${\displaystyle E}$, ${\displaystyle r_{1}e_{1}+r_{2}e_{2}+\cdots +r_{n}e_{n}=0_{M}}$ implies that ${\displaystyle r_{1}=r_{2}=\cdots =r_{n}=0_{R}}$ (where ${\displaystyle 0_{M}}$ is the zero element of ${\displaystyle M}$ and ${\displaystyle 0_{R}}$ is the zero element of ${\displaystyle R}$).

A free module is a module with a basis.[2]

An immediate consequence of the second half of the definition is that the coefficients in the first half are unique for each element of M.

If ${\displaystyle R}$ has invariant basis number, then by definition any two bases have the same cardinality. The cardinality of any (and therefore every) basis is called the rank of the free module ${\displaystyle M}$. If this cardinality is finite, the free module is said to be free of finite rank, or free of rank n if the rank is known to be n.

Let R be a ring.

• R is a free module of rank one over itself (either as a left or right module); any unit element is a basis.
• More generally, If R is commutative, a nonzero ideal I of R is free if and only if it is a principal ideal generated by a nonzerodivisor, with a generator being a basis.[3]
• If R is commutative, the polynomial ring ${\displaystyle R[X]}$ in indeterminate X is a free module with a possible basis 1, X, X², ....
• Let ${\displaystyle A[t]}$ be a polynomial ring over a commutative ring A, f a monic polynomial of degree d there, ${\displaystyle B=A[t]/(f)}$ and ${\displaystyle \xi }$ the image of t in B. Then B contains A as a subring and is free as an A-module with a basis ${\displaystyle 1,\xi ,\dots ,\xi ^{d-1}}$.
• For any non-negative integer n, ${\displaystyle R^{n}=R\times \cdots \times R}$, the cartesian product of n copies of R as a left R-module, is free. If R has invariant basis number (which is true for commutative R), then its rank is n.
• A direct sum of free modules is free, while an infinite cartesian product of free modules is generally not free (cf. the Baer–Specker group.)
• Kaplansky's theorem states a projective module over a local ring is free.

Given a set E and ring R, there is a free R-module that has E as a basis: namely, the direct sum of copies of R indexed by E

${\displaystyle R^{(E)}=\bigoplus _{e\in E}R}$.

Explicitly, it is the submodule of the cartesian product ${\displaystyle \prod _{E}R}$ (R is viewed as say a left module) that consists of the elements that have only finitely many nonzero components. One can embed E into R^(E) as a subset by identifying an element e with that of R^(E) whose e-th component is 1 (the unity of R) and all the other components are zero. Then each element of R^(E) can be written uniquely as

${\displaystyle \sum _{e\in E}c_{e}e,}$

where only finitely many ${\displaystyle c_{e}}$ are nonzero. It is called a formal linear combination of elements of E.

A similar argument shows that every free left (resp. right) R-module is isomorphic to a direct sum of copies of R as left (resp. right) module.

The inclusion mapping ${\displaystyle \iota :E\to R^{(E)}}$ defined above is universal in the following sense. Given an arbitrary function ${\displaystyle f:E\to N}$ from a set E to a left R-module N, there exists a unique module homomorphism ${\displaystyle {\overline {f}}:R^{(E)}\to N}$ such that ${\displaystyle f={\overline {f}}\circ \iota }$; namely, ${\displaystyle {\overline {f}}}$ is defined by the formula:

${\displaystyle {\overline {f}}\left(\sum _{e\in E}r_{e}e\right)=\sum _{e\in E}r_{e}f(e)}$

and ${\displaystyle {\overline {f}}}$ is said to be obtained by extending ${\displaystyle f}$ by linearity. The uniqueness means that each R-linear map ${\displaystyle R^{(E)}\to N}$ is uniquely determined by its restriction to E.

As usual for universal properties, this defines R^(E) up to a canonical isomorphism. Also the formation of ${\displaystyle \iota :E\to R^{(E)}}$ for each set E determines a functor

${\displaystyle R^{(-)}:{\textbf {Set}}\to R-{\mathsf {Mod}},\,E\mapsto R^{(E)}}$,

from the category of sets to the category of left R-modules. It is called the free functor and satisfies a natural relation: for each set E and a left module N,

${\displaystyle \operatorname {Hom} _{\textbf {Set}}(E,U(N))\simeq \operatorname {Hom} _{R}(R^{(E)},N),\,f\mapsto {\overline {f}}}$

where ${\displaystyle U:R-{\mathsf {Mod}}\to {\textbf {Set}}}$ is the forgetful functor, meaning ${\displaystyle R^{(-)}}$ is a left adjoint of the forgetful functor.

Many statements about free modules, which are wrong for general modules over rings, are still true for certain generalisations of free modules. Projective modules are direct summands of free modules, so one can choose an injection into a free module and use the basis of this one to prove something for the projective module. Even weaker generalisations are flat modules, which still have the property that tensoring with them preserves exact sequences, and torsion-free modules. If the ring has special properties, this hierarchy may collapse, e.g., for any perfect local Dedekind ring, every torsion-free module is flat, projective and free as well. A finitely generated torsion-free module of a commutative PID is free. A finitely generated Z-module is free if and only if it is flat.

See local ring, perfect ring and Dedekind ring.

• Free object
• Projective object
• free presentation
• free resolution
• Quillen–Suslin theorem
• stably free module
• generic freeness

This article incorporates material from free vector space over a set on PlanetMath, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• Adamson, Iain T. (1972). Elementary Rings and Modules. University Mathematical Texts. Oliver and Boyd. pp. 65–66. ISBN 0-05-002192-3. MR 0345993.
• Keown, R. (1975). An Introduction to Group Representation Theory. Mathematics in science and engineering. 116. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-404250-6. MR 0387387.
• Govorov, V. E. (2001) [1994], "Free module", Encyclopedia of Mathematics, EMS Press.