Divisible Group - Definition

Definition

An abelian group G is divisible if and only if, for every positive integer n and every g in G, there exists y in G such that ny = g. An equivalent condition is: for any positive integer n, nG = G, since the existence of y for every n and g implies that nGG, and in the other direction nGG is true for every group. A third equivalent condition is that an abelian group G is divisible if and only if G is an injective object in the category of abelian groups; for this reason, a divisible group is sometimes called an injective group.

An abelian group is p-divisible for a prime p if for every positive integer n and every g in G, there exists y in G such that pny = g. Equivalently, an abelian group is p-divisible if and only if pG = G.

Read more about this topic:  Divisible Group

Famous quotes containing the word definition:

    Scientific method is the way to truth, but it affords, even in
    principle, no unique definition of truth. Any so-called pragmatic
    definition of truth is doomed to failure equally.
    Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)

    ... we all know the wag’s definition of a philanthropist: a man whose charity increases directly as the square of the distance.
    George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)

    It is very hard to give a just definition of love. The most we can say of it is this: that in the soul, it is a desire to rule; in the spirit, it is a sympathy; and in the body, it is but a hidden and subtle desire to possess—after many mysteries—what one loves.
    François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)