ALGEBRA II: EXERCISE SHEET 6

Exercise 1. Let k be a field of characteristic 0. In this exercise you will prove a

classical theorem of Noether’s, which states the following:
Assume char k = 0. For any representation W of a finite group
G the ring of invariants k[W ]G is generated by the invariants of
degree less than or equal to the order of G.
We will break the proof into several steps.
(a) (5 points) Start by identifying k[W ] with the polynomial ring k[x1 , . . . , xn ]
where n = dim W and x1 , . . . , xn is a k-basis for W . Now let µ = (µ1 , . . . , µn )
be an n-tuple of non-negative integers. Define an invariant jµ ∈ k[W ]G de-
pending on µ.
aµ xµ1 1 . . . xµnn ∈ k[W ]G is an arbitrary
P
(b) (4 points) Check that if f =
P µ
invariant, then |G|f = aµ jµ .
µ
(c) (9 points) Show that k[W ]G is generated by the jµ ’s where
|µ| := µ1 + · · · + µn ≤ |G|.
Hint: consider the polynomials
X
pj (x1 , . . . , xn , z1 , . . . , zn ) := ((g.x1 )z1 + (g.x2 )z2 + · · · + (g.xn )zn ))j
g∈G

for j ∈ N.

Exercise 2. Show the following statements about semisimple Z-modules.

(a) (6 points) Show that the only irreducible Z-modules are Z/pZ where p is a
prime.
(b) (6 points) Show that Z is not semisimple as a left module over itself.
(c) (6 points) Show that any semisimple Z-module is a direct sum of copies of
Z/nZ where n ranges over square-free integers.

Exercise 3. (12 points) Let R = Z and let

M
E= Z/pZ
p

where the sum is over all primes. Find R0 := EndR (E) and R00 = EndR0 (E) and
show in particular that R00 6= R.