Paper 4, Section I, F

Groups, Rings and Modules
Part IB, 2009

Let MM be a module over an integral domain RR. An element mMm \in M is said to be torsion if there exists a nonzero rRr \in R with rm=0;M\mathrm{rm}=0 ; M is said to be torsion-free if its only torsion element is 0 . Show that there exists a unique submodule NN of MM such that (a) all elements of NN are torsion and (b) the quotient module M/NM / N is torsion-free.