Paper 4, Section II, F

Groups, Rings and Modules
Part IB, 2009

Let RR be a principal ideal domain. Prove that any submodule of a finitely-generated free module over RR is free.

An RR-module PP is said to be projective if, whenever we have module homomorphisms f:MNf: M \rightarrow N and g:PNg: P \rightarrow N with ff surjective, there exists a homomorphism h:PMh: P \rightarrow M with fh=gf \circ h=g. Show that any free module (over an arbitrary ring) is projective. Show also that a finitely-generated projective module over a principal ideal domain is free.