Paper 4, Section I, H

Groups, Rings and Modules
Part IB, 2010

Let MM be a free Z\mathbb{Z}-module generated by e1e_{1} and e2e_{2}. Let a,ba, b be two non-zero integers, and NN be the submodule of MM generated by ae1+be2a e_{1}+b e_{2}. Prove that the quotient module M/NM / N is free if and only if a,ba, b are coprime.