Vector Space Structure
Suppose V (Z/pZ)n is an elementary abelian group. Since Z/pZ Fp, the finite field of p elements, we have V = (Z/pZ)n Fpn, hence V can be considered as an n-dimensional vector space over the field Fp. Note that an elementary abelian group does not in general have a distinguished basis: choice of isomorphism V (Z/pZ)n corresponds to a choice of basis.
To the observant reader, it may appear that Fpn has more structure than the group V, in particular that it has scalar multiplication in addition to (vector/group) addition. However, V as an abelian group has a unique Z-module structure where the action of Z corresponds to repeated addition, and this Z-module structure is consistent with the Fp scalar multiplication. That is, c·g = g + g + ... + g (c times) where c in Fp (considered as an integer with 0 ≤ c < p) gives V a natural Fp-module structure.
Read more about this topic: Elementary Abelian Group
Famous quotes containing the words space and/or structure:
“Here were poor streets where faded gentility essayed with scanty space and shipwrecked means to make its last feeble stand, but tax-gatherer and creditor came there as elsewhere, and the poverty that yet faintly struggled was hardly less squalid and manifest than that which had long ago submitted and given up the game.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“With sixty staring me in the face, I have developed inflammation of the sentence structure and definite hardening of the paragraphs.”
—James Thurber (1894–1961)