if $A$ is a finite dimensional commutative $\mathbb{C}$ algebra with dimension $n$, must $A$ have $n$ simple modules up to isomorphism?

177 Views Asked by At

I'm trying to prove the question above. I'm not sure whether this is true or not, but I'm trying to figure it out. If $A$ is semi-simple I don't think it's too hard to see that it's true, but otherwise, all I know is that $A$ has at most $n$ simple modules, and that every simple module is $1$ dimensional by Schur's lemma.

Not exactly sure how to proceed other than write out $$0= M_0 \subset M_1 \subset \dots \subset M_{n+1} = A $$ as a composition series, then, every simple module is isomorphic to $M_i/M_{i-1}$ and there are precisely $n+1$ of these for dimension reasons. Now if $M_i/M_{i-1} \equiv M_j/M_{j-1}$ we have to somehow prove that $i = j$.

On the other hand there could be a counterexample, but I can't come up with a finite dimensional $\mathbb{C}$ algebra that is both commutative and not semi-simple.

Would appreciate any help here.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

1
On BEST ANSWER

This is false. For instance, if $A=\mathbb{C}[x]/(x^2)$, then $A$ is 2-dimensional but has only one simple module (since its only maximal ideal is $(x)$).

More generally, if $A$ is a finite-dimensional commutative $\mathbb{C}$-algebra and $N$ is its nilradical, then $A/N$ is semisimple and every maximal ideal of $A$ contains $N$. Thus since $A/N$ has $\dim A/N=\dim A-\dim N$ different simple modules, so does $A$. So the failure of $A$ to have $\dim A$ simiple modules is exactly measured by the nilpotent elements of $A$.