In the theory ofabelian groups, the torsion subgroupAT of an abelian groupA is the subgroup of Aconsisting of all elements that have finite order. An abelian group A is called a torsion group if every element ofA has finite order and is called torsion-free if every element of A except the identity is of infinite order. The proof that AT is closed under the group operation relies on the commutativity of the operation. If A is abelian, then the torsion subgroup T is a fully characteristic subgroup of A and the factor groupA/T is torsion-free. There is a covariant functor from the category of abelian groups to the category of torsion groups that sends every group to its torsion subgroup and every homomorphism to its restriction to the torsion subgroup. There is another covariant functor from the category of abelian groups to the category of torsion-free groups that sends every group to its quotient by its torsion subgroup, and sends every homomorphism to the obvious induced homomorphism. If A is finitely generated and abelian, then it can be written as the direct sum of its torsion subgroup T and a torsion-free subgroup. In any decomposition of A as a direct sum of a torsion subgroup S and a torsion-free subgroup, S must equal T. This is a key step in the classification of finitely generated abelian groups.
''p''-power torsion subgroups
For any abelian group and any prime numberp the set ATp of elements of A that have order a power of p is a subgroup called the p-power torsion subgroup or, more loosely, the p-torsion subgroup: The torsion subgroup AT is isomorphic to the direct sum of its p-power torsion subgroups over all prime numbersp: When A is a finite abelian group, ATp coincides with the unique Sylow p-subgroup of A. Each p-power torsion subgroup of A is a fully characteristic subgroup. More strongly, any homomorphism between abelian groups sends each p-power torsion subgroup into the corresponding p-power torsion subgroup. For each prime number p, this provides a functor from the category of abelian groups to the category of p-power torsion groups that sends every group to its p-power torsion subgroup, and restricts every homomorphism to the p-torsion subgroups. The product over the set of all prime numbers of the restriction of these functors to the category of torsion groups, is a faithful functor from the category of torsion groups to the product over all prime numbers of the categories of p-torsion groups. In a sense, this means that studying p-torsion groups in isolation tells us everything about torsion groups in general.
Every finite abelian group is a torsion group. Not every torsion group is finite however: consider the direct sum of a countable number of copies of the cyclic groupC2; this is a torsion group since every element has order 2. Nor need there be an upper bound on the orders of elements in a torsion group if it isn't finitely generated, as the example of the factor group Q/Z shows.
Even if A is not finitely generated, the size of its torsion-free part is uniquely determined, as is explained in more detail in the article on rank of an abelian group.
Tensoring an abelian group A with Q kills torsion. That is, if T is a torsion group then T ⊗ Q = 0. For a general abelian group A with torsion subgroup T one has A ⊗ Q ≅ A/T ⊗ Q.
