How many surjective homomorphisms are there from #ZZ# onto #ZZ_3# ?

1 Answer
Dec 28, 2017

There are two.

Explanation:

Assuming we are talking about #ZZ# and #ZZ_3# as additive groups, there are exactly two surjective homomorphisms from #ZZ# onto #ZZ_3#.

Suppose #f:ZZ -> ZZ_3# is a surjective homomorphism.

Then the identity must map to the identity, i.e. #f(0) = hat(0)#

The value of #f(n)# for any other #n# is determined by the value of #f(1)#. The mapping #f(1) = hat(0)# yields a homomorphism, but it is not surjective: every integer is mapped to #hat(0)#.

That leaves two possibilities, namely #f(1) = hat(1)# and #f(1) = hat(2)#. Both of these result in surjective homomorphisms.