Let [Formula: see text] be the class of abelian p-groups. A non-empty proper subclass [Formula: see text] is bounded if it is closed under subgroups, additively bounded if it is also closed under direct sums and perfectly bounded if it is additively bounded and closed under filtrations. If [Formula: see text], we call the partition of [Formula: see text] given by [Formula: see text] a B/U-pair. We state most of our results not in terms of bounded classes, but rather the corresponding B/U-pairs. Any additively bounded class contains a unique maximal perfectly bounded subclass. The idea of the length of a reduced group is generalized to the notion of the length of an additively bounded class. If λ is an ordinal or the symbol ∞, then there is a natural largest and smallest additively bounded class of length λ, as well as a largest and smallest perfectly bounded class of length λ. If λ ≤ ω, then there is a unique perfectly bounded class of length λ, namely the pλ-bounded groups that are direct sums of cyclics; however, this fails when λ > ω. This parallels results of Dugas, Fay and Shelah (1987) and Keef (1995) on the behavior of classes of abelian p-groups with elements of infinite height. It also simplifies, clarifies and generalizes a result of Cutler, Mader and Megibben (1989) which states that the pω + 1-projectives cannot be characterized using filtrations.
Theorems on direct sums of modules
