Algebraic Structures:

Groups
Basic points on Group theory

Introduction

Groups are the central objects of algebra. Even though the

definition of group is simple, it leads to a rich and amazing theory.
Everything presented here is standard, except that the product of
groups is given in the additive notation.

 Suppose is a non-void set and : x is a function. is

called a binary operation, and we will write (, ) = . or
(, ) = + . Consider the following properties.

1.

If , , then . ( . ) = ( . ) . .

2. = G such that if : . = . = .
3.

If , with . = . = , ( = -1).

4.

If , , then . = . .

Definition
Definition If properties 1), 2), and 3) hold, (, ) is said to be a
group. If we write (, ) = . , we say it is a multiplicative
group. If we write (, ) = + , we say it is an additive group.
If in addition, property 4) holds, we say the group is abelian or
commutative.

 Theorem Let (, ) be a multiplicative group.

I.

Suppose , , .

Then

. Also

= .

. = .

. = .

II. is unique, i.e., if satisfies 2), then = . Recall that b is an

identity in provided it is a right and left identity for any a in .

Groups

However, group structure is so rigid that if such that is a

right identity for , then = . Of course, this is just a special case
of the cancellation law in (i).
III. Every right inverse is an inverse, i.e., if . = then = 1 .
Also if . = then = 1 . Thus inverses are unique.
IV. If , then (1 )1 = .

V.

The multiplication 1 . 2 . 3 = 1 . (2 . 3) = (1 . 2) . 3 is

well-defined. In general, 1 . 2 . . . is well defined.

Groups

VI. If , , ()1 = 1 . 1 .
VII. Suppose a G. Let 0 = and if > 0, = . . . (
times) and = 1 1 (n times). If 1, 2, , then
1 2 = 1+2 ++ . Also

= .

VIII. Finally, if G is abelian and a, b G, then () = . .

 Exercise. Write out the above theorem where is an additive group.

Note that part (vii) states that has a scalar multiplication over .
This means that if a is in and is an integer, there is defined an
element an in . This is so basic, that we state it explicitly.

Exercises

Exercise. Suppose is a non-void set with a binary operation

(, ) = . which satisfies 1), 2) and [

3')

with . = ].

is a group, i.e., show

Show (, )

If ,

. = .

In other words, the group axioms are stronger than necessary. If

every element has a right inverse, then every element has a two sided
inverse.

 Example = , = , or = with (, ) = + is an
additive abelian group.

Examples

Example = 0 or = 0 with (, ) = is a
multiplicative abelian group.
= 0 with (, ) = is not a group.
= { > 0} with (, ) = is a multiplicative
abelian group.

 Theorem Suppose is a multiplicative group and is a nonvoid subset satisfying

Subgroups

1) If , then .
2) If then -1

Then and is a group under multiplication. H is called a

subgroup of G.
Proof Since is non-void, . By 2), -1 and so by 1),
. The associative law is immediate and so is a group.

 Example is a subgroup of and is a subgroup of . These are

called the improper subgroups of G.

Examples

Example If = under addition, and , then = is a

subgroup of . By a theorem on the integers, every subgroup of is
of this form. This is a key property of the integers.

 Exercises Suppose is a multiplicative group.

a)

Let be the center of , i.e., H = { . = . for all

}. Show is a subgroup of .

Exercises

b)

Suppose 1 and 2 are subgroups of . Show 1

2 is a

subgroup of .
c)

Suppose 1 and 2 are subgroups of , with neither 1nor 2

contained in the other. Show 1 2 is not a subgroup of .

 Suppose is a multiplicative group. If has an infinite number of

elements, we say that (), the order of , is infinite. If has n
elements, then () = . Suppose and = {
}. is an abelian subgroup of called the subgroup generated by
a.

Order

We define the order of the element to be the order of H, i.e., the

order of the subgroup generated by a. Let be the
surjective function defined by (m) = am.
Note that (k + ) = . () where the addition is in Z and
the multiplication is in the group H. We come now to the first real
theorem in group theory. It says that the element a has finite order
iff is not injective, and in this case, the order of a is the smallest
positive integer n with = e.

Order

Theorem Suppose is an element of a multiplicative group , and

= { }. If distinct integers and with = ,
then a has some finite order n. In this case H has n distinct
elements, H = {0, 1,..., 1 }, and = iff | . In particular,
the order of is the smallest positive integer n with = , and
1 () = .

Proof Suppose < and = . Then = and thus a

smallest positive integer n with = . This implies that the
elements of {0, 1,..., 1 } are distinct, and we must show they
are all of H. If , the Euclidean algorithm states that
integers and with 0 < and = + . Thus =
. = , and so = {0, 1,..., 1 }, and = iff |.

Exercises

Exercise Write out this theorem for an additive group. To begin,

suppose a is an element of an additive group , and = {
}.

Exercise Show that if is a finite group of even order, then has an

odd number of elements of order 2. Note that e is the only element
of order 1.

Cyclic group

Definition A group is cyclic if an element of G which generates

G.
Theorem If G is cyclic and H is a subgroup of G, then H is cyclic.

 Suppose H is a subgroup of a group G. It will be shown below that H

partitions G into right cosets. It also partitions G into left cosets, and
in general these partitions are distinct.

Cosets

Theorem If H is a subgroup of a multiplicative group G, then

~ defined by a ~ b iff . 1 is an equivalence relation.

If , () = { ~ } = { . } =

. Note that . 1 iff . 1 .

Right and left

cosets Relations

Definition These equivalence classes are called right cosets. If the

relation is defined by a ~ b iff b-1 . a H, then the equivalence
classes are cl(a) = aH and they are called left cosets. H is a left and
right coset. If G is abelian, there is no distinction between right and
left cosets. Note that b-1 . a H iff a-1 . b H.
In the theorem above, H is used to define an equivalence relation
on G, and thus a partition of G. We now do the same thing a
different way. We define the right cosets directly and show they
form a partition of G.

Theorem Suppose H is a subgroup of a multiplicative group G. If a G G,

define the right coset containing a to be Ha = {h . a : h H}. Then the
following hold.

Right and left

cosets Relations

1) Ha = iff a H.
2) If , then = , i.e., if , then ( . ) =
(Hh)a = Ha.
3) If

, then = .

4) The right cosets form a partition of , i.e., each in belongs to

one and only one right coset.
5) Elements and belong to the same right coset iff . -1 H iff
. -1 H.

Theorem Suppose H is a subgroup of a multiplicative group G.

a)

Any two right cosets have the same number of elements. That is,
if , ,

b) defined by ( . ) = . is a bijection. Also

Index of the
subgroup

any two left cosets have the same number of elements. Since H is
a right and left coset, any two cosets have the same number of
elements.

c) has the same number of right cosets as left cosets. The

function F defined by () = -1 is a bijection from the
collection of right cosets to the left cosets. The number of right
(or left) cosets is called the index of in G.
d) If is finite, () (index of ) = () and so () | (). In
other words, ()/() = the number of right cosets = the
number of left cosets.

 If is finite, and , then () | (). (Proof: The order of a is

the order of the subgroup generated by , and by 3) this divides the
order of .)

Index of the
subgroup

If has prime order, then is cyclic, and any element (except e) is a

generator. (Proof: Suppose () = and , . Then

() | and thus () = .)
If () = and , then = . (Proof: () = and =
() (()/()). )

Exercises

1.

Suppose is a cyclic group of order 4, = {, , 2, 3} with

4 = . Find the order of each element of . Find all the
subgroups of .

2.

Suppose is the additive group and = 3. Find the cosets

of .

3.

Think of a circle as the interval [0,1] with end points identified.

Suppose = under addition and = . Show that the
collection of all the cosets of can be thought of as a circle.

4.

Let = 2 under addition, and H be the subgroup defined by

= {(, 2) }. Find the cosets of .

 We would like to make a group out of the collection of cosets of a

subgroup . In general, there is no natural way to do that. However,
it is easy to do in case is a normal subgroup, which is described
below.

Normal
Subgroups

Theorem If is a subgroup of a group , then the following are

equivalent.
1.

If

, then

1 =

2.

If

, then

3.

If

, then

4.

Every right coset is a left coset, i.e., if ,

with = .

 1) 2) is obvious. Suppose 2) is true and show 3). We have

(1)a so . Also (-1 ) so
. Thus = .

Proof

3) 4) is obvious. Suppose 4) is true and show 3). =

contains a, so = because a coset is an equivalence
class. Thus = .
Finally, suppose 3) is true and show 1). Multiply = on the
right by -1.

Definition of
normality for
subgroups

Definition If satisfies any of the four conditions above, then is

said to be a normal subgroup of . (This concept goes back to
Evariste Galois in 1831.)
Note For any group , and are normal subgroups. If is an
abelian group, then every subgroup of is normal.
Exercise Show that if is a subgroup of with index 2, then is
normal.

 Theorem Suppose is a multiplicative group, is a normal

subgroup, and /

is the collection of all cosets. Then

() . () = ( . ) is a well defined multiplication (binary

Quotient
Groups

operation) on /, and with this multiplication, / is a group. Its

identity is and ()1 = 1 . Furthermore, if is finite,
(/) = ()/().
Proof Multiplication of elements in / is multiplication of subsets
in

(). () = () = () = ( . ). Once

multiplication is well defined, the group axioms are immediate.

Example

Suppose G = under +, n > 1, and N = n. Zn, the group of integers

mod n is defined by n = /. If a is an integer, the coset a +
nZ is denoted by [a]. Note that [] + [] = [ + ], [] =
[], and [] = [ + ] for any integer l. Any additive abelian
group has a scalar multiplication over , and in this case it is just
[a]m = [am].

Note that [] = [] where r is the remainder of a divided by n, and

thus the distinct elements of n are [0], [1], . . . , [ 1]. Also n is
cyclic because each of [1] and [ 1] = [ 1] is a generator.
We already know that if p is a prime, any non-zero element of Zp is a
generator, because Zp has p elements.

Criteria for the

generator of
cyclic group

Theorem If > 1 and is any integer, then [] is a generator of

n iff (, ) = 1.
Proof The element [] is a generator iff the subgroup generated by
[] contains [1] iff an integer such that [] = [1] iff
integers k and such that + = 1.
Exercise Show that a positive integer is divisible by 3 iff the sum of
its digits is divisible by 3. Note that [10] = [1] in Z3.

 Homomorphisms are functions between groups that commute with

the group operations. It follows that they honor identities and
inverses. In this section we list the basic properties.

Homomorphisms

Definition If and are multiplicative groups, a function G

is a homomorphism if, for all , b , a . b = . . On
the left side, the group operation is in G, while on the right side it is
in G.
The kernel of is defined by ker = 1 = {a
() = }. In other words, the kernel is the set of solutions to the
equation () = .

 The constant map G defined by () = is a

homomorphism. If H is a subgroup of G, the inclusion i H G is
a homomorphism.

Examples

The function
defined by () = 2 is a
homomorphism of additive groups, while the function defined by
() = + 2 is not a homomorphism.
The function h 0 defined by () = 2 is a
homomorphism from an additive group to a multiplicative group.
If the homomorphism is a bijection, then the function
1 : is a homomorphism. In this case, is called an
isomorphism, and we write . In the case = is also
called an automorphism.

 Definition Suppose is a (non-void) set. A bijection is

called a permutation on , and the collection of all these
permutations is denoted by = (). In this setting, variables are
written on the left, i.e., = (). Therefore the composition
means followed by . () forms a multiplicative group

Permutations

under composition.

Exercise Show that if there is a bijection between X and Y, there is

an isomorphism between () and (). Thus if each of X and Y
has n elements, () (), and these groups are called the

symmetric groups on n elements. They are all denoted by the one

symbol .

 Exercise Show that ( ) = !. Let = {1, 2, . . . , }, n = (), and

Permutations

= { () = }. Show is a subgroup of which is

isomorphic to 1 . Let be any permutation on with

() = 1. Find -1.

The next theorem shows that the symmetric groups are incredibly
rich and complex.

Cayleys
Theorem

Theorem Suppose is a multiplicative group with elements and

is the group of all permutations on the set . Then is
isomorphic to a subgroup of .
Proof Let n be the function which sends a to the bijection
a : defined by ()a = . . The proof follows from the
following observations.
For each given , a is a bijection from to .
is a homomorphism, i.e., = a o b.

is injective and thus is isomorphic to image() n.

Now let 2 and let n be the group of all permutations on

{1, 2, . . . , }. The following definition shows that each element of n
maybe represented by a matrix.

Definition Suppose 1 < , {1 , 2 , , } is a collection of

The Symmetric
Groups

distinct integers with 1 , and {1 , 2 , , } is the same

collection

in

some

different

order.

Then

the

matrix

1 2
1 2 represents S defined by ( ) = for 1
, and () = for all other . The composition of two
permutations is computed by applying the matrix on the left first and

the matrix on the right second.

There is a special type of permutation called a cycle. For these we

have a special notation.
Definition

Cycles

1 2 1
2 3 1 is called a cycle, and is denoted

by (1 , 2 , , ).
A 2-cycle is called a transposition. The cycles (1 , 2 , , ) and
1 , 2 , , are disjoint provided for all 1 and 1 j

l.

 Listed here are basic properties of permutations. They are all easy
except 4) which takes a little work. Properties 9) and 10) are listed
solely for reference.
Theorem

Basic
properties of
permutations

1.

Disjoint cycles commute. (This is obvious.)

2.

Every non-identity permutation can be written uniquely (except

for order) as the product of disjoint cycles. (This is easy.)

3.

Every permutation can be written (non-uniquely) as the product

of transpositions. (Proof: = (1, 2)(1, 2) and (1 , , ) =
(1, 2 )(1, 3) (1). )

4.

The parity of the number of these transpositions is unique. is

the product of transpositions and also of q transpositions, then
is even iff is even. In this case, is said to be an even
permutation. In the other case, is an odd permutation.

Basic
properties of
permutations

5.

A cycle is even (odd) iff is odd (even). For example (1, 2, 3)

= (1, 2)(1, 3) is an even permutation.

6.

Suppose , n. If one of f and g is even and the other is odd,

then o is odd. If and g are both even or both odd, then
is even. (Obvious.)

7.

The map n 2 defined by (even) = [0] and (odd) = [1]

is a homomorphism from a multiplicative group to an additive
group. Its kernel (the subgroup of even permutations) is denoted
by n and is called the alternating group. Thus n is a normal
subgroup of index 2, and / 2 .

8.

Basic
properties of
permutations

If , , and d are distinct integers in {1, 2,..., } , then

(, )(, ) = (, , ) and (, )(, ) = (, , )(, , ) .
Since = (1, 2, 3) 3, it follows that for 3, every even
permutation is the product of 3-cycles.

The following parts are not included in this course. They are
presented here merely for reference.

9.

For any 4, n is simple, i.e., has no proper normal

subgroups.

10.

can be generated by two elements. In fact,

{(1, 2), (1, 2, . . . , )} generates . (Of course there are
subgroups of which cannot be generated by two elements).

1.
2.

1234567
as the product of disjoint cycles.
6543172
Write (1,5,6,7)(2,3,4)(3,7,1) as the product of disjoint cycles.
Write

3.

Write (3,7,1)(1,5,6,7)(2,3,4) as the product of disjoint cycles.

Which of these permutations are odd and which are even?

4.

Suppose (1 , 2 , , ) and 1 , 2 , , disjoint cycles. What is

the order of their product?

5.

Suppose
.
Show
that
1 1, 2, 3 =
((1) , (2) , (3) ). This shows that conjugation by is just a
type of re-labeling. Also let = (4, 5, 6) and find
1 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

6.

Show that = { 6 : (6) = 6} is a subgroup of 6 and

find its right cosets and its left cosets.

Exercises