3.

3.4

J.A.Beachy

Isomorphisms
from A Study Guide for Beginners by J.A.Beachy,
a supplement to Abstract Algebra by Beachy / Blair

A one-to-one correspondence : G1 G2 between groups G1 and G2 is called a group

isomorphism if (ab) = (a)(b) for all a, b G1 . The function can be thought of as
simply renaming the elements of G1 , since it is one-to-one and onto. The condition that
(ab) = (a)(b) for all a, b G1 makes certain that multiplication can be done in either
group and the transferred to the other, since the inverse function 1 also respects the
operations in the two groups.
In terms of the respective group multiplication tables for G1 and G2 , the existence of
an isomorphism guarantees that there is a way to set up a correspondence between the
elements of the groups in such a way that the group multiplication tables will look exactly
the same.
From an algebraic perspective, we should think of isomorphic groups as being essentially
the same. The problem of finding all abelian groups of order 8 is impossible to solve, because
there are infinitely many possibilities. But if we ask for a list of abelian groups of order 8
that comes with a guarantee that any possible abelian group of order 8 must be isomorphic
to one of the groups on the list, then the question becomes manageable. In fact, we can
show (in Section 7.5) that the answer to this particular question is the list Z8 , Z4 Z2 ,
Z2 Z2 Z2 . In this situation we would usually say that we have found all abelian groups
of order 8, up to isomorphism.
To show that two groups G1 and G2 are isomorphic, you should actually produce an
isomorphism : G1 G2 . To decide on the function to use, you probably need to see some
similarity between the group operations.
In some ways it is harder to show that two groups are not isomorphic. If you can show
that one group has a property that the other one does not have, then you can decide that
two groups are not isomorphic (provided that the property would have been transferred by
any isomorphism). Suppose that G1 and G2 are isomorphic groups. If G1 is abelian, then
so is G2 ; if G1 is cyclic, then so is G2 . Furthermore, for each positive integer n, the two
groups must have exactly the same number of elements of order n. Each time you meet a
new property of groups, you should ask whether it is preserved by any isomorphism.

SOLVED PROBLEMS: 3.4

29. Show that Z
17 is isomorphic to Z16 .
30. Is Z
16 isomorphic to Z4 Z2 ?

31. Prove that Z

24 is not isomorphic to Z16 .

32. Let : R R be defined by (x) = x3 , for all x R. Show that is a group

isomorphism.

3.4

J.A.Beachy

33. Let G1 , G2 , H1 , H2 be groups, and suppose that 1 : G1 H1 and 2 : G2 H2 are

group isomorphisms. Define : G1 G2 H1 H2 by (x1 , x2 ) = (1 (x1 ), 2 (x2 )),
for all (x1 , x2 ) G1 G2 . Prove that is a group isomorphism.

34. Prove that the group Z

7 Z11 is isomorphic to the group Z6 Z10 .

35. Define : Z30 Z2 Z10 Z6 by ([n]30 , [m]2 ) = ([n]10 , [4n + 3m]6 ), First prove
that is a well-defined function, and then prove that is a group isomorphism.
36. Let G be a group, and let H be a subgroup of G. Prove that if a is any element of G,
then the subset
aHa1 = {g G | g = aha1 for some h H}
is a subgroup of G that is isomorphic to H.
37. Let G, G1 , G2 be groups. Prove that if G1 G2 is isomorphic to G, then there are
subgroups H and K in G such that H K = {e}, HK = G, and hk = kh for all
h H and k K.
38. Let G be an abelian group with subgroups H and K. Prove that if HK = G and
H K = {e}, then G
= H K.
39. Show that for any prime number p, the subgroup of diagonal matrices in GL2 (Zp ) is

isomorphic to Z
p Zp .
40. (a) In the group G = GL2 (R) of invertible 2 2 matrices with real entries, show that





a11 a12
GL2 (R) a11 = 1, a21 = 0, a22 = 1
H=
a21 a22
is a subgroup of G.

(b) Show that H is isomorphic to the group R of all real numbers, under addition.
41. Let G be the subgroup of GL2 (R) defined by



m b 
m 6= 0 .
G=
0 1 

Show that G is not isomorphic to the direct product R R.

42. Let H be the following subgroup of group G = GL2 (Z3 ).






m b

H=
GL2 (Z3 ) m, b Z3 , m 6= 0
0 1
Show that H is isomorphic to the symmetric group S3 .

3.4

J.A.Beachy

MORE PROBLEMS: 3.4

43. Let a, b be elements of a group G, with o(b) = 2 and ba = a2 b. Find o(a).
44. How many different isomorphisms are there from Z6 onto Z2 Z3 ?
45. How many different isomorphisms are there from Z12 onto Z4 Z3 ?

46. Is Z
24 isomorphic to Z30 ? Give a complete explanation for your answer.

47. Let G be the subgroup of GL2 (Z11 ) consisting of all matrices of the form


1 x
.
0 1

Show that G is isomorphic to the additive group Z11 .

48. Prove that the group 2Z of even integers is isomorphic to the group Z of all integers.





a b

49. Let G =
GL2 (Z3 ) b = c = 0 . Show that G
= Z2 Z2 .
c d

50. (a) Write out the group table for Z4 Z2 , in multiplicative form, using a = (1, 0) and
b = (0, 1). Note: The instructions just mean that you should to write xy instead of
x + y to indicate the result of the group operation applied to elements x and y.
(b) Show that Z4 Z2 is isomorphic to the group O from the table in Section 3.1.

51. Write out the multiplication table for Z

16 , using a = 3 and b = 1. Use Problem 50

to show that Z16 = Z4 Z2 .

52. Use Problem 3.3.36 and Problem 38 to show that Z

16 = Z4 Z2 .
53. Show that G = { S5 | (5) = 5} is isomorphic to S4 .
54. On R, define a new operation by x y = x + y 1. Show that the group G = (R, )
is isomorphic to (R, +). Note: The group G is defined in Problem 3.1.37 (a).
55. Show that the group Q is not isomorphic to the group Q+ .
56. Let G be a group with operation and let a G. Define a new operation on the set
G by x y = x a y, for all x, y G. (This is the group defined in Problem 3.1.43.)
Show that (G, ) is isomorphic to (G, ).
57. Let G = {x R | x > 1} be the set of all real numbers greater than 1. For x, y G,
define x y = xy x y + 2. (This is the group defined in Problem 3.1.35). Define
: G R+ by (x) = x 1, for all x G. Show that is an isomorphism.
58. Let n be an odd integer. Show that : R R defined by (x) = xn is an
isomorphism. If n is an even integer, what goes wrong?
59. Let G be a finite abelian group, and let n be a positive integer. Define a function
: G G by (g) = gn , for all g G. Find necessary and sufficient conditions to
guarantee that is a group isomorphism.

3.4

J.A.Beachy

60. Let G be a group. An isomorphism : G G is called an automorphism of G,

and the set of all automorphisms of G is denoted by Aut(G). Show that Aut(G) is a
group under composition of functions.
61. An automorphism : G G is called an inner automorphism of G if there exists
a G such that = ia , where ia is defined by setting ia (g) = aga1 for all g G.
Show that the set Inn(G) of all inner automorphisms of G is a subgroup of Aut(G).
62. Let G be a finite abelian group of odd order.
(a) Show that : G G defined by (x) = x2 , for all x G, is an isomorphism.
(b) The function : G G defined by (x) = x1 , for all x G, is an isomorphism
by Exercise 3.4.16. Do and commute as elements of Aut(G)?