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MATH 57091 - Algebra For High School Teachers Cayley Tables & Isomorphism

This document discusses Cayley tables and group isomorphisms. It begins by defining Cayley tables and providing examples, noting that a Cayley table shows the group operation and can reveal properties like whether a group is abelian. It then discusses group isomorphisms, where two groups are considered the same if their Cayley tables are identical up to relabeling elements. The document provides several examples of computing and comparing Cayley tables to determine whether groups are isomorphic.

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Dyah Septi Andryani
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258 views10 pages

MATH 57091 - Algebra For High School Teachers Cayley Tables & Isomorphism

This document discusses Cayley tables and group isomorphisms. It begins by defining Cayley tables and providing examples, noting that a Cayley table shows the group operation and can reveal properties like whether a group is abelian. It then discusses group isomorphisms, where two groups are considered the same if their Cayley tables are identical up to relabeling elements. The document provides several examples of computing and comparing Cayley tables to determine whether groups are isomorphic.

Uploaded by

Dyah Septi Andryani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MATH 57091 - Algebra for High School Teachers

Cayley Tables & Isomorphism


Professor Donald L. White
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Kent State University

D.L. White (Kent State University)

1 / 10

Cayley Tables
Definition
The Cayley table (or operation table) of a (finite) group
is a table with rows and columns labelled by the elements of the group
and the entry g h in the row labelled by g and column labelled by h.
Note: The row labels must be in the same order as the column labels.
Example: The group of units of Z8 is
Z8 = {[a]8 | 0 6 a 6 7, (a, 8) = 1} = {1, 3, 5, 7},
where the operation is multiplication
The Cayley table of Z8 is as follows:
Z8 1
1 1
3 3
5 5
7 7
D.L. White (Kent State University)

mod 8.
3
3
1
7
5

5
5
7
1
3

7
7
5
3
1
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Cayley Tables

As we consider several examples of Cayley tables,


think about what the Cayley table of a group G can tell us about G .
In particular:
How can we determine from the table whether G is abelian or not?
What does the table tell us about inverses? The identity element?
Every row and column contains each element of G exactly once.
What does this property mean?

D.L. White (Kent State University)

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Group Isomorphisms
Examples:
Z2 = {0, 1} under addition:

Z3

+ 0 1
0 0 1
1 1 0

1 2
= {1, 2} under multiplication: 1 1 2
2 2 1

1 1
= {1, 1} under multiplication:
1
1 1
1 1
1
Observe that in each case, if we replace the identity element of G with e
and the non-identity element with g , the Cayley table becomes
e g
e e g
g g e
The only difference between these groups is the names of the elements.
Z

D.L. White (Kent State University)

4 / 10

Group Isomorphisms
We say that two groups G , H are isomorphic, denoted G
= H,
if the same Cayley table can be obtained from the Cayley tables of G , H
by relabelling (i.e., renaming) the group elements
(and possibly reordering the rows/columns).
Thus Z2
= Z3
= Z .
Check that the symmetric group S2 is also isomorphic to these groups.
If G
= H, then G , H are considered to be essentially the same group.
The only difference is notation for the elements.
They are algebraically the same, so have the same structural properties,
such as
the same order
being abelian or non-abelian
subgroup structure and orders of elements (to be discussed later).
Note: To be isomorphic, two groups must have the same order,
but groups of the same order need not be isomorphic.
D.L. White (Kent State University)

5 / 10

Group Isomorphisms
The groups Z5 , Z8 , and Z12 are all of order 4, with Cayley tables
Z5
1
2
3
4

1
1
2
3
4

2
2
4
1
3

3
3
1
4
2

4
4
3
2
1

Z8
1
3
5
7

1
1
3
5
7

3
3
1
7
5

5
5
7
1
3

7
7
5
3
1

Z12 1 5 7 11
1
1 5 7 11
5 1 11 7
5
7
7 11 1 5
11 11 7 5 1

Two of these groups are isomorphic; the third is not isomorphic to those.
For each a in Z8 or Z12 , we have a2 = a a = 1, the identity element.
Thus each diagonal entry in the Cayley table is 1.
This is not true for all elements of Z5 and it is not possible
to reorder or relabel the elements of Z5 to make all diagonal entries 1.
Every element of Z5 is a power of single element:
20 = 1, 21 = 2, 22 = 4, 23 = 3.
2
Since a = 1 for all a in Z8 or Z12 , this is not true in those groups.
Hence Z5 is not isomorphic to either Z8 or Z12 .
D.L. White (Kent State University)

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Group Isomorphisms
The groups Z8 and Z12 are isomorphic.
Z8
1
3
5
7

1
1
3
5
7

3
3
1
7
5

5
5
7
1
3

7
7
5
3
1

Z12 1 5 7 11
1
1 5 7 11
5 1 11 7
5
7
7 11 1 5
11 11 7 5 1

If we relabel elements of Z8 as 1 1, 3 a, 5 b, 7 c,
and relabel elements of Z12 as 1 1, 5 a, 7 b, 11 c,
then in both cases we obtain the Cayley table
1 a b c
1 1 a b c
a a 1 c b
b b c 1 a
c c b a 1
Hence Z8
= Z12 , and both are isomorphic to the Klein 4-Group.
(See 4.1, Example 5 in the text.)
D.L. White (Kent State University)

7 / 10

More Examples
Example 1: In the group Z9 = {1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8}, we have
20 = 1, 21 = 2, 22 = 4, 23 = 8, 24 = 7, 25 = 5.
Ordering the elements of Z9 by power of 2, the Cayley table is:
Z9
1
2
4
8
7
5

1
1
2
4
8
7
5

2
2
4
8
7
5
1

4
4
8
7
5
1
2

8
8
7
5
1
2
4

7
7
5
1
2
4
8

5
5
1
2
4
8
7

Observe that each row is obtained from the previous row


by cyclically permuting the elements. Try this with Z5 also.
This pattern occurs in any group where every element is a power
of a single element g (if the elements are ordered by power of g ).
A group with this property is called a cyclic group.
D.L. White (Kent State University)

8 / 10

More Examples
Example 2: In the group D3 = S3 , we have permutations




1 2 3
1 2 3
r=
and f =
,
2 3 1
1 3 2
so r represents the 120 rotation:

and f represents the reflection across the vertical axis of the triangle:

D.L. White (Kent State University)

9 / 10

More Examples
Check that with this notation and denoting the identity permutation by e,
S3 = {e, r , r 2 , f , fr , fr 2 } and r 3 = f 2 = e, r 2 f = fr , and rf = fr 2 .
Use this to compute the Cayley table:
S3
e
r
r2
f
fr
fr 2

e
e
r
r2
f
fr
fr 2

r
r
r2
e
fr
fr 2
f

r2
r2
e
r
fr 2
f
fr

f
f
fr 2
fr
e
r2
r

fr
fr
f
fr 2
r
e
r2

fr 2
fr 2
fr
f
r2
r
e

Observe from the Cayley tables that Z9 is abelian and S3 is not abelian.
Deduce that the groups S3 and Z9 are non-isomorphic groups of order 6.
D.L. White (Kent State University)

10 / 10

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