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Herstein: Topics in Algebra - Mappings: by Bret Sherfinski March 23, 2015

This document proves that if a mapping σ maps a finite set S onto itself, then σ is one-to-one, and if σ is a one-to-one mapping from S to itself, then σ is onto. It also provides counterexamples to show these statements are false if S is an infinite set by defining mappings on the integers that are either one-to-one but not onto or onto but not one-to-one.

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91 views1 page

Herstein: Topics in Algebra - Mappings: by Bret Sherfinski March 23, 2015

This document proves that if a mapping σ maps a finite set S onto itself, then σ is one-to-one, and if σ is a one-to-one mapping from S to itself, then σ is onto. It also provides counterexamples to show these statements are false if S is an infinite set by defining mappings on the integers that are either one-to-one but not onto or onto but not one-to-one.

Uploaded by

Nadia
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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Herstein: Topics in Algebra - Mappings

by Bret Sherfinski
March 23, 2015

8. If the set S has a finite number of elements, prove the following:


(a) If σ maps S onto S, then σ is one-to-one.
(b) If σ is a one-to-one mapping into itself, then σ is onto.
(c) Prove, by example, that both part (a) and (b) are false if S does not have a finite number of
elements.
Proof: Let f : S → S be any map from the finite set S to itself where |S| = n. By definition of a map we
have f −1 (S) = S. We can write this statement in terms of unions by:
[
S= f −1 (s)
s∈S

Each of these subsets is disjoint because the map f is well-defined so


X
f −1 (s)

|S| =
s∈S


(a) If f is onto then for every s ∈ S we have f −1 (s) ≥ 1. In this case we get
X X
n = |S| = f −1 (s) ≥ 1=n
s∈S s∈S

Since n is not greater than n we must have f −1 (s) = 1 for every s ∈ S which implies that f is also
one-to-one.


(b) If f is one-to-one then f −1 (s) ≤ 1 for every s ∈ S. Thus
X X
n = |S| = f −1 (s) ≤ 1 = n.
s∈S s∈S

Again since we must have equality we see that f −1 (s) = 1 for every s ∈ S so f is indeed onto.

(c) Counterexamples for the infinite case:


Let σ : Z → Z be defined by σ(z)
 = 2z. Then σ is one-to-one but not onto.
Define τ : Z → Z by τ (z) = z2 where bxc denotes the largest integer which is at most x. For example,
b1.5c = b1c = 1 and b−2.3c = −3. Then τ is onto since τ (2n) = n for every integer n, but τ is certainly
not one-to-one because τ (2) = τ (3).

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