Group

Let be a nonempty set and “∗” be a binary operation defined on . Then is a

group under “∗”, denoted by ( ,∗), if the following hold.
(1) is closed under “∗”.
(2) “∗” is associative on .
(3) Identity element “ ” w.r.t. “∗” exists in .
(4) Inverse element “ ” of w.r.t. “∗” exists for every ∈ .

Examples: Finite groups.

1. Four-element groups.
a. Klein group: = {1, −1, , − }, under complex multiplication where
= −1.
∙ − −
1 −1 −
− −1 1 −
− −1 1
− − 1 −1

1 0 −1 0 0 − 0
b. = , , , , under matrix multiplication
0 1 0 −1 0 − 0
2. Eight-element groups.
±1 0 0 ±1
a. = ,
0 ±1 ±1 0
1 0 −1 0 0 1 0 −1
, , , ,
b. = 0 1 0 −1 −1 0 1 0
0 − 0 0 0 −
, , ,
0 − 0 0 − 0
c. Quaternion group: = {±1, ± , ± , ± }, where = = = −1 and
products of ± , ± , and ± follow the rules of cross product of vectors.
3. ℤ , under addition modulo . We have the composition table for ℤ under
“+ ” as follows:
+ 0 1 2 3 4 5
0 0 1 2 3 4 5
1 1 2 3 4 5 0
2 2 3 4 5 0 1
3 3 4 5 0 1 2
4 4 5 0 1 2 3
5 5 0 1 2 3 4
 4. ℤ , under multiplication modulo , when is a prime. We have the
composition table for ℤ under “× ” as follows:

× 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 1 2 3 4 5 6
2 2 4 6 1 3 5
3 3 6 2 5 1 4
4 4 1 5 2 6 3
5 5 3 1 6 4 2
6 6 5 4 3 2 1

5. , under composition of permutations. We have the composition table for

under “∘” as follows:
∘

Here, = (1 2 3), = (1 3 2), = (2 1 3), = (2 3 1), = (3 1 2),

and = (3 2 1).
∘ = (2 3 1) ∘ (2 3 1) = (3 1 2) = ,
∘ = (3 1 2) ∘ (3 1 2) = (2 3 1) = ,
∘ = ∘ = ∘ = ∘ = .

6. Singleton groups: {0}, under addition and {1}, under multiplication.

Examples: Infinite groups.

1. ℝ, ℚ, and ℤ, under addition
2. ℂ, under complex addition
3. ℤ, under addition, ≠ 0.
4. ℳ × , under matrix addition
5. , the set of all nonsingular matrices of order , under matrix
multiplication. (the general linear group)
6. ( ), under addition of polynomials
Class works: Explain why not a group?
1. {1} and {1, −1, , − }, under addition
2. ℤ , under addition modulo
3. ℤ , under multiplication modulo
4. ℤ, ℤ, ℚ, and ℝ, under multiplication
Examples: 2ℤ = {0, ±2, ±4, ±6, … }, 3ℤ = {0, ±3, ±6, ±9, … }
5. ℂ, under multiplication of complex numbers
6. ℳ , under matrix multiplication

Class works: Prove the following.

1. ℝ − {0} and ℚ − {0} are groups under multiplication of real numbers.
2. ℤ is a group under multiplication modulo , when is a prime.
3. , the set of all nonsingular matrices of order , under matrix
multiplication.
4. (0, ∞), the set of all positive real numbers, is a group under multiplication.
5. = + √2 ∶ , ∈ ℚ is a group under the addition of real numbers.

Abelian group
A group is called commutative (abelian) if the operation “∗” is commutatative.
Class work: List all the abelian and nonabelian groups from the above examples.
Examples:
1. ℤ is a finite abelian group.
2. ℝ is an infinite abelian group.
3. is a finite nonabelian group.
4. is an infinite nonabelian group.

Important Notes:
Let be finite. Then the following groups will have very important significances
for some theoretical purposes in the case of group.
1. ℤ, ≥ 1, are all infinite subgroups of the infinite group ℤ under addition.
2. ℤ , ≥ 1, are all finite abelian groups under addition modulo .
3. ℤ , ≥ 1, are all finite abelian groups under multiplication modulo .
4. , ≥ 1, are all finite nonabelian groups under composition.
Let ( ,∗) or < ,∗> be a group. Note that we write for ∗ .

Problem: In a group, the inverse of an element is unique.

Solution:
Let for , , ∈ , the elements and are inverses of .
Then = = and = = .
We have = = ( )=( ) = = .
Thus, and are identical.
Note: Since for ∈ , the inverse of is unique, we write to denote the
inverse of in .
Examples:
(1) For 2 ∈ ℝ, 2 = −2, (ℝ is an additive group)
(2) For 2 ∈ ℝ − {0}, 2 = , (ℝ − {0} is a multiplicative group)

(3) For (2,3,1) ∈ , (2,3,1) = (3,1,2).

Problem: Show that for , ∈ ,( ) = .

Solution: We have
( )( )= ( ) = ( ) =( ) = =
and ( )( )= ( ) = ( ) = ( )= = .
Therefore, ( ) = .

Problem: Show that the identity element in a group is unique.

Solution:
If possible, let , ′ ∈ be two identity elements. (We must show that = ′.)
For any ∈ , we have
= = = = .
Then
=
⇒( ) =( )
⇒ ( )= ( )
⇒ = ′
⇒ = ′
Note: For ∈< ; ∗>, we write ≔ ∗ ∗…∗ .

In particular,
(1) for ∈< ; +>, we write ≔ + + ⋯+ ,

(2) for ∈< ;×>, we write ≔ × × …× .

Order of an element
For ∈ , order of is the least integer such that = .
Examples:
1. The order of the identity element in any group is 1, because = .
2. For ∈ , the Klein group, ( ) = , ( ) = −1, ( ) = − , ( ) = 1.
Therefore, order of is 4.

Problem: Find the orders of the nonzero elements of ℤ under + .

Solution:
For ℤ = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5} under + , we have
3 = 3+ 3 = 0,
2 = 2+ 2+ 2 = 0,
4 = 4+ 4+ 4 = 0,
1 = 1+ 1+ 1+ 1+ 1+ 1 = 0, and
5 = 5+ 5+ 5+ 5+ 5+ 5 = 0.

Note: ℤ does not have any element with order 4 or 5.

Class works:
1. Find the orders of the nonzero elements of (ℤ , + ).
2. Find the orders of the elements of .

Problem: For any ∈ , the elements and have same order.

Solution:
Let the orders of and be and , respectively. Then
=
⇒ ( ) = ( )
 ⇒( ) =( )
⇒ =( )
⇒( ) =
This shows that the order of is less than or equal to , that is, ≤ .
Again
( ) =
⇒( ) =
⇒( ) =
⇒ =
⇒ =
This shows that the order of is less than or equal to , that is, ≤ .
Thus, = .

Center of a group
The center of a group is the set of elements which commute with every
element of and it is denoted by ( ). Thus
( )={ ∈ ∶ ℎ = ℎ for all ℎ ∈ }

Class works: Find the centers of the group and ℤ .

We have the composition table for under “∘”, where = (1 2 3), = (1 3 2),
= (2 1 3), = (2 3 1), = (3 1 2), and = (3 2 1) as follows:
∘

Since no element except the identity element commutes with all other
elements, we have ( ) = { }.
Similarly, since ℤ is an abelian group, clearly we have (ℤ ) = {0,1,2, … ,9}.
 Subgroup
A subset of a group is called a subgroup if it is nonempty, closed under the
group operation, and has inverse of every element of in .
We write ≤ when is a subgroup of .
Examples:
1. { } ≤ for any group .
2. ℤ ≤ ℤ ≤ ℚ ≤ ℝ, all under addition of real numbers.
3. ≤ , under matrix multiplication.
4. For the subgroups of ℤ = {0,1,2,3,4,5} under addition modulo 6, we have
a. {0} ≤ ℤ
b. {0, 3} = {3 , 3 } ≤ ℤ
c. {0, 2, 4} = {2 , 2 , 2 } = {4 , 4 , 4 } ≤ ℤ
d. ℤ = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5} = {1 , 1, 1 , 1 , 1 , 1 } = {5 , 5 , 5 , 5 , 5 , 5} ≤ ℤ

Problem: If ≤ then show that the identity element of is in .

Solution: Since is nonempty, there exists ∈ such that ∈ .
Since contains inverses of its elements, ∈ .
Since is closed under the group operation, ∈ .
This implies ∈ .

Problem: A subset of a group is a subgroup of if and only if for all , ∈

, ∈ .
Solution: Let be a subgroup of .
Then for any , ∈ ,
since inverse of every element of is in , we have ∈ .
since is closed under the group operation, ∈ .

For the converse, let for all , ∈ , we have ∈ .

(1) For , ∈ , we have ∈ . This implies ∈ . Thus is nonempty.
(2) For ∈ , since ∈ , we have ∈ . This implies ∈ . Thus
inverse of every element of exists in .
(3) For any , ∈ , since ∈ , we have ( ) ∈ . This implies
∈ . Thus is closed under the group operation.
Problem: For any group , show that the center of , that is ( ), is a subgroup
of .
Solution:
(1) For ∈ , = for all ∈ . Thus ∈ ( ) and hence ( ) is
nonempty.
(2) Let , ∈ ( ). Let ℎ ∈ be any element. Then ℎ = ℎ and ℎ = ℎ .
Then ( )ℎ = ( ℎ ) = (ℎ ) = ( ℎ ) = (ℎ ) = ℎ( ). Then
∈ ( ). Hence ( ) is closed under the group operation in .
(3) Let ∈ ( ) and ℎ ∈ be any element. Then
ℎ=ℎ
⇒ ( ℎ) = (ℎ )
⇒ (ℎ ) = ℎ( )=ℎ =ℎ
⇒ (ℎ ) = ℎ
⇒( )(ℎ )= ℎ
⇒ (ℎ )= ℎ
⇒ℎ = ℎ
Thus ∈ ( ). Hence inverse of every element of ( ) exists in ( ).
Therefore, ( ) is a subgroup of .

Cyclic group
A group is called cyclic if it can be generated by a single element. In other words,
there exist an element ∈ such that ={ , , , ,…, }.
Examples:
1. For = {1, −1, , − }, we have
= {1, −1, , − } = { , , , } and
= {1, −1, , − } = {(− ) , (− ) , (− ) , (− ) }.
These show that is a cyclic group and, and – are the generators of .
2. For ℤ = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, we have
ℤ = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5} = {1 , 1 , 1 , 1 , 1 , 1 } and
ℤ = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5} = {5 , 5 , 5 , 5 , 5 , 5 }.
These show that 1 and 5 are the two generators of ℤ .