Lecture 2: Subgroups and Cyclic Groups

2 Subgroups and Cyclic Groups

2.1 Review
Last time, we discussed the concept of a group, as well as examples of groups. In particular, a group is a set
G with an associative composition law G×G −→ G that has an identity as well inverses for each element with
respect to the composition law ×.
Our guiding example was that of the group of invertible n×n matrices, known as the general linear group
(GLn (R) or GLn (C), for matrices over R and C, respectively.)

Example 2.1
Let GLn (R) be the group of n×n invertible real matrices.
• Associativity. Matrix multiplication is associative; that is, (AB)C = A(BC), and so when writing
a product consisting of more than two matrices, it is not necessary to put in parentheses.
 
1 ··· 0
• Identity. The n×n identity matrix is In =  ... . . . ... , which is the matrix with 1s along the
 

0 ··· 1
diagonal and 0s everywhere else. It satisfes the property that AI = IA = A for all n×n matrices A.
• Inverse. By the invertibility condition of GLn , every matrix A ∈ GLn (R) has an inverse matrix A−1
such that AA−1 = A−1 A = In .

Furthermore, each of these matrices can be seen as a transformation from Rn −→ Rn , taking each vector ⃗v to A⃗v .
That is, there is a bijective correspondence between matrices A and invertible transformations TA : Rn −→ Rn
taking TA (⃗v ) = A⃗v .
Another example that showed up was the integers under addition.

Example 2.2
The integers Z with the composition law + form a group. Addition is associative. Also, 0 ∈ Z is the additive
identity, and −a ∈ Z is the inverse of any integer a.

On the other hand, the natural numbers N under addition would not form a group, because the invertibility
condition would be violated.
Lastly, we looked at the symmetric group Sn .

Example 2.3
The symmetric group Sn is the permutation group of {1, · · · , n}.

2.2 Subgroups
In fact, understanding Sn is important for group theory as a whole because any fnite group "sits inside" Sn in
a certain way9 , which we will begin to discuss today.

Guiding Question
What does it mean for a group to "sit inside" another group?

If a subset of a group satisfes certain properties, it is known as a subgroup.

9 This is known as Cayley’s Theorem and is discussed further in section 7.1 of Artin.

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Lecture 2: Subgroups and Cyclic Groups

Defnition 2.4
Given a group (G, ·), a subset H ⊂ G is called a subgroup if it satisfes:
• Closure. If h1 , h2 ∈ H, then h1 · h2 ∈ H.
• Identity. The identity element e in G is contained in H.
• Inverse. If h ∈ H, its inverse h−1 is also an element of H.
As notation, we write H ≤ G to denote that H is a subgroup of G.

Essentially, these properties consists solely of the necessary properties for H to also be a group under the same
operation ·, so that it can be considered a subgroup and not just some arbitrary subset. In particular, any
subgroup H will also be a group with the same operation, independent of the larger group G.

Example 2.5
The integers form a subgroup of the rationals under addition: (Z, +) ⊂ (Q, +).

The rationals are more complicated than the integers, and studying simpler subgroups of a certain group can
help with understanding the group structure as a whole.

Example 2.6
The symmetric group S3 has a three-element subgroup {e, (123), (132)} = {e, x, x2 }.

However, the natural numbers N = {0, 1, 2, · · · } ⊂ (Z, +) are not a subgroup of the integers, since not every
element has an inverse.

Example 2.7
The matrices with determinant 1, called the special linear group, form a subgroup of invertible matrices:
SLn (R) ⊂ GLn (R).

The special linear group is closed under matrix multiplication because det(AB) = det(A) det(B).

2.3 Subgroups of the Integers

The integers (Z, +) have particularly nice subgroups.

Theorem 2.8
The subgroups of (Z, +) are {0}, Z, 2Z, · · · .a
a Where n ∈ Z, nZ consists of the multiples of n, {nx : x ∈ Z}.

This theorem demonstrates that the condition that a subset H of a group be a subgroup is quite strong, and
requires quite a bit of structure from H.

Proof. First, nZ is in fact a subgroup.

• Closure. For na, nb ∈ nZ, na + nb = n(a + b).
• Identity. The additive identity is in nZ because 0 = n · 0.
• Inverse. For na ∈ nZ, its inverse −na = n(−a) is also in nZ.
Now, suppose S ⊂ Z is a subgroup. Then clearly the identity 0 is an element of S. If there are no more elements
in S, then S = {0} and the proof is complete. Otherwise, pick some nonzero h ∈ S. Without loss of generality,
we assume that h > 0 (otherwise, since −h ∈ S as well by the invertibility condition, take −h instead of h.)
Thus, S contains at least one positive integer; let a be the smallest positive integer in S.
Then we claim that S = aZ. If a ∈ S, then a + a = 2a ∈ S by closure, which implies that 2a + a = 3a ∈ S, and
so on. Similarly, −a ∈ S by inverses, and −a + (−a) = −2a ∈ S, and so on, which implies that aZ ⊂ S.

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Lecture 2: Subgroups and Cyclic Groups

Now, take any n ∈ S. By the Euclidean algorithm, n = aq + r for some 0 ≤ r < a. From the subgroup properties,
n − aq = r ∈ S as well. Since a is the smallest positive integer in S, if r > 0, there would be a contradiction, so
r = 0. Thus, n = aq, which is an element of aZ. Therefore, S ⊂ aZ.
From these two inclusions, S = aZ and the proof is complete.

Corollary 2.9
Given a, b ∈ Z, consider S = {ai + bj : i, j ∈ Z}. The subset S satisfes all the subgroup conditions, so by
Theorem 2.8, there is some d such that S = dZ. In fact, d = gcd(a, b).

Proof. Let e = gcd(a, b). Since a ∈ S, a = dk and b = dℓ for some k, ℓ. Since the d from before divides a and b,
it must also divide e, by defnition of the greatest common divisor. Also, since d ∈ S, by the defnition of S,
d = ar + bs for some r and b. Since e divides a and b, e divides both ar and bs and therefore d.
Thus, d divides e, and e divides d, implying that e = d. So S = gcd(a, b)Z.

In particular, we have showed that gcd(a, b) can always be written in the form ar + bs for some r, s.

2.4 Cyclic Groups

Now, let’s discuss a very important type of subgroup that connects back to the work we did with (Z, +).

Defnition 2.10
Let G be a group, and take g ∈ G. Let the cyclic subgroup generated by g be

⟨g⟩ := a {· · · g −2 , g −1 , g 0 = e, g 1 , g 2 , · · · } ≤ G.
a The := symbol is usually used by mathematicians to mean "is defned to be." Other people may use ≡ for the same

purpose.

Since g a · g b = g a+b , the exponents of the elements of a cyclic subgroup will have a related group structure to
(Z, +).

Example 2.11
The identity element generates the trivial subgroup {e} = ⟨e⟩ of any group G.

There are also nontrivial cyclic subgroups.

Example 2.12
In S3 , ⟨(123)⟩ = {e, (123), (132)}.

Evidently, a cyclic subgroup of any fnite group must also be fnite.

Example 2.13
Let C × be the group of nonzero complex numbers under multiplication. Then 2 ∈ C will generate

⟨2⟩ = {· · · , 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, 4, · · · .}

On the other hand, i ∈ C will generate

⟨i⟩ = {1, i, −1, −i}.

This example shows that a cyclic subgroup of an infnite group can be either infnite or fnite.10
10 Can you work out the cases for which g ∈ C the cyclic subgroup of C × is fnite or infnite?

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Lecture 2: Subgroups and Cyclic Groups

Guiding Question
What does a cyclic subgroup look like? Can they be classifed?

Theorem 2.14
Let S = {n ∈ Z : g n = e}. Then S is a subgroup of Z, so S = dZ or S = {0}, leading to two cases:
• If S = {0}, then ⟨g⟩ is infnite and all the g k are distinct.
• If S = dZ, then ⟨g⟩ = {e, g, g 2 , · · · , g d−1 } ⊂ G, which is fnite.

Proof. First, S must be shown to actually be a subgroup of Z.

• Identity. The identity 0 ∈ S because g 0 = e.
• Closure. If a, b ∈ S, then g a = g b = e, so g a+b = g a g b = e · e = e, so a + b ∈ S.
• Inverse. If a ∈ S, then g −a = (g a )−1 = e−1 = e, so a ∈ S.
Now, consider the frst case. If g a = g b for any a, b, then multiplying on right by g −b gives g a · g −b = g a−b = e.
Thus, a − b ∈ S, and if S = {0}, then a = b. So any two powers of g can only be equal if they have the same
exponent, and thus all the g i are distinct and the cyclic group is infnite.
Consider the second case where S = dZ. Given any n ∈ Z, n = dq + r for 0 ≤ r < d by the Euclidean algorithm.
Then g n = g dq · g r = g r , which is in {e, g, g 2 , · · · , g d−1 }.

Defnition 2.15
So if d = 0, then ⟨g⟩ is infnite; we say that g has infnite order. Otherwise, if d ̸= 0, then |⟨g⟩| = d and g
has order d.

It is also possible to consider more than one element g.

Defnition 2.16
Given a subset T ⊂ G, the subgroup generated by T is

⟨T ⟩ := {te11 · · · tenn | ti ∈ T, ei ∈ Z}.

Essentially, ⟨T ⟩ consists of all the possible products of elements in T. For example, if T = {t, n}, then

⟨T ⟩ = {· · · , t2 n−3 t4 , n5 t−1 , · · · }.

Defnition 2.17
If ⟨T ⟩ = G, then T generates G.a
a Given a group G, what is the smallest set that generates it? Try thinking about this with some of the examples we’ve

seen in class!

Example 2.18
The set {(123), (12)} generates S3 .

Example 2.19
The invertible matrices GLn (R) are generated by elementary matricesa .
a The matrices giving row-reduction operations.

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Resource: Algebra I Student Notes

Fall 2021
Instructor: Davesh Maulik
Notes taken by Jakin Ng, Sanjana Das, and Ethan Yang

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