3.

5 Cyclic Groups
Theorem 3.5.1. Every subgroup of a cyclic group is cyclic. Theorem 3.5.2. Let G cyclic group. (a) If G is infinite, then G (b) If |G| = n, then G Zn. Z.

Proposition 3.5.3. Let G = <a> be a cyclic group with |G| = n. (a) If m is any integer, then <am> = <ad>, where d=gcd(m,n), and am has order n/d. (b) The element ak generates G if and only if gcd(k,n)=1. (c) The subgroups of G are in one-to-one correspondence with the positive divisors of n. (d) If m and k are divisors of n, then <am> <ak> if and only if k | m.

Theorem 3.5.4. If n = pa qb tk is the prime decomposition of the positive integer n, where p < q < . . . < t are prime numbers, then Zn Zpa Zqb Ztk .

Corollary 3.5.5. If n = pa qb tk is the prime decomposition of the positive integer n, where p < q < . . . < t are prime numbers, then (n) = n (1 - 1/p) (1 - 1/q) (1 - 1/t) . Definition 3.5.6. Let G be a group. If there exists a positive integer N such that aN=e for all a in G, then the smallest such positive integer is called the exponent of G. Lemma 3.5.7. Let G be a group, and let a,b be elements of G such that ab = ba. If the orders of a and b are relatively prime, then o(ab) = o(a)o(b). Proposition 3.5.8. Let G be a finite abelian group. (a) The exponent of G is equal to the order of any element of G of maximal order. (b) The group G is cyclic if and only if its exponent is equal to its order.