SUBGROUP GENERATED BY A SET

Subgroup Generated by a Subset

1. The subgroup generated by X ⊆ G is the smallest subgroup of G containing X.

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• hXi = Hi where X ⊆ Hi ≤ G intersection of all subgroups of G that contain X
i∈I

• hXi = {a1 a2 ...an : n ∈ N and ai ∈ X ∪ X −1 } set of finite products of elements of X ∪ X −1

2. Examples: Notation: if X = {a, b, c, ...} then hXi = ha, b, c, ...i

• Z2 × Z2 = h(1, 0), (0, 1)i
• D4 = ha, bi = {e, a, a2 , a3 , b, ab, a2 b,3 b}
• ha2 , abi = {e, a2 , ab, a3 b} in D4

Join of Subgroups

1. Let G be a group and H, K ≤ G. The join of H and K is hH ∪ Ki. Notation: H ∨ K or H + K

• Motivation: H ∪ K is not necessarily a subgroup! Instead, we have the subgroup generated by H ∪ K.
2. Examples:
• rZ + sZ = gcd(r, s)Z 6Z + 9Z = 3Z
• rZ ∩ sZ = lcm(r, s)Z 6Z ∩ 9Z = 18Z