Group Theory Work

Lisgar Math Contest Club

June 2021

1 A summary

Definition – A group (G, ∗) is a group G with operation ∗ such that;

1. (a ∗ b) ∗ c = a ∗ (b ∗ c) (associative)
2. There exists an identity e such that for any element a; a ∗ e = e ∗ a = a
(identity)
3. For any element a, there exists an inverse a−1 such that;

a ∗ a−1 = a−1 ∗ a = e

We shall only focus on finite groups, they are naturally occurring and important.
There are many kinds of groups:

Definition – The symmetric group Sn on n elements is the set of all permuta-

tions of a set of n elements, which we usually denote by 1, 2, ..., n. The operation
◦ is the composition of permutations.

Definition – The dihedral group Dn is the symmetries of a regular n−gon, by

rotation and reflection. We have seen the examples of this already.

So far we have seen the two types of groups that were reviewed, one more
important group is the cyclic group (or the clock arithmetic group)

Definition – The cyclic group of order n is the group whose operation is ob-
tained by doing clock arithmetic in a clock with n hours (ie, mod n)

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2 Problems:
Problem 1: The Symmetric Group and its Subgroups

1. How many elements does the symmetric group Sn have?

2. (a) A subgroup of Sn is a permutation of its elements. Consider σ
is a permutation in S4 . Let us consider four different variables
x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 and a polynomial P (x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) in those four vari-
ables. Examples of such polynomials are: x1 x2 x3 x4 or x23 . Notice
not all variables need to appear in the polynomial. Given our per-
mutation, we will construct a new polynomial:

(σ · P )(x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) = P (xσ−1 (1), xσ−1 (2), xσ−1 (3), xσ−1 (4))

For example, for the permutation σ(1) = 1, σ(2) = 3, σ(3) = 4,

σ(4) = 2 and the polynomial x1 x2 x4 we get σ · x1 x2 x4 = x1 x4 x3 .
For the polynomial P (x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) = x1 x2 + x3 x4 make a table that
finds σ · P as σ varies in S4 . Write down which elements satisfy
σ · P = P . How many different polynomials do you get while doing
this?
(b) Prove that the set of elements of S4 that satisfied σ · P = P is a
group.
(c) A polynomial in 4 variables is symmetric if σ · P = P for all σ in S4 .
The four standard symmetric polynomials are:

σ0 = x1 x2 x3 x4 ,
σ1 = x1 x2 x3 + x1 x2 x4 + x1 x3 x4 + x2 x3 x4 ,
σ2 = x1 x2 + x1 x3 + x1 x4 + x2 x3 + x2 x4 + x3 x4 ,
σ3 = x1 + x2 + x3 + x4

Prove that if P is a symmetric polynomial then P = a0 σ0 + a1 σ1 +

a2 σ2 + a3 σ3 , for some numbers a0 , a1 , a2 , a3 . For those interested in
the use of this, it can be used to prove the binomial theorem. As a
challenge, try to show this.
3. For a prime p, how many subgroups of order p are in Sp ?
4. The following problem is based of the last part.
(a) Show that there is no subgroup of order 15 in S7 . Remember S7 has
7! elements.
(b) Let G be a finite abelian group of order pq, where p < q are both
primes. Show that G is isomorphic to a subgroup of Sp+q .

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Problem 2: The Dihedral Group
1. Find the number of elements in Dn
2. Draw a point in the x−y plane for each of the following coordinate points:
(1, 0), (0, 1), (−1, 0), (0, −1) and (1, 1), (1, −1), (−1, 1), (−1, −1). Find all
symmetries of this set of points, which preserve distances between points,
in the same way that the preserved the position of the n−gon.
3. Of those symmetries found above, is there any point with more than two
symmetries fixing it?
4. Given any two points of the previous part, what requirement must they
satisfy to make sure there is a symmetry taking one into the other?
Problem 3: The Cyclic Group
1. A finite cyclic group, in general, is one with elements 1, g, g 2 , ..., g n−1 .
That is, all the elements are just composing a single element with itself.
Show that this is isomorphic to addition mod n.
2. Not all groups are cyclic, but we can build cyclic groups inside of another
given group by just taking powers of a certain element. Prove that the
rotations from problem 2 are indeed a cyclic group inside the dihedral
group.

3. Justify that all cyclic groups are commutative.

4. Find a commutative group that is not cyclic.
Problem 4: Tabulation of Groups
1. Find up to isomorphism all multiplication tables up to order 6. That is,
find all group of order less than or equal to 6, up to isomorphism.
2. Let p be a prime number. Can you find a reason why, up to isomorphism,
there is only one group of p elements? Produce an example of such a
group.

3. If you have time, extend part 1, up to groups of order 9.

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 Problem 5: Transforming Groups into Vector Spaces
If a group G is abelian and every element g ∈ G has order divisible by p a prime,
we can construct a vector space from G as follows.
Recall that we must define addition and multiplication. As G is already
abelian, let the operation + be taken directly from G act as addition in Fp . We
have that

(g+h) = (h+g), g+(h+k) = (g+h)+k, and ∃g −1 ∀g ∈ G|g+g −1 = g −1 +g = 0

Now, of course, multiplication can be defined as (kg) is the sum of g, k
times. But we run in to an issue. Since k ∈ Z/pZ, we must show that this
multiplication is well-defined. This is not hard to do since all that is required to
been shown is that any element k+np in class k satisfies (k+np)(g) = (kg) which
is trivial to show by the definition of G. We have that (k +np)(g) = (kg)+(pg)n,
and since the order of g|p we have that (pg)(n) = 1G , or that (k +np)(g) = (kg).

Lemma
dimFp G = k ⇐⇒ #G = pk
The statement that dimFp G = k means that there exists a basis of size k,
and so ∀g ∈ G,

g = a1 g1 + ... + ak gk
Has p choices for each variable, and they must be unique since there is a
basis of size k. Thus dimFp G = k.

Lemma
dimFp G = k ⇐⇒ G ≃ Cpk
1. Think about why we cannot take a cyclic group of order p2 , Cp2 to a vector
space in a similar way.
2. An automorphism, is an isomorphism from an object to itself. For the
cyclic group Z/p2 Z, the automorphism is defined as
|Aut(Z/p2 Z)| = p(p − 1).
Hence, in order to make Cp2 act as Cp , more formally, a Cp −module, there
must be an element of order p. That is we must find a k such that
k p−1 ≡ 1 mod p2 .
Show that this gives k = (p − 1)p + 1, and conclude that there are p − 1
ways to make a Z/pZ−module.
3. Try to construct a vector space by choosing a homomorphism from Cp .
Though this will not be an Fp vector as we have seen in the example of
Cp .