MTH306

ABSTRACT ALGEBRA II
(Normal Subgroups and Cosets)
By
Dr. L. A. Ademola
Department of Mathematics,
University of Jos.
 Chapter 1 (part 1)
• Normal Subgroup, Minimal normal subgroups, Maximal normal
subgroups.
• Left and Right Coset
• Lemma and Theorem
 Definitions
i) Let , then is called a normal subgroup of if every left coset of is a right
coset of . i.e,
iff for all .
Or iff
ii) Let , then is called a Minimal normal subgroup of , if is normal in and
there is no other normal subgroup such that
.
iii) Let , then is called a Maximal normal subgroup of , if is normal in and
there is no other normal subgroup such that
.
 Definitions
• Let be a group and a normal subgroup of . The quotient denotes the set
of left cosets of
In . i.e., G}. The product in , takes the form aG. The identity is , and the
inverse of is .
• The number of cosets in a group is also known as the index of the group,
so if , then
“index of ”.
 Lemma 1.4
Let be a group and . Then
1. iff .
2. If is normal in then .
3. is normal in iff the product of two of its cosets is again a coset
*We will be proving (1) and (2), students are to refer to their lecture
notes for the proof of (3).*
 Proof of Lemma 1.4
1) Proof:
“ ” Firstly, suppose that , then
, because .
“ ” i.e, Conversely, suppose , to show that , we will need to show that (i) for
any then and that (iii) .
So, for (i) since . To prove (ii), the fact that we see that , means there
exists , so

So
 Cont. Proof of Lemma 1.4

For (iii)

By hypothesis
By associativity
because
So,
Thus, since , we conclude that
 Cont. Proof of Lemma 1.4
• 2) Proof: Since is normal in , it follows from the definition of a normal
subgroup that for all , , and since , it is clear that .
 Theorem 1.6
L is a group and are finite subgroups of . T .
Proof:
Clearly, , so can partition . Set , so can be expressed as ………(1)
where
Recall that the number of cosets in a group is also known as the
index of the group and that if , then “index of ”.
So, since there are cosets in , it follows that
index of , becomes .
 Cont. Proof of Theorem 1.6
Now the goal is to find , so applying to (1), where (1) is , we get that

This is because .
So,
……….(2)
Substituting (1) into (2), where (1) is we get that
.