Category: Group Theory

Problem 74

(a) Show that if a group $G$ has the following order, then it is not simple.

1. $28$
2. $496$
3. $8128$

(b) Show that if the order of a group $G$ is equal to an even perfect number then the group is not simple.

Sylow’s Theorem (Summary)

In this post we review Sylow’s theorem and as an example we solve the following problem.

Problem 64

Show that a group of order $200$ has a normal Sylow $5$-subgroup.

Problem 54

Determine all the conjugacy classes of the dihedral group
$D_{8}=\langle r,s \mid r^4=s^2=1, sr=r^{-1}s\rangle$ of order $8$.

Problem 53

Let $D_8$ be the dihedral group of order $8$.
Using the generators and relations, we have
$D_{8}=\langle r,s \mid r^4=s^2=1, sr=r^{-1}s\rangle.$

(a) Let $A$ be the subgroup of $D_8$ generated by $r$, that is, $A=\{1,r,r^2,r^3\}$.
Prove that the centralizer $C_{D_8}(A)=A$.

(b) Show that the normalizer $N_{D_8}(A)=D_8$.

(c) Show that the center $Z(D_8)=\langle r^2 \rangle=\{1,r^2\}$, the subgroup generated by $r^2$.

Problem 52

Let $n$ be a positive integer. Let $D_{2n}$ be the dihedral group of order $2n$. Using the generators and the relations, the dihedral group $D_{2n}$ is given by
$D_{2n}=\langle r,s \mid r^n=s^2=1, sr=r^{-1}s\rangle.$ Put $\theta=2 \pi/n$.

(a) Prove that the matrix $\begin{bmatrix} \cos \theta & -\sin \theta\\ \sin \theta& \cos \theta \end{bmatrix}$ is the matrix representation of the linear transformation $T$ which rotates the $x$-$y$ plane about the origin in a counterclockwise direction by $\theta$ radians.

(b) Let $\GL_2(\R)$ be the group of all $2 \times 2$ invertible matrices with real entries. Show that the map $\rho: D_{2n} \to \GL_2(\R)$ defined on the generators by
$\rho(r)=\begin{bmatrix} \cos \theta & -\sin \theta\\ \sin \theta& \cos \theta \end{bmatrix} \text{ and } \rho(s)=\begin{bmatrix} 0 & 1\\ 1& 0 \end{bmatrix}$ extends to a homomorphism of $D_{2n}$ into $\GL_2(\R)$.

(c) Determine whether the homomorphism $\rho$ in part (b) is injective and/or surjective.

Problem 49

Let $A$ and $B$ be normal subgroups of a group $G$. Suppose $A\cap B=\{e\}$, where $e$ is the unit element of the group $G$.
Show that for any $a \in A$ and $b \in B$ we have $ab=ba$.

Problem 31

Show that the center $Z(S_n)$ of the symmetric group with $n \geq 3$ is trivial.

Problem 30

Let $G$ be a group of order $|G|=pq$, where $p$ and $q$ are (not necessarily distinct) prime numbers.

Then show that $G$ is either abelian group or the center $Z(G)=1$.

Problem 22

Definition (automorphism).

An isomorphism from a group $G$ to itself is called an automorphism of $G$.
The set of all automorphism is denoted by $\Aut(G)$.

Definition (characteristic subgroup).

A subgroup $H$ of a group $G$ is called characteristic in $G$ if for any $\phi \in \Aut(G)$, we have $\phi(H)=H$. In words, this means that each automorphism of $G$ maps $H$ to itself.

Prove the followings.

(a) If $H$ is characteristic in $G$, then $H$ is a normal subgroup of $G$.

(b) If $H$ is the unique subgroup of $G$ of a given order, then $H$ is characteristic in $G$.

(c) Suppose that a subgroup $K$ is characteristic in a group $H$ and $H$ is a normal subgroup of $G$. Then $K$ is a normal subgroup in $G$.

Problem 20

Suppose the order of a group $G$ is $p^2$, where $p$ is a prime number.
Show that

(a) the group $G$ is an abelian group, and

(b) the group $G$ is isomorphic to either $\Zmod{p^2}$ or $\Zmod{p} \times \Zmod{p}$ without using the fundamental theorem of abelian groups.

Problem 18

Let $Z(G)$ be the center of a group $G$.
Show that if $G/Z(G)$ is a cyclic group, then $G$ is abelian.

Problem 17

Let $p$ be a prime number. Suppose that the order of each element of a finite group $G$ is a power of $p$. Then prove that $G$ is a $p$-group. Namely, the order of $G$ is a power of $p$.

Problem 16

Show that any subgroup of index $2$ in a group is a normal subgroup.

Problem 10

Let $G$ be a group of order $|G|=p^n$ for some $n \in \N$.
(Such a group is called a $p$-group.)
Show that the center $Z(G)$ of the group $G$ is not trivial.

Problem 6

Define the functions $f_{a,b}(x)=ax+b$, where $a, b \in \R$ and $a>0$.

Show that $G:=\{ f_{a,b} \mid a, b \in \R, a>0\}$ is a group . The group operation is function composition.

Problem 4

Let $G$ and $G’$ be a group and let $\phi:G \to G’$ be a group homomorphism.

Show that $\phi$ induces an injective homomorphism from $G/\ker{\phi} \to G’$.

Problem 3

Let $H$ be a normal subgroup of a group $G$.
Then show that $N:=[H, G]$ is a subgroup of $H$ and $N \triangleleft G$.

Here $[H, G]$ is a subgroup of $G$ generated by commutators $[h,k]:=hkh^{-1}k^{-1}$.

In particular, the commutator subgroup $[G, G]$ is a normal subgroup of $G$