Group Theory

If There are 28 Elements of Order 5, How Many Subgroups of Order 5?

Group Theory Problems and Solutions in Mathematics

Problem 626

Let $G$ be a group. Suppose that the number of elements in $G$ of order $5$ is $28$.

Determine the number of distinct subgroups of $G$ of order $5$.

Solution.

Let $g$ be an element in $G$ of order $5$.
Then the subgroup $\langle g \rangle$ generated by $g$ is a cyclic group of order $5$.
That is, $\langle g \rangle=\{e, g, g^2, g^3, g^4\}$, where $e$ is the identity element in $G$.

Note that the order of each non-identity element in $\langle g \rangle$ is $5$.

Also, if $h$ is another element in $G$ of order $5$, then we have either $\langle g \rangle=\langle h \rangle$ or $\langle g \rangle \cap \langle h \rangle = \{e\}$.
This follows from the fact that the intersection $\langle g \rangle \cap \langle h \rangle$ is a subgroup of the order $5$ group $\langle g \rangle$, and thus the order of $\langle g \rangle \cap \langle h \rangle$ is either $5$ or $1$.

On the other hand, if $H$ is a subgroup of $G$ of order $5$, then every non-identity element in $H$ has order $5$.

These observations imply that each subgroup of order $5$ contains exactly $4$ elements of order $5$ and each element of order $5$ appears in exactly one of such subgroups.

As there are $28$ elements of order $5$, there are $28/4=7$ subgroups of order $5$.

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