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MA136

Introduction to Abstract Algebra

Samir Siksek
Mathematics Institute
University of Warwick

DIRE WARNING: These notes are printed on paper laced

with N-isopropyl-2-methyl-2-propyl-1,3-propanediol dicarbamate. Do not burn during end-of-exams celebrations.

2011, 2012 Samir Siksek

Contents
Chapter I. Prologue
I.1. Who Am I?
I.2. A Jolly Good Read!
I.3. Proofs
I.4. Acknowledgements and Corrections

1
1
1
2
2

Chapter II. FAQ

Chapter III. Algebraic Reorientation

III.1. Sets
III.2. Binary Operations
III.3. Vector Operations
III.4. Operations on Polynomials
III.5. Composition of Functions
III.6. Composition Tables
III.7. Commutativity and Associativity
III.8. Where are the Proofs?
III.9. The Quaternionic Number System (do not read)

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9
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12

Chapter IV. MatricesRead On Your Own

IV.1. What are Matrices?
IV.2. Matrix Operations
IV.3. Where do matrices come from?
IV.4. How to think about matrices?
IV.5. Why Column Vectors?
IV.6. Multiplicative Identity and Multiplicative Inverse
IV.7. Rotations

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Chapter V. Groups
V.1. The Definition of a Group
V.2. First Examples (and Non-Examples)
V.3. Abelian Groups
V.4. Symmetries of a Square

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Chapter VI. First Theorems

VI.1. Getting Relaxed about Notation
VI.2. Additive Notation

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Chapter VII. More Examples of Groups

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ii

CONTENTS

VII.1. Matrix Groups I

VII.2. Congruence Classes

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Chapter VIII. Orders and Lagranges Theorem

VIII.1. The Order of an Element
VIII.2. Lagranges TheoremVersion 1

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Chapter IX. Subgroups

IX.1. What Were They Again?
IX.2. Criterion for a Subgroup
IX.3. Roots of Unity
IX.4. Matrix Groups II
IX.5. Differential Equations
IX.6. Non-Trivial and Proper Subgroups
IX.7. Lagranges TheoremVersion 2

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Chapter X. Cyclic Groups and Cyclic Subgroups

X.1. Lagrange Revisited
X.2. Subgroups of Z

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Chapter XI. Isomorphisms

69

Chapter XII. Cosets

XII.1. Geometric Examples
XII.2. Solving Equations
XII.3. Index
XII.4. The First Innermost Secret of Cosets
XII.5. The Second Innermost Secret of Cosets
XII.6. Lagrange Super-Strength

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Chapter XIII. Quotient Groups

XIII.1. Congruences Modulo Subgroups
XIII.2. Congruence Classes and Cosets
XIII.3. R/Z
XIII.4. R2 /Z2
XIII.5. R/Q
XIII.6. Well-Defined and Proofs

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Chapter XIV. Symmetric Groups

XIV.1. Motivation
XIV.2. Injections, Surjections and Bijections
XIV.3. The Symmetric Group
XIV.4. S n
XIV.5. A Nice Application of Lagranges Theorem
XIV.6. Cycle Notation
XIV.7. Permutations and Transpositions
XIV.8. Even and Odd Permutations

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CONTENTS

iii

Chapter XV. Rings

XV.1. Definition
XV.2. Examples
XV.3. Subrings
XV.4. The Unit Group of a Ring
XV.5. The Unit Group of the Gaussian Integers

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Chapter XVI. Fields

119

Chapter XVII. Congruences Revisited

XVII.1. Units in Z/mZ
XVII.2. Fermats Little Theorem
XVII.3. Eulers Theorem
XVII.4. Vale Dicere

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Appendices

124

Appendix A. 2012 Introduction to Abstract Algebra Paper

125

Appendix B. The Forgotten Joys of Analytic Irresponsibility

B.1. The Mathematical Equivalent of an X-Rated DVD
B.2. Nothing to see heremove along please

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128

CHAPTER I

Prologue
I.1. Who Am I?
I Samir Siksek have the immense pleasure of introducing you to three
heroes of abstract algebra: groups, rings and fields. I am not an algebraist, but I have nothing but love, admiration and enthusiasm for the
subject. Some of my best friends are algebraists.

I.2. A Jolly Good Read!

Abstract algebra is about patterns. You see one pattern repeating itself
across mathematics and you try to extract the essential elements of that
pattern and turn them into a definition. This process gives you groups,
rings, fields, vector spaces, etc. You then study each of these new algebraic objects and become familiar with it. After that, when you spot one
of these patterns in a new context, youll say Aha! I know what that is,
and what to do with it.

three tips

Abstract algebra is incredibly useful, but to get any benefit from it you
need to develop three essential habits:
(i) Study as many different examples as you can. The examples are
as important as the theorems and definitions. There is absolutely no use in knowing the definition of a group if youre not
familiar with the standard examples.
(2) Do calculations. Use calculations with matrices, permutations,
symmetries, etc. to test your ideas. Calculations will lead you to
counterexamples that can correct any erroneous ideas that you
have. But also with practice, you will find that calculations often
contain the germ of the proof youre looking for.
(c) Think geometrically and draw pictures. The true meaning of
most mathematical concepts is geometric. If you spend all your
time manipulating symbols (i.e. doing algebra) without understanding the relation to the geometric meaning, then you will
have very little in terms of mathematical insight.
The three habits will not only help you learn the subject and apply it,
you will develop great mathematical taste. Here is my favourite quotation
about algebra:
1

I. PROLOGUE

Algebra is the offer made by the devil to the mathematician. The devil says: I will give you this powerful machine, it will answer any question you like. All you need
to do is give me your soul: give up geometry and you
will have this marvellous machine.
Michael Atiyah
(Fields Medalist and Abel Prize winner)
I.3. Proofs
When I was a student I found it very hard to follow proofs in books and
lectures. So when I read a theorem, I would put down the book and try out
a few examples. After that I would try to prove the theorem myself. After I
finished (or if I failed) I would look at the proof in the book and compare.
I heartily recommend this strategy. Youll gain a great understanding of
the subject. Youll also get really good practice for the exam, where you
may asked to prove statements that you havent seen before.
I.4. Acknowledgements and Corrections
I offer my most enthusiastic congratulations the creaters of Vim, LATEX,
and TikZ on their . . . ermm . . . creations. I thank Alex Best, George Christofi,
Jenny Cooley, Dave McCormick, Joseph Miller, Ghaleo Tsoi Kwok-Wing
and James Soffe for suggesting corrections to previous versions of these
notes. I offer my profuse apologies to Vandita Ditz Patel for not deleting the smileys on page 20. Her reasoning nevertheless deserves to be
quoted:
Warwick students arent retards anymore; you cant have stuff
like that in your notes!
Please email me your comments, misprints and corrections. My address is samir.siksek@gmail.com.

Real men use

LATEX. And real
women too.

profound entreaty

Are previous exam papers available? The module was only offered once before, and so only one exam paper is available. It is
an appendix to these notes. However, the best preparation for the
exam is to work hard at the homework.
Can we have the answers to last years exam? Not yet! I want you
to have a go yourself. But Ill post the answers online roughly one
month before your final exam. Feel free to remind me.
Are we required to know the proofs taken during the lectures or
found in the lecture notes? Yes, theorems, definitions, proofs and
homework questions. I love bookwork.
Can questions of a similar type to part C appear in the exam?
Yes they can! The exam will NOT be the academic equivalent of a
chainsaw massacre, but certainly some interesting questions must
appear, otherwise your maths degree would be trivial.
The exam is tomorrow/next week/within six months. Im running around like a headless chicken and stressing all my friends
because I cant do a homework question. Can I knock on your
door and ask you about it? Dont worry, Ive already branched out
into agony-aunting. Yes come and ask; I promise not to set the
dogs on you.
After Warwick I plan to devote my life to drunkenness and antisocial behaviour. Whilst Im here, I want to enjoy mathematics to
the full. Pleeeeeease set us obscene amounts of
homework? We must be careful. If you do too much homework, youll suffer severe withdrawal symptoms once the term is
over, and theres no telling what you might do to yourself. I simply
cant have that on my conscience. Ill therefore limit the homework
to one sheet per week. It cuts me deep to be so hard on you, but
sometimes you have to be tough to be kind.
I cant get hold of a pitchfork, and Im worried that a torch would
set off the fire alarm. How can I make constructive criticisms?
Constructive criticisms are welcome, face-to-face or by email.

CHAPTER II

FAQ
Why is this FAQ upside down? This is to improve the chances that
you will notice it and read it.
Your lectures are excruciatingly boring. Besides, 12 noon is a
perversely early time to schedule a lecture and no self-respecting
student can be expected to be awake yet. Do I really have to attend your lectures, or can I make do with these lecture notes? Ill
take that as an endorsement of the greatness of my writing skills
rather than a criticism of my lecturing skills. I love improvisation
during lectures. So the material we cover in the lectures will not be
identical to that in these printed notes. You need to come to the
lectures and make your own notes. The exam will be based on the
contents of the lectures as well as these printed lecture notes.
I was ill and missed a homework 1 deadline. These matters are
handled by the Undergraduate Office.
How is this course assessed? 15% for four homework assignments
and 85% for a one hour exam in term 3.
My copy of homework assignment x is lost/stolen. Where can I
get another copy? You can get all the assignments from my homepage (just put my name into google).
The questions on the homework sheets are divided into parts A,
B, C. Are the questions in part C optional? You are asked to handin both parts A and B but not part C. Part C questions should be
attempted by students who hope to obtain a First or a II:1. Students who hope to get at II:2 or a Third should avoid attempting
part C questions at all cost.
Do you subscribe to the illustrious Warwick tradition of setting
the same exam every year? Youre paying 9000 a year. You hardly
expect me to rip you off with a second-hand exam? Come on, how
low do you think I am?
1homework /"h@Umw3:k/ Noun. A mandatory regular course of mental
stimulation designed to vanquish intellectual impotence.
4

II. FAQ

CHAPTER III

Algebraic Reorientation
III.1. Sets
Sets are a basic notation for most of modern pure mathematics, but
life is too short to spend too much time on them. A set is simply a collection of objects. We use curly brackets to denote sets. For example, if I
write
A = {2, 5, 13},
then Im saying that the set A consists of the elements 2, 5, 13. This is
one way of specifying a set; we simply list all its elements between curly
brackets. The notation x S means x is a member of the set S and the
notation x S means x is not a member of the set S. For the set A above,
we know 13 A but 11 A.
We can also specify some infinite sets in this fashion; for example, the
set of all integers
Z = {. . . , 3, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, . . . }.
This is absolutely standard notation: when you see Z, youre expected to
know that its the set of integers. The set of natural numbers is
N = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4 . . . }.
Again this is standard notation (but not all mathematicians include 0 in
the natural numbers).
Here is an example of another way of specifying a set:
B = {x Z : x 2 = 16}.
This is saying that B is the set of all integers x satisfying the equation
x 2 = 16. Of course, another way of specifying the same set would be to
write B = {4, 4}. If we write
C = {x N : x 2 = 16},
then C = {4}.
If we write
D = {u Z : u 3 = 2},
then D is the set of integers u satisfying u 3 = 2. There are no integers
satisfying this equation, so D is the empty set. We denote the empty set
by ;, so we can write D = ;. Here are a couple more examples of empty
sets:
{w N : w 1} = ;,
{v Z : 301 v 399} = ;.
5

III. ALGEBRAIC REORIENTATION

To get more practice with this notation, observe that another way of
specifying the natural numbers is to write
N = {x Z : x 0}.
Yet another correctalthough admittedly stupid wayis to write
N = {x Z : x 05}.
Here are some other sets that youre meant to know:
(1) Q is the set of rational numbers. We can write this as
na
o
Q=
: a, b Z, b 6= 0 .
b
Examples of elements of Q are 0, 5, 7/11, 3/2, 6/4 (the last two
being
pthe same element). From Foundations you should know
that
2 is irrational. You can write this statement in set notation:
p
2 Q. Other examples of irrational numbers are e and .
(2) R is the set of real numbers. It isnt possible to write R in straightforward way as for the sets above, but you can think of the elements of R as points
p on the real line. Examples of elements of R
are 7, 3/5, 385, 7, ( + 1)/2, sin 5.
(3) C is the set of complex numbers. You have seen complex numbers in your Further Mathematics A-Level. Recall that i is a symbol that satisfies i 2 = 1. We can write the set of complex numbers as
C = { a + bi : a, b R }.
While were on the subject of notation, compare the following two state- Tip
ments:
Some positive real numbers are irrational.
x R s.t. x > 0 x Q.
The two statements say exactly the same thing. A professional mathematician prefers the first, and an amateur prefers the second. Use only as
much mathematical notation as needed to make your ideas transparent
and precise, but no more 1.
III.2. Binary Operations
Let S be a set. A binary operation on S is a rule which for every two
elements of S gives another element of S. For example, addition is a binary operation on R, because given any two real numbers, their sum is
a real number. One way mathematicians like to say this is, R is closed
under addition. All that means is that the sum of two real numbers is a
real number.
Addition is also a binary operation on C, Q, Z and N. Likewise, multiplication is a binary operation on N, Z, Q, R, C.
1Coming soon to a supervision area near you:

B, C, and F .

III.4. OPERATIONS ON POLYNOMIALS

Is subtraction a binary operation? This question does not make sense

because we havent specified the set. Subtraction is a binary operation
on Z, Q, R, C. Subtraction is not a binary operation on N; for example 1,
2 N but 1 2 = 1 N. Thus N is not closed under subtraction.
Is division a binary operation on R? No, because 1, 0 are real numbers
but 1/0 is not defined. Thus R is not closed under division. Let us define
R to be the set of non-zero real numbers:
R = { x R : x 6= 0 }.
Now division is a binary operation on R . But notice that addition is no
longer a binary operation on R ; for example 5, 5 R but 5 + (5) = 0
R .
III.3. Vector Operations
We define Euclidean n-space as
Rn = {(x 1 , x 2 , . . . , x n ) : x 1 , x 2 , . . . , x n R}.
Thus R2 is the set of vectors in the plane, and R3 is the set of vectors
in 3-space. Addition is a binary operation on Rn , and so is subtraction.
What about multiplication by a scalar? If is a scalar (i.e. R) and
x = (x 1 , x 2 , . . . , x n ) Rn is a vector, we define
x = (x 1 , x 2 , . . . , x n ).
Notice that the result is in Rn , but still multiplication by a scalar is not a
binary operation on Rn , because were not combining two elements of
Rn , but one element of R which is , and one element of Rn which is x.
What about the dot product and the cross product? The dot product
is defined on Rn for all n. If x = (x 1 , . . . , x n ) and y = (y 1 , . . . , y n ) we define
their dot product to be
x y = x1 y 1 + x2 y 2 + + xn y n .
Notice that the result is in R, not Rn , so the dot product is not a binary
operation. The cross product is defined on R3 only. If x, y R3 the x y is
again in R3 . So the cross product is a binary operation on R3 .
III.4. Operations on Polynomials
We shall write R[x] for the set of polynomials in x with real coefficients, C[x] for the set of polynomials in x with complex coefficients, Q[x]
for the set of polynomials in x with rational coefficients, and Z[x] for the
set of polynomials in x with integer coefficients. All these are closed under addition, multiplication and subtraction, but not division; for example x/(x + 1) is not a polynomial.

III. ALGEBRAIC REORIENTATION

III.5. Composition of Functions

Let S 1 , S 2 and S 3 be sets and f , g be functions
f : S1 S2,

g : S2 S3.

We can define the composition g f : S 1 S 3 by the rule: (g f )(x) =

g ( f (x)). I.e. g f is the function obtained by substituting f into g .
Example III.1. Let
f : R R,

f (x) = x 2 5

g : R R,

g (x) = 3x + 2.

and

Then
( f g )(x) = f (g (x)) = f (3x + 2) = (3x + 2)2 5 = 9x 2 + 12x 1,
(g f )(x) = g ( f (x)) = g (x 2 5) = 3(x 2 5) + 2 = 3x 2 13.
The order matters here: f g is the result of substituting g into f , and g f
is the result of substituting f into g .

Note that in the example we started with functions R R and composed to obtain functions R R. Likewise, in the above definition, if
S 1 = S 2 = S 3 = S say, so that f and g are functions S S then g f is a
function S S. In this case (i.e. when the domains and codomains are
equal) is a binary operation. It is not a binary operation on S, because it
doesnt take two elements of S and give us another element. It is a binary
operation on the set of functions from S to itself.
The following lemma might look silly and useless, but it one of the
most important results we shall meet in this module, and we shall use it
again and again.
Lemma III.2. Let S 1 , S 2 , S 3 , S 4 be sets and let f , g , h be functions
h : S1 S2,

g : S2 S3,

f : S3 S4.

Then f (g h) = ( f g ) h.
P ROOF. To stop ourself from getting muddled, let k = g h and ` = f g .
Note that k(x) = g (h(x)) and `(x) = f (g (x)). So
( f (g h))(x) = ( f k)(x) = f (k(x)) = f (g (h(x))).
Also
(( f g ) h)(x) = (` h)(x) = `(h(x)) = f (g (h(x))).
So f (g h) = ( f g ) h.

III.7. COMMUTATIVITY AND ASSOCIATIVITY

III.6. Composition Tables

Recall our definition of a binary operation on a set S: it is simply a
rule which for any pair of elements of S produces a third element. This
binary operation does not have to be natural, whatever that means. It
does not have to be something we met before, like addition, multiplication, composition of functions, etc. We can simply invent a set S and
binary operation on it. If the S is finite, this is easy by means of a composition table which tells us for any pair of elements of S what the third
element is.
Example III.3. Let S = {a, b, c}. Let be the binary operation on S with
the following composition table:
a b c
a b c a
b a c a
c b b c
The result of the composition a b, is found at the intersection of the
row headed by a with the column headed by b. In other words, for composition tables, the first element determines the row and the second determines the column. Thus for the composition table above,
a b = c,

b a = a,

c b = b,

a a = b, . . . .

You might think that this example is somewhat contrived, and youre absolutely right. But later on well meet more natural composition tables
that arise from studying groups, permutations, etc.

III.7. Commutativity and Associativity

Definition. Let S be a set and a binary operation 1 on S. We say that the
binary operation is commutative on S if a b = b a for all a, b S. We
say that the binary operation is associative on S if (a b) c = a (b c)
for all a, b, c S.
Example III.4. Addition and multiplication on R (or C or R[x] or . . . ) are
both commutative and associative. When operations are commutative
and associative, order and bracketing do not matter:
e + ((c + b) + (d + a)) = a + b + c + d + e,

e ((c b) (d a)) = a b c d e.

Of course subtraction is neither commutative nor associative (write some

examples).

Example III.5. Addition is commutative and associative on Rn . The cross

product is not commutative on R3 . You should know that if x, y R3 then
y x = x y.
1Here doesnt have to be composition of functions. Simply any binary operation

on any set.

10

III. ALGEBRAIC REORIENTATION

We say that the cross product is anti-commutative.

Example III.6. Let S = {a, b, c} and let be the binary operation given by
the composition table in Example III.3. Then is not commutative; for
example
a b = c,
b a = a.
It is also not associative; for example
(a b) c = c c = c,

a (b c) = a a = b.

Example III.7. Composition of functions from a set A to itself is associative but not commutative. We know that it is associative from Lemma III.2.
We know that it isnt commutative by Example III.1. When a binary operation is associative bracketing doesnt matter. For example,
(a b) ((c d ) e) = (a (b c)) (d e).
As long as we keep a, b, c, d , e in the same order from left to right, then
the order in which we do the compositions does not matter. Thus there
would be no ambiguity in writing
(a b) ((c d ) e) = a b c d e.

Example III.8. Are there binary operations that are commutative but not
associative? Yes but it isnt easy to come up with natural examples. However it is easy to invent a finite set and a composition table that is commutative but not associative. Let S = {a, b, c}. Let be the binary operation
on S with the following composition table:
a b c
a b c a
b c c a
c a a c
Note that is commutative; you can see this by noting that the table
is symmetric about the diagonal from the top left corner to the bottom
right corner. But it isnt associative. For example,
(b c) a = a a = b,

b (c a) = b a = c.

Exercise III.9. In the following, is a binary operation on A? If so, is it

commutative? Is it associative? In each case justify your answer.
(a) A = R is the set of real numbers and a b = a/b.
(b) A = {1, 2, 3, 4, . . . } is the set of positive integers and a b = a b .
(c) A = {. . . , 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, 4, 8, . . . } is the set of powers of 2 and a
b = ab.
(d) A = C is the set of complex numbers and a b = |a b|.

III.8. WHERE ARE THE PROOFS?

11

III.8. Where are the Proofs?

You might be somewhat perturbed by the cavalier way Im stating
things without proving them. In mathematics we have to start with some
assumptions (sometimes called axioms) and then prove things from there.
A reasonable starting point is the properties of the real numbers. These
we assume. What are they?
For all real numbers a, b, c
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
(ix)

a + b = b + a (addition is commutative)
(a + b) + c = a + (b + c) (addition is associative)
a + 0 = a (0 is the additive identity element)
there is a real number a (the additive inverse of a) such that
a + (a) = 0.
ab = ba (multiplication is commutative)
(ab)c = a(bc) (multiplication is associative)
a(b + c) = ab + ac (multiplication distributes over addition)
a 1 = a (1 is the multiplicative identity element)
if a 6= 0, there is a real number denoted by a 1 (the multiplicative
inverse of a) such that a a 1 = 1.

We have not exhausted the properties of real numbers. For example, we

can add
(x) If a b then a + c b + c.
(xi) If a b and c > 0 then ac bc. If a b and c < 0 then ac bc.
One particularly important property that we will not write down, but which
you will come to admire in the analysis courses is The Completeness Axiom.
These properties are a reasonable starting point. We should be able
to prove all the facts that we have been stating starting from here. For
example, let us prove that multiplication of complex numbers is commutative. In other words, we want to show that if and are complex
numbers then = . So suppose that and are complex numbers.
Write = a + bi and = c + d i where a, b, c, d are real numbers. Then by
the definition of multiplication
= (ac bd ) + (ad + bc)i ,

= (c a d b) + (d a + cb)i .

But ac = c a, bd = d b, ad = d a, bc = cb. How do we know this; isnt

this the same as what we want to prove? No, not really. We know this
because a, b, c, d are real numbers and we are using the commutativity
of multiplication for real numbers which we already decided to assume.
It follows that = which we wanted to prove.
Exercise III.10. You know that if a, b R and ab = 0 then either a = 0 or
b = 0. Explain how this follows from property (ix) above.

12

III. ALGEBRAIC REORIENTATION

III.9. The Quaternionic Number System (do not read)

This section is non-examinable; do not read it. It is here for the benefit of those who believe that the above discussion of commutativity of
complex numbers is overly pedantic. Why should multiplication not be
commutative? After all, it is just multiplication. You are wasting time on
contrived pedanticisms. For your benefit I will briefly exhibit the quaternionic number system where multiplication is not commutative. Quaternions were fashionable in the late 19th century and had substantial physical applications. Eventually it was discovered that vectors do a better job
of just about anything you could do with quaternions, and they fell out of
fashion.
Remember that the complex numbers are of the form a + bi where a,
b are real and i is a symbol satisfying i 2 = 1. Well, quaternions are of
the form a + bi + c j + d k where a, b, c, d are real and i , j , k are symbols
satisfying
i 2 = j 2 = k 2 = 1,

i j = j i = k,

j k = k j = i ,

ki = i k = j.

You can already see that quaternionic multiplication is not commutative,

since i j 6= j i . You might also calculate (1 + i )(1 + j ) and (1 + j )(1 + i ).
Here is a standard description of the discovery of quaternions, which
Ive copied and pasted from Wikipedia:
[Sir William Rowan] Hamilton knew that the complex
numbers could be viewed as points in a plane, and he
was looking for a way to do the same for points in space.
Points in space can be represented by their coordinates,
which are triples of numbers, and for many years Hamilton had known how to add and subtract triples of numbers. But he had been stuck on the problem of multiplication and division: He did not know how to take the
quotient of two points in space.
The breakthrough finally came on Monday 16 October 1843 in Dublin, when Hamilton was on his way
to the Royal Irish Academy where he was going to preside at a council meeting. While walking along the towpath of the Royal Canal with his wife, the concept behind quaternions was taking shape in his mind. Hamilton could not resist the impulse to carve the formulae
for the quaternions
i 2 = j 2 = k 2 = i j k = 1
into the stone of Brougham Bridge as he passed by it
. . . Since 1989, the Department of Mathematics of the
National University of Ireland, Maynooth has organized
a pilgrimage, where scientists (including physicists Murray Gell-Mann in 2002, Steven Weinberg in 2005, and

III.9. THE QUATERNIONIC NUMBER SYSTEM (DO NOT READ)

13

mathematician Andrew Wiles in 2003) take a walk from

Dunsink Observatory to the Royal Canal bridge where,
unfortunately, no trace of Hamiltons carving remains.
You see, even though the quaternions have been consigned to the compost heap of algebra, Hamiltons graffiti became historys most celebrated
act of mathematical vandalism. There is a great moral to this, but I cant
find it.

CHAPTER IV

MatricesRead On Your Own

You almost certainly met matrices during A-Levels, and youll see them
again in Linear Algebra. In any case you need to know about matrices for
this module. In this chapter I summarize what you need to know. Well
not cover this chapter in the lectures; I expect you to read it on your own.
Even if you think you know all about matrices I advise you to read this
chapter: do you know why matrix multiplication is defined the way it is?
Do you know why matrix multiplication is associative?

IV.1. What are Matrices?

Let m, n be positive integers. An m n matrix (or a matrix of size
m n) is a rectangular array consisting of mn numbers arranged in m
rows and n columns:

a 11 a 12 a 13 . . . a 1n
a 21 a 22 a 23 . . . a 2n

..
..
..
.. .
.
.
.
.
a m1 a m2 a m3 . . . a mn
Example IV.1. Let

A=

1 2 0
,
1 7 14

3 2
B = 1 8 ,
2
5

3
1
5
C = 6 8 12 .
2
5
0

A, B , C are matrices. The matrix A has size 23 because it has 2 rows and
3 columns. Likewise B has size 3 2 and C has size 3 3.

Displaying a matrix A by writing

a 11 a 12 a 13 . . . a 1n
a 21 a 22 a 23 . . . a 2n

A = ..
..
..
.. .
.
.
.
.
a m1 a m2 a m3 . . . a mn
wastes a lot of space. It is convenient to abbreviate this matrix by the
notation A = (a i j )mn . This means that A is a matrix of size m n (i.e. m
rows and n columns) and that we shall refer to the element that lies at the
intersection of the i -th row and j -th column by a i j .
15

16

IV. MATRICESREAD ON YOUR OWN

Example IV.2. Let A = (a i j )23 . We can write A out in full as

a 11 a 12 a 13
A=
.
a 21 a 22 a 23
Notice that A has 2 rows and 3 columns. The element a 12 belongs to the
1st row and the 2nd column.

Definition. M mn (R) is the set of m n matrices with entries in R. We

similarly define M mn (C), M mn (Q), M mn (Z), etc.
Example IV.3.

M 22 (R) =

a b
: a, b, c, d R .
c d

IV.2. Matrix Operations

Definition. Given matrices A = (a i j ) and B = (b i j ) of size mn, we define
the sum A + B to be the m n matrix whose (i , j )-th element is a i j + b i j .
We define the difference A B to be the m n matrix whose (i , j )-th element is a i j b i j .
Let be a scalar. We define A to be the m n matrix whose (i , j )-th
element is a i j .
We let A be the m n matrix whose (i , j )-th element is a i j . Thus
A = (1)A.
Note that the sum A + B is defined only when A and B have the same
size. In this case A +B is obtained by adding the corresponding elements.
Example IV.4. Let

A=

2 5
,
2 8

4 3
B = 1 0 ,
1 2

4 2
C = 0 6 .
9 1

Then A + B is undefined because A and B have different sizes. Similarly

A +C is undefined. However B +C is defined and is easy to calculate:

4 3
4 2
0 5
B +C = 1 0 + 0 6 = 1 6 .
1 2
9 1
8 3
Likewise A B and A C are undefined, but B C is:

4 3
4 2
8
1
6 .
B C = 1 0 0 6 = 1
1 2
9 1
10 1
Scalar multiplication is always defined. Thus, for example

8 6
6
3
2 5
9 .
A =
,
2 B = 2 0 ,
1.5C = 0
2 8
2 4
13.5 1.5

IV.2. MATRIX OPERATIONS

17

Definition. The zero matrix of size m n is the unique m n matrix

whose entries are all 0. This is denoted by 0mn , or simply 0 if no confusion is feared.
Definition. Let A = (a i j )mn and B = (b i j )np . We define the product
AB to be the matrix C = (c i j )mp such that
ci j = ai 1 b1 j + ai 2 b2 j + ai 3 b3 j + + ai n bn j .
Note the following points:
For the product AB to be defined we demand that the number
of columns of A is equal to the number of rows of B .
The i j -th element of AB is obtained by taking the dot product of
the i -th row of A with the j -th column of B .
Example IV.5. Let

1 2
A=
,
1 3

5 3
B=
.
0 2

Both A and B are 2 2. From the definition we know that A B will be a

2 2 matrix. We see that

15+20
1 3 + 2 2
5 7
AB =
=
.
1 5 + 3 0 1 3 + 3 2
5 3
Likewise
BA=

5 1 + 3 1 5 2 3 3
8 1
=
.
0 1 2 1 0 2 + 2 3
2 6

We make a very important observation: AB 6= B A in this example. So

matrix multiplication is not commutative.

Example IV.6. Let A be as in the previous example, and let

2 1 3
C=
.
3 4 0
Then

8 7
3
.
AC =
7 13 3
However, C A is not defined because the number of columns of C is not
equal to the number of rows of A.

Remark. If m 6= n, then we cant multiply two matrices in M mn (R). However, matrix multiplication is defined on M nn (R) and the result is again
in M nn (R). In other words, multiplication is a binary operation on M nn (R).
Exercise IV.7. CommutativityWhat can go wrong?
Give a pair of matrices A, B , such that AB is defined but B A isnt.
Give a pair of matrices A, B , such that both AB and B A are defined but they have different sizes.

18

IV. MATRICESREAD ON YOUR OWN

Give a pair of matrices A, B , such that AB and B A are defined

and of the same size but are unequal.
Give a pair of matrices A, B , such that AB = B A.
IV.3. Where do matrices come from?
No doubt you have at some point wondered where matrices come
from, and what is the reason for the weird definition of matrix multiplication. It is possible that your A-Level teachers didnt want to tell you.
Because I am a really sporting kind of person and I love you very much, I I you
am telling you some secrets of the trade.
Matrices originate from linear substitutions. Let a, b, c, d be fixed
numbers, x, y some variables, and define x 0 , y 0 by the linear substitutions
(IV.1)

x 0 = ax + b y
y 0 = c x + d y.

The definition of matrix multiplication allows us to express this pair of

equations as one matrix equation
0

x
a b x
(IV.2)
=
.
y0
c d y
You should multiply out this matrix equation and see that it is the same
as the pair of equations (IV.1).
Now suppose moreover that we define new quantities x 00 and y 00 by
(IV.3)

x 00 = x 0 + y 0
y 00 = x 0 + y 0 ,

where , , , are constants. Again we can rewrite this in matrix form

as
00

x
x0
.
(IV.4)
=
y 00
y0
What is the relation between the latest quantities x 00 , y 00 and our first
pair x, y? One way to get the answer is of course to substitute equations
(IV.1) into (IV.3). This gives us
(IV.5)

x 00 = (a + c)x + (b + d )y
y 00 = (a + c)x + (b + d )y.

This pair of equations can re-expressed in matrix form as

00

x
a + c b + d x
(IV.6)
=
.
y 00
a + c b + d y
Another way to get x 00 , y 00 in terms of x, y is to substitute matrix equation
(IV.2) into matrix equation (IV.4):
00

x
a b x
(IV.7)
=
.
y 00
c d y

IV.4. HOW TO THINK ABOUT MATRICES?

19

If the definition of matrix multiplication is sensible, then we expect that

matrix equations (IV.6) and (IV.7) to be consistent. In other words, we
would want that

a + c b + d
a b
.
=
a + c b + d
c d
A quick check using the definition of matrix multiplication shows that
this is indeed the case.
IV.4. How to think about matrices?
Let A M 22 (R). In words, A is a 2 2 matrix with real entries. Write

a b
.
A=
c d
For now, think of the elements of R2 as column vectors: any u R2 can be
written as

x
u=
y
with x, y real numbers. Thus were thinking of the elements of R2 as 21matrices. Note that in equation
(IV.2), the matrix A converts the vector
0
x
u to another vector u0 = 0 .
y
Some mathematicians would think that the word converts is not very
mathematical. Instead they would think of the matrix A as defining a
function
T A : R2 R2 ,
T A (u) = Au.
Other (less pedantic) mathematicians would not distinguish between the
matrix and the function it defines. One of the points of the previous section is that if C = B A then TC = TB T A , so that matrix multiplication is
really an instance of composition of functions.
Let us look at some examples of these functions T A .
Example IV.8. Let

0 1
A=
,
1 0

2 0
B=
,
0 1

0 0
C=
.
0 1

Then A defines a function T A : R2 R2 given by T A (u) = Au. Let us calculate T A explicitly:

x
0 1 x
y
TA
=
=
.
y
1 0 y
x
We note that, geometrically speaking, T A represents reflection in the line
y = x.

x
2x
Similarly TB
=
, which geometrically represents stretching by
y
y
a factor of 2 in the x-direction.

20

IV. MATRICESREAD ON YOUR OWN

0
x
. Thus geometrically, TC represents projection onto
=
Also TC
y
y
the y-axis.
Again, if we choose not to distinguish between the matrix and the
function it defines we would say that A represents reflection in the line
y = x, B represents stretching by a factor of 2 in the x-direction, and C
represent projection onto the y-axis.
Now is a good time to revisit the non-commutativity of matrices. Let non-commutativity
us see a geometric example of why matrix multiplication is not commu- seen geometrically
tative. Consider the matrices AB and B A where A, B are the above matrices. Notice (AB )u = A(B u). This means stretch u by a factor of 2 in the
x-direction, then reflect it in the line y = x. And (B A)u = B (Au), which
means reflect u in the line y = x and then stretch by a factor of 2 in the
x-direction. The two are not the same as you can see from Figure IV.1.
Therefore AB 6= B A.

F IGURE IV.1. Non-commutativity of matrix multiplication. The matrix A represents reflection in the line y = x
and the matrix B represents stretching by a factor of 2 in
the x-direction. On the top row we apply B first then A;
the combined effect is represented by AB . On the bottom
we apply A first then B ; the combined effect is represented
by B A. It is obvious from comparing the last picture on the
top row and the last one on the bottom row that AB 6= B A.

IV.5. WHY COLUMN VECTORS?

21

Remark. Matrices dont give us all possible functions R2 R2 . You will

see in Linear Algebra that they give us what are called the linear transformations. For now, think about

x
x
2
2
.
=
S :R R ,
S
y +1
y
Geometrically, S translates a vector by 1 unit in the y-direction. Can we
get S from a matrix A? Suppose we can, so S = T A for some matrix A.
What this means is that Su = T A u for all u R2 . But T A u = Au. So Su =
Au. Now let u = 0. We see that

0
,
Au = 0
Su =
1
which contradicts Su = Au. So we cant get S from a matrix, and the reason as youll see in Term 2 is that S is not a linear transformation.
IV.4.1. Why is matrix multiplication associative? At the end of Example IV.8 there was a slight-of-hand that you might have noticed 1. We
assumed that matrix multiplication is associative when we wrote (AB )u =
A(B u); here were thinking of u as a 2 1-matrix. In fact matrix multiplication is associative whenever it is defined.
Theorem IV.9. Let A be an m n matrix, B be an n p matrix and C a
p q matrix, then
(AB )C = A(BC ).

(IV.8)

P ROOF. In terms of functions, (IV.8) is saying

(T A TB ) TC = T A (TB TC ).
This holds by Lemma III.2 2.

Dont worry too much if this proof makes you uncomfortable! When
you do Linear Algebra in Term 2 you will see a much more computational
proof, but in my opinion the proof above is the most enlightening one.
For now, you should be pleased if you have digested Example IV.8.
IV.5. Why Column Vectors?
You will have noticed that early on in these notes we were thinking
of the elements of Rn as row vectors. But when we started talking about
matrices as functions, we have taken a preference for column vectors as
opposed to row vectors. Let us see how things are different if we stuck
with row vectors. So for the moment think of elements of Rn , Rm as row
vectors. Let A be an m n matrix.
1well-done if you did notice, and learn to read more critically if you havent
2Here T , T , T respectively are functions Rn Rm , Rp Rn , Rq Rp .
A
B
C

22

IV. MATRICESREAD ON YOUR OWN

If u is a (row) vector in Rn or Rm then Au is undefined. But we find

that uA is defined if u is a (row) vector in Rm and gives a (row) vector in
Rn . Thus we get a function
S A : Rm Rn
given by S A (u) = uA. It is now a little harder to think of the matrix A as a
function since we have written it on the right in the product uA (remember that when we thought of vectors as columns we wrote Au).
Some mathematicians (particularly algebraists) write functions on the
right, so instead of writing f (x) they will write x f . They will be happy to
think of matrices as functions on row vectors because they can write the
matrix on the right 1. Most mathematicians write functions on the left.
They are happier to think of matrices as functions on column vectors because they can write the matrix on the left.
Many of the abstract algebra textbooks you will see in the library write left versus right
functions on the right. Dont be frightened by this! If youre uncomfortable with functions on the right, just translate by rewriting the theorems
and examples in your notation.
IV.6. Multiplicative Identity and Multiplicative Inverse
We have mostly been focusing on 22 matrices, and we will continue
to focus on them. One natural question to ask is what is the multiplicative identity for 2 2 matrices? You might wondering what I mean by the
multiplicative identity? You of course know that a 1 = 1 a = a for all real
numbers a; we say that 1 is the multiplicative identity in R. Likewise the
multiplicative identity for 2 2 matrices will be a 2 2 matrix, which we
happen to call I 2 , satisfying AI 2 = I 2 A = A for all 2 2 matrices A. Another natural question is given a 2 2 matrix A, what is its multiplicative
inverse A 1 ? Does it even have an inverse? It is likely that you know the
answers to these questions from school. If not dont worry, because were
about to discover the answers. If yes, please unremember the answers,
because we want to work out the answers from scratch. We want to im- temporary amnesia
merse ourselves in the thought process that went into discovering these required
answers.
The first question is about the multiplicative identity. We havent yet
discovered what the multiplicative identity is, but let us denote it by I 2 .
What is the geometric meaning of I 2 ? Clearly we want I 2 to have the geometric meaning of do nothing, as opposed to reflect, stretch, project, etc.
In symbols we want a 2 2 matrix I 2 so that I 2 u = u for all u R2 . Since I 2
1Algebraists have many idiosyncrasies that distinguish them from other mathe-

maticians. I find most of these bewildering. However, they do have a very good point
in the way they write functions. We said that B A means do A first and then B , because
(B A)u = B (Au). However if you use row vectors then u(B A) = (uB )A, so B A means do B
first then A, which seems entirely natural.

IV.6. MULTIPLICATIVE IDENTITY AND MULTIPLICATIVE INVERSE

23

is a 2 2 matrix we can write

a b
,
I2 =
c d

where a, b, c, d are numbers. Let us also write

x
u=
.
y
We want

x
a b x
.
=
y
c d y
We want this to be true for all values of x, y, because we want the matrix
I 2 to mean do nothing to all vectors. Multiplying the two matrices on the
right and equating the entries we obtain

ax + b y = x,

c x + d y = y.

We instantly see that the choices a = 1, b = 0, c = 0, d = 1 work. So the

matrix

1 0
I2 =
0 1
has the effect of do nothing. Lets check algebraically that I 2 is a multiplicative identity for 2 2 matrices. What we want to check is that
(IV.9)

AI 2 = I 2 A = A

for every 2 2 matrix A. We can write

A=
.

Now multiplying we find

1 0
1+0 0+1

AI 2 =
=
=
= A.
0 1
1+0 0+1

In exactly the same way, you can do the calculation to show that I 2 A = A,
so weve established (IV.9).
Before moving on to inverses, it is appropriate to ask in which world
does the identity (IV.9) hold? What do I mean by that? Of course A has to
be a 22 matrix, but are its entries real, complex, rational, integral? If you
read the above again, you will notice that weve used properties common
to the number systems R, C, Q, Z. So (IV.9) holds for all matrices A in
M 22 (R), M 22 (C), M 22 (Q), M 22 (Z).
Now what about inverses? Let A be a 2 2 matrix, and let A 1 be its
inverse whatever that means. If A represents a certain geometric operation then A 1 should represent the opposite geometric operation. The
matrix A 1 should undo the effect of A. The product A 1 A, which is the
result of doing A first then A 1 , should now mean do nothing. In other
words, we want A 1 A = I 2 whenever A 1 is the inverse of A. Another way
of saying the same thing is that if v = Au then u = A 1 v.

24

IV. MATRICESREAD ON YOUR OWN

Should there be such an inverse A 1 for every A. No, if A = 022 then

A 1 A = 022 6= I 2 . The zero matrix is not invertible, which is hardly surprising. Are there any others? Here it is good to return to the three matrices in Example IV.8 and test if theyre invertible.
Example IV.10. Let

0 1
,
A=
1 0

2 0
,
B=
0 1

0 0
.
C=
0 1

Recall that A represents reflection in the line y = x. If we repeat a reflection then we end up where we started. So we expect that A A = I 2 (or
more economically A 2 = I 2 ). Check this by multiplying. So A is its own
inverse.
The matrix B represents stretching by a factor of 2 in the x-direction.
So its inverse B 1 has to represent stretching by a factor of 1/2 (or shrinking by a factor of 2) in the x-direction. We can write

1/2 0
1
B =
.
0 1
Check for yourself that B 1 B = I 2 . Also note that

x/2
1 x
B
=
y
y
which does what we want: B 1 really is the inverse of B .
Finally recall that C represents projection onto the y-axis. Is there
such as thing as unprojecting from the y-axis? Note that




1
0
2
0
3
0
4
0
C
=
,
C
=
,
C
=
,
C
=
,....
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Lets assume that C has an inverse and call it C 1 . One of the things we
want is for v = C u to imply u = C 1 v. In other words, C 1 is the opposite
of C . If there was such an inverse C 1 then




1
2
3
4
1 0
1 0
1 0
1 0
C
=
,
C
=
,
C
=
,
C
=
,....
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
This is clearly absurd! Therefore, C is not invertible 1. For a more graphic
illustration of this fact, see Figure IV.2.
The matrix C is non-zero, but it still doesnt have an inverse. This
might come as a shock if you havent seen matrix inverses before. So lets
check it in a different way. Write

a b
1
C =
.
c d
1In Foundations, one of the things youll learn (or have already done) is that a func-

tion is invertible if an only if it is bijective. To be bijective a function has to be injective

and surjective. We have shown that the function C is not injective, therefore it is not
bijective, therefore it is not invertible. If this footnote does not make sense to you yet,
return to it at the end of term.

IV.6. MULTIPLICATIVE IDENTITY AND MULTIPLICATIVE INVERSE

25

projection onto the y-axis

L
S1

S2

S3
x

F IGURE IV.2. Some non-zero matrices dont have inverses.

The matrix C represents projection onto the y-axis. Note
that C sends the three smileys S 1 , S 2 , S 3 to the line segment L. If C had an inverse, would this inverse send L to
S 1 , S 2 or S 3 ? We see that C 1 does not make any sense!
We want C 1C = I 2 . But
C

a b
C=
c d

1 0
a 0
=
.
0 0
c 0

We see that no matter what choices of a, b, c, d we make, this will not

equal I 2 as the bottom-left entries dont match. So C is not invertible.
IV.6.1. Discovering Invertibility. We will now work in generality. Let
A be a 2 2 matrix and write

a b
A=
.
c d
Suppose that A is invertible and write

x y
1
A =
.
z w
We want to express A 1 in terms of A, or more precisely, x, y, z, w in
terms of a, b, c, d . We want

x y a b
1 0
=
.
z w c d
0 1
Multiplying and equating entries we arrive at four equations:
(IV.10)

ax + c y = 1

(IV.11)

bx + d y = 0

(IV.12)

az + c w = 0

(IV.13)

bz + d w = 1.

26

IV. MATRICESREAD ON YOUR OWN

We treat the first two equations as simultaneous equations in x and y.

Lets eliminate y and solve for x. Multiply the first equation by d , the
second by c and subtract. We obtain (ad bc)x = d . By doing similar
eliminations youll find that
(
(ad bc)x = d ,
(ad bc)y = b,
(IV.14)
(ad bc)z = c,
(ad bc)w = a.
Lets assume that ad bc 6= 0. Then, we have
x=

d
,
ad bc

y=

b
,
ad bc

z=

c
,
ad bc

w=

a
.
ad bc

Thus
A

1
d b
=
.
ad bc c a

Now check by multiplying that A 1 A = I 2 and also A A 1 = I 2 .

What if ad bc = 0? We assumed that A has an inverse A 1 and deduced (IV.14). If ad bc = 0 then (IV.14) tells us that a = b = c = d = 0 and
so A = 022 which certainly isnt invertible. This is a contradiction. Thus if
ad bc = 0 then A is not invertible. Weve proved the following theorem.

a b
Theorem IV.11. A matrix A =
is invertible if and only if ad bc 6=
c d
0. If so, the inverse is

1
d b
1
A =
.
ad bc c a
Definition. Let A be a 2 2 matrix and write

a b
A=
.
c d
We define the determinant of A, written det(A) to be
det(A) = ad bc.
Another common notation for the determinant of the matrix A is the following

a b

c d = ad bc.
From Theorem IV.11 we know that a 2 2 matrix A is invertible if and
only if det(A) 6= 0.
Theorem IV.12. (Properties of Determinants) Let A, B be 2 2 matrices.
(a) det(I 2 ) = 1.
(b) det(AB ) = det(A) det(B ).
(c) If A is invertible then det(A) 6= 0 and det(A 1 ) =

1
.
det(A)

IV.6. MULTIPLICATIVE IDENTITY AND MULTIPLICATIVE INVERSE

27

P ROOF. The proof is mostly left as an exercise for the reader. Parts (a), (b)
follow from the definition and effortless calculations (make sure you do
them). For (c) note that
det(A 1 A) = det(I 2 ) = 1.
Now applying (ii) we have 1 = det(A 1 ) det(A). We see that det(A) 6= 0 and
det(A 1 ) = 1/ det(A).

Exercise IV.13. (The Geometric Meaning of Determinant) You might be
wondering (in fact should be wondering) about the geometric meaning
of the determinant. This exercise answers your question. Let A be a 2 2
matrix and write

a b
A=
.
c d


a
b
Let u =
and v =
; in other words, u and v are the columns of A.
c
d
Show that |det(A)| is the area of the parallelogram with adjacent sides u
and v (See Figure IV.3). This tells you the meaning of |det(A)|, but what
about the sign of det(A)? What does it mean geometrically? Write down
and sketch a few examples and see if you can make a guess. Can you
prove your guess?

F IGURE IV.3. If u and v are the columns of A then the

shaded area is |det(A)|.


a
b
Exercise IV.14. Suppose u =
and v =
are non-zero vectors, and
c
d

a b
let A be the matrix with columns u and v; i.e. A =
. Show (alc d
gebraically) that det(A) = 0 if and only if u, v are parallel. Explain this
geometrically.

28

IV. MATRICESREAD ON YOUR OWN

IV.7. Rotations
We saw above some examples of transformations in the plane: reflection, stretching, projection. In this
section we take a closer look at rotax
be a point in R2 . Suppose that this
tions about the origin. Let P =
y
point is rotated anticlockwise about the origin
through an angle of . We
0
x
want to write down the new point P 0 = 0 in terms of x, y and . The
y
easiest way to do this to use polar coordinates. Let the distance of P from

the origin O be r and let the angle OP makes with the positive x-axis be
; in other words the polar coordinates for P are (r, ). Thus
x = r cos ,

y = r sin .

Since we rotated P anticlockwise about the origin through an angle to

obtain P 0 , the polar coordinates for P 0 are (r, + ). Thus
x 0 = r cos( + ),

y 0 = r sin( + ).

We expand cos( + ) to obtain

x 0 = r cos( + )
= r cos cos r sin sin
= x cos y sin .
Similarly
y 0 = x sin + y cos .
We can rewrite the two relations
x 0 = x cos y sin ,

y 0 = x sin + y cos ,

in matrix notation as follows

0

x
cos sin x
=
.
y0
sin cos y
Thus anticlockwise rotation about the origin through an angle can be
achieved by multiplying by the matrix 1

cos sin
R =
.
sin cos
Exercise IV.15. You know that R represents anticlockwise rotation about
the origin through angle . Describe in words the transformation associated to R . (Warning: dont be rash!)

cos 4
sin 4

sin 4
cos 4

x
=
y

1Is this clever . . . or lame:

Gutted that the chapter on matrices is coming to an end? Cackle.

Youll get to gorge (binge?) on them in Linear Algebra.

CHAPTER V

Groups
V.1. The Definition of a Group
A group is a pair (G, ) where G is a set and is a binary operation on
G, such that the following four properties hold 1
(i) (closure) for all a, b G, a b G;
(ii) (associativity) for all a, b, c G,
a (b c) = (a b) c;
(iii) (existence of the identity element) there is an element e G such
that for all a G,
a e = e a = a;
(iv) (existence of inverses) for every a G, there is an element b G
(called the inverse of a) such that
a b = b a = e.
Remark. If is a binary operation then (i) automatically holds. So why
did I list (i) in the definition? Ive put it in for good measure! When you
suspect an operation gives you a group the first thing you should check is
that the operation is really a binary operation.
V.2. First Examples (and Non-Examples)
Example V.1. (R, +) is a group. We know already that addition is a binary
operation on R, so closure holds. We know addition of real numbers
is associative. What is the identity element? We want an element e R
so that a + e = e + a = a for all a R. It is clear that e = 0 works and
is the only possible choice. Moreover, the (additive) inverse of a is a:
a + (a) = (a) + a = 0.

Example V.2. Recall our definition of the natural numbers:

N = {0, 1, 2, . . . }.
Is (N, +) a group? Conditions (i), (ii) are satisfied. For condition (iii) we
can take the identity element to be 0 (again the only possible choice).
199% of mathematicians call (i)(iv) the group axioms, and you can call them that

if you wish. I call them the defining properties of a group since I think that the word
axiom should be reserved for statements of universal truth. An example of an axiom is:
a + b = b + a for any two integers a, b.
29

30

V. GROUPS

But (iv) does not hold. For example, if we take a = 1, there is no b N

such that a + b = b + a = 0. Thus (N, +) is not a group.

Example V.3. (Z, +), (Q, +) and (C, +) are groups.

Example V.4. Recall we defined

R = { R : 6= 0}.
Then (R , ) is a group, where of course means multiplication. Again
closure and associativity are obvious. If e is the identity element then it
has to satisfy e = e = for all R. Thus e = 1 and this is the only
choice possible. Then the inverse of is 1 .
We can define C and Q in the same way and obtain groups (C , )
and (Q , ).
Can we obtain from Z a group with respect to multiplication? In view
of the above, the obvious candidate is
U = { Z : 6= 0}.
But (U , ) is not a group. It is true that (i), (ii) and (iii) hold with 1 being
the identity element. But, for example, 2 U does not have an inverse:
there is no b U such that b 2 = 2 b = 1. So (U , ) is not a group. But
the answer is not no; all weve done is shown that the obvious choice for
a group (Z , ) made up of integers does not work. Well return to this
question and answer it fully in Section XV.4.

Example V.5. (R2 , +) is a group. Lets prove this. Were allowed to assume
the usual properties of the real numbers (see Section III.8). The elements
of R2 are pairs (a 1 , a 2 ) where a 1 , a 2 are real numbers. Addition is defined
by
(a 1 , a 2 ) + (b 1 , b 2 ) = (a 1 + b 1 , a 2 + b 2 ).
Note that the entries a 1 + b 1 and a 2 + b 2 are real numbers, and so (a 1 +
b 1 , a 2 + b 2 ) is a pair of real numbers. Hence (a 1 + b 2 , a 2 + b 2 ) is in R2 . In
other words, R2 is closed under addition, which shows that (R2 , +) satisfies condition (i). Next we want to prove associativity of addition. Consider a, b, c in R2 . We can write
a = (a 1 , a 2 ),

b = (b 1 , b 2 ),

c = (c 1 , c 2 ).

Here a 1 , a 2 , b 1 , b 2 and c 1 , c 2 are real numbers. Note that

(a + b) + c = ((a 1 + b 1 ) + c 1 , (a 2 + b 2 ) + c 2 ) .
Likewise,
a + (b + c) = (a 1 + (b 1 + c 1 ), a 2 + (b 2 + c 2 )) .
Because addition of real numbers is associative, we know that
(a 1 + b 1 ) + c 1 = a 1 + (b 1 + c 1 ),

(a 2 + b 2 ) + c 2 = a 2 + (b 2 + c 2 ).

Hence
(a + b) + c = a + (b + c).
This shows that (R , +) satisfies (ii).
2

V.3. ABELIAN GROUPS

31

Next we need an identity element, and the obvious candidate is 0 =

(0, 0). Then
(a 1 , a 2 ) + (0, 0) = (a 1 + 0, a 2 + 0) = (a 1 , a 2 ),
and
(0, 0) + (a 1 , a 2 ) = (0 + a 1 , 0 + a 2 ) = (a 1 , a 2 ).
Thus (iii) is satisfied.
Finally we want an inverse. If a = (a 1 , a 2 ) is in R2 then the inverse
we choose (theres no other choice) is b = (a 1 , a 2 ). This is in R2 and
satisfies
a + b = b + a = (0, 0).
Hence (iv) is satisfied and so (R2 , +) is a group.
If you got bored reading this then you have my sympathy; I was bored
typing it. What matters is that you realize that the properties of addition
no magic yet in R2 are not there by divine covenant nor by magic; they simply follow
from the definition of addition in R2 and corresponding properties of the
real numbers. I can write down similar proofs for Examples V.6, V.7, and
V.8, but I darent try your patience with the interminable tedium.

Example V.6. (Rn , +) is a group for any n 2.

Example V.7. (R[x], +) is a group.

Example V.8. (M mn (K ), +) are groups for K = C, R, Q, Z, with 0mn the

identity element.

Example V.9. All the groups we have met so far are infinite. Here is an
example of a finite group. Let A = {+1, 1}. Then (A, ) is a group (where
of course is multiplication).

p
Example V.10. Let B = {1, i , 1, i }, where i = 1. Then (B, ) is another
example of a finite group.

Example V.11. Let C = {1, i }. Then (C , ) is not a group since it isnt closed;
for example i i = 1 C .

V.3. Abelian Groups

We say that a group (G, ) is abelian if (in addition to the defining
properties (i)(iv) of a group) it also satisfies
(v) (commutativity) for all a, b G,
a b = b a.
Example V.12. All the groups we have seen above are actually abelian:
(R, +), (C, +), (Q, +), (R[x], +), (Rn , +), (R , ), (C , ), (M mn (R), +), . . .

Are there any non-abelian groups? There are many, but perhaps not
ones that youre used to thinking about. In the next section we give an
example of a non-abelian group.

32

V. GROUPS

V.4. Symmetries of a Square

In many ways the examples above are misleading for three reasons:
Most of the examples of groups we have met above have additional structure. For example, in R we can add, but we can also
multiply and we can divide by non-zero numbers. In fact R is an
example of a field. Like in R2 we have addition and scalar multiplication, so R2 is an example of a vector space. This doesnt
stop (R, +) and (R2 , +) from being groups, but if you want to test
your own ideas in group theory, it is best to also look at examples
where there arent any of these additional structures.
The groups above are abelian. The theory of abelian groups is
rather close in flavour to linear algebra. Many of the most interesting groups that youll come across during your degree will be
non-abelian.
All the groups above, except for Example V.9, are infinite. Although infinite groups are important and interesting, most theorems we will do in this course will apply only to finite groups.
Thus it is essential to become familiar with examples of finite
groups.
The group of symmetries of a square is a great example of a group; it is shameless hard sell
finite, non-abelian and there is no additional structure. In future, this will
be an excellent example to test any ideas you have on groups. Consider
a square as in Figure V.1 with vertices labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 (note the vertex
numbering goes in an anticlockwise direction). Let O be the centre of the
square.
The symmetries of the square are the rotations and reflections that
keep the square occupying exactly the same position (but might change
where the vertex numbers are). Let 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 be anticlockwise rotations of the square about O by 0 , 90 , 180 and 270 . In effect, 0 means
do nothing. We think of two symmetries as being the same if they have
the same effect on the square. A rotation about O of 360 has the same effect 0 . A clockwise rotation about O of 90 has the same effect as 3 . We
quickly see that 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 are the only rotations that keep the square
in exactly the same position.
What about reflections? There are four reflections that keep the square
occupying exactly the same position, as in Figure V.1:
0 the reflection about the diagonal joining the top-right vertex
to the bottom-left vertex;
1 the reflection about the line joining the midpoint of top side
and the midpoint of bottom side;
2 the reflection about the diagonal joining top-left vertex and
the bottom-right vertex;
3 the reflection about the line joining the midpoint of the left
side and the midpoint of the right side.

V.4. SYMMETRIES OF A SQUARE

33

2
2

3
O

F IGURE V.1. Left: the square with vertices labelled 1, 2, 3,

4. Right: the reflections 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 .

Thus the symmetries of a square form a set which we shall denote by

D 4 = { 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 }.
We talked about a group of symmetries, so it is not enough to just list
the symmetries, but we have to specify a binary operation. If we have
two symmetries, how do we combine them? In other words, if , D 4 ,
what is ? We define to be the symmetry we obtain by doing
first then (the order is very important and well talk more about this
later). Thus 1 2 is anticlockwise rotation about O of 180 followed by
anticlockwise rotation about O of 90 . This has the same effect as 3 .
Thus we write 1 2 = 3 .
Lets try another composition: 1 0 . In other words, first reflect in
the diagonal joining 1 and 3, then rotate anticlockwise about O by 90 .
This has the same effect at 1 and we can write 1 0 = 1 . Also (draw
pictures) 1 0 = 1 and 2 2 = 0 (note that 0 means do nothing).
Now we know how to do composition we can write out a composition
table:

0
1
2
3
0
1
2
3

0
0
1
2
3
0
1
2
3

1
1
2
3
0
3
0
1
2

2
2
3
0
1
2
3
0
1

3
3
0
1
2
1
2
3
0

0
0
1
2
3
0
1
2
3

1
1
2
3
0
3
0
1
2

2
2
3
0
1
2
3
0
1

3
3
0
1
2
1
2
3
0

34

V. GROUPS

It is not worth your while to check every entry in the table, but make
sure you check four or five entries at random to get an idea of how to
compose symmetries, and let me know if Ive made any mistakes!
I want to convince you that (D 4 , ) is a group. The first thing we should
ask about is closure. This is clear from the table; when you compose two
elements of D 4 you get an element of D 4 . Lets skip associativity for now
and talk about the existence of the identity element. For this we dont
need the table. It is clear that 0 (=do nothing) is an identity element.
It is also (geometrically) clear that every element has an inverse which
does belong to D 4 . If you reflect twice in the same line you end up where
you started, so i i = 0 ; in other words, i is its own inverse for i =
0, 1, 2, 3. The inverse of an anticlockwise rotation around O by 90 is an
anticlockwise rotation around O by 270 . We find that the inverses of 0 ,
1 , 2 and 3 respectively are 0 , 3 , 2 and 1 .
Whats left is to prove associativity. So we have to prove that ( f g )h =
f (g h) for all f , g , h D 4 . But there are 512 triples f , g , h, so thats a lot
of checking. Is there a clever way? Yes there is, and it relies on thinking
about the elements of D 4 as functions 1. Remember that we labelled the
vertices of the square with 1, 2, 3, 4 as in Figure V.1. Now 1 takes vertex
1 to where vertex 2 was and vertex 2 to where vertex 3 was and vertex 3 to
where vertex 4 was and vertex 4 to where vertex 1 was. We can think of 1
as a function from {1, 2, 3, 4} to itself as in Figure V.2.
1

F IGURE V.2. 1 (left) and 0 (right) considered as functions from {1, 2, 3, 4} to itself.
In fact, this way every element of D 4 can be thought of as a function a key trick
from {1, 2, 3, 4} to itself. If we think like this, simply becomes composition of functions from D 4 to itself. We know that composition of functions is associative by Lemma III.2. Thus the binary operation on D 4 is
1Youve seen this idea before: in the proof of Theorem IV.9 we showed that matrix

multiplication is associative by thinking of matrices as functions and matrix multiplication as composition of functions.

V.4. SYMMETRIES OF A SQUARE

35

associative. We have now checked all the conditions (i)(iv) for a group,
so (D 4 , ) is a group!
Remarks.

Moral

non-abelian group

Notice that by changing the way we looked at the elements of D 4 ,

we saved ourselves from excruciatingly checking 512 laborious
cases. This is a recurring theme in algebra, where a conceptual
outlook saves you from much trouble.
You might have found our definition of composition in D 4 strange:
means apply first then . The reason for this choice is that
we want to sometimes think of the elements of D 4 as functions,
and when we do that we want composition in D 4 to agree with
the usual composition of functions. Recall that f g means apply
g first then f .
D 4 is our first example of a non-abelian group. To check that it
isnt abelian all we have to do is give a pair of symmetries that
dont commute. For example,
0 1 = 3 ,

1 0 = 1 .

V.4.1. Subgroups of D 4 . The set D 4 contains rotations and reflections.

Let us now look at the rotations on their own and the reflections on their
own:
R = { 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 },
S = {0 , 1 , 2 , 3 }.
For now let us look at the part of the composition table that involves only
rotations:
0 1 2 3
0 0 1 2 3
1 1 2 3 0
2 2 3 0 1
3 3 0 1 2
Notice from the table that if we compose two rotations we obtain a rotation. We didnt really need the table for this; its geometrically obvious.
Thus is a binary operation on R (as well as being a binary operation
on D 4 ). We can ask whether (R, ) is a group, and it is easy to see that
the answer is yes (with the same reasoning as before). We have an interesting phenomenon, which is a group (R, ) contained in another group
(D 4 , ). We say that (R, ) is a subgroup of (D 4 , ). We will discuss subgroups at length later. It is also interesting to note that (R, ) is abelian.
An algebraic way of seeing the (R, ) is abelian is to note that its composition table is symmetric about the leading diagonal. But you should also
see geometrically that if you compose two rotations (centred at the same
point) then the order does not matter. So (R, ) is an abelian subgroup of
the non-abelian group (D 4 , ).
What about (S, )? Do the reflections of the square form a group? By
looking at the composition table the first thing we notice is that S is not

36

V. GROUPS

closed under composition. So (S, ) is not a group. Are there any other
subgroups inside (D 4 , ) besides (R, )? Yes. See Figure V.3 for a complete
list.
(D 4 , )

({ 0 , 2 , 0 , 2 }, )

({ 0 , 0 }, )

({ 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 }, )

({ 0 , 2 }, )

({ 0 , 2 }, )

({ 0 , 2 , 1 , 3 }, )

({ 0 , 1 }, )

({ 0 , 3 }, )

({ 0 }, )
F IGURE V.3. The figure shows the subgroups of (D 4 , ) and
how they fit inside each other.
Again, check that a couple of these are subgroups. Dont waste time
checking there arent other subgroups of (D 4 , ); when you know a lot
more about groups and subgroups you can come back to this question,
but even then it will still be a little tedious!
Exercise V.13. In this exercise you will write out the composition table for
the group D 3 which is the group of symmetries of an equilateral triangle.
Sketch an equilateral triangle and label the vertices 1, 2, 3 in anticlockwise order. Label the centre of the triangle with O. Let 0 , 1 , 2 denote
anticlockwise rotations about O through angles 0, 2/3 and 4/3. Let 1 ,
2 , 3 denote reflections about the lines respectively joining vertices 1, 2,
3 to O. Let
D 3 = { 0 , 1 , 2 , 1 , 2 , 3 }.
Write down a composition table for D 3 and explain why it is a group 1. Is
it abelian? It has six subgroups; write them down.
Exercise V.14. Write down the symmetries of a triangle that is isoceles
but not equilateral and a composition table for them. Do they form a
group?

1More generally, D denotes the group of symmetries of a regular polygon with n

n

sides. These are called the dihedral groups. Some mathematicians denote D n by D 2n
because it has 2n elements. Mysteriously, they dont denote S n by S n! .

CHAPTER VI

First Theorems
Our first two theorems deal with subconscious assumptions. One of
the defining properties of a group is the existence of the identity element
(property (iii)). The word the contains a hidden assumption; how do we
know there is only one identity element? Shouldnt we be talking about
the existence of an identity element?
Theorem VI.1. Let (G, ) be a group. Then (G, ) has a unique identity
element.
P ROOF. Suppose that e and e 0 are identity elements. Thus, for all a G
we have
(VI.15)

a e = e a = a,

and
(VI.16)

a e 0 = e 0 a = a.

Now let us try evaluating e e 0 . If we let a = e and use (VI.16) we find

e e 0 = e.
But if we let a = e 0 and use (VI.15) we find
e e 0 = e 0.
Thus e = e 0 . In other words, the identity element is unique.

Theorem VI.2. Let (G, ) be a group and let a be an element of G. Then a

has a unique inverse.
P ROOF. Our proof follows the same pattern as the proof of Theorem VI.1,
and youll see this pattern again and again during your undergraduate
key trick! career. Almost all uniqueness proofs follow the same pattern: suppose
that there are two of the thing that we want to prove unique; show that
these two must be equal; therefore it is unique.
For our proof we suppose that b and c are both inverses of a. We want
to show that b = c. By definition of inverse (property (iv) in the definition
of a group) we know that
a b = b a = e,

a c = c a = e,
37

38

VI. FIRST THEOREMS

where e is of course the identity element of the group. Thus

b = b e

by (iii) in the definition of a group

= b (a c)

from the above a c = e

= (b a) c

by (i) in the definition of a group

= e c
=c

from the above b a = e

by (iii) again.

Thus b = c. Since any two inverses of a must be equal, we see that the
inverse of a is unique.

VI.1. Getting Relaxed about Notation
It is quite tedious to keep writing for the group operation. If (G, ) is
a group and a, b G, we shall write ab for a b, unless there is reason to
fear confusion. For example if (G, ) = (R, +) then it is stupid to write ab
for a + b because the usual meaning for ab is a b. But it is OK most of
the time, and when it is OK we will do it. Moreover, we shall often say let
G be a group, without giving an explicit name to the binary operation.
When we talk of the groups R, R2 , R[x], R , etc. we shall mean the groups
(R, +), (R2 , +), (R[x], +), (R , ), etc.
If G is a group, and were writing ab for a b, then it makes sense to
use 1 to denote the identity element instead of e. We write a 1 for the
(unique) inverse of a. Now
aa 1 = a 1 a = 1,
which looks familiar. Moreover, if n is a positive integer we shall write
a n = |aa{z
a} .
n times

n 1

We let a = 1 and a = (a ) . Again we should reflect a little to make

sure were not being reckless. Does a 3 mean (a a) a or a (a a)? It
doesnt matter because of the associativity property of a group.
Example VI.3. Let be the binary operation on S = {a, b, c} in Example III.3. Note that (S, ) most definitely is not a group, as is not associative. Now you can check that
(a a) a = a,

a (a a) = c.

Thus writing a in this context does not make any sense.

Lets get back to groups. Its the associativity which makes it OK for us
to write a n , and you can convince yourself quickly that
(a m )n = a mn ,

a m a n = a m+n .

You should realize that all this is happening inside the group G that contains the element a. In particular, a n G for all n Z. How do we know
this? For a start, G is closed under composition, so because a G, so
is a 2 = a a. Now that we know that a and a 2 are in G, we know that

VI.1. GETTING RELAXED ABOUT NOTATION

39

a 3 = a a 2 G and so on. You can use induction to show that a n G for

n = 1, 2, 3, . . . . Also 1 G (because 1 is the symbol were using for the identity element of G). And weve adopted the convention a 0 = 1, so a 0 G.
We also want to check that a 1 , a 2 , . . . are in G. But a n = (a n )1 , and
since a n is already in G for positive n, so is its inverse.

an algebraic booby
What about (ab)n = a n b n ? Does this identity hold too? Let us think
trap about this with n = 2. Now in the old notation 1
(ab)2 = a b a b
and
a 2 b 2 = a a b b.
Do these have to be the same? No, because the order of the middle two is
different and since were not assuming that our group is abelian we have
no right to assume that b a = a b.
Example VI.4. In D 4 you can check that
21 20 = 2 ,

( 1 0 )2 = 0 ,

and so 21 20 6= ( 1 0 )2 .

Let us summarize our findings.

Theorem VI.5. Let G be a group, and let a G. Then a n G for all n Z.
Moreover, if m, n are integers then
(a m )n = a mn ,

a m a n = a m+n .

Further, if the group G is abelian, a, b G and n an integer then

(ab)n = a n b n .
Here is a crucial result that you should get used to.
Theorem VI.6. Let G be a group and a, b G. Then
(ab)1 = b 1 a 1 .
Notice that we reverse the order when taking inverse. You have probably seen this before when you did matrices at school.
P ROOF. Were being asked to prove that b 1 a 1 is the inverse of ab. So we
want to show that
(b 1 a 1 )(ab) = 1 = (ab)(b 1 a 1 ).
Now
(b 1 a 1 )(ab) = b 1 (a 1 a)b
=b

by associativity

1b

= 1,
1Perhaps you think that I should write (ab)2 = (a b) (a b), but because of asso-

ciativity the bracketing does not matter. Whichever bracketing you apply to a b a b
you will get the same result.

40

VI. FIRST THEOREMS

and similarly (ab)(b 1 a 1 ) = 1.

Never write a/b unless the group is abelian. This notation is ambigu- pitfall
ous; does a/b mean b 1 a or ab 1 ? The two arent the same in the nonabelian world.
Exercise VI.7. Use D 4 to give counterexamples to the following:
b 1 a = ab 1 ,
(ab)1 = a 1 b 1 ,
a 1 ba = b.
Exercise VI.8. Let G be a group satisfying a 2 = 1 for all a in G. Show that
G is abelian.
VI.2. Additive Notation
For some groups the binary operation is addition (whatever that means).
These include (R, +), (Z, +), (R[x], +), (R2 , +) etc. An important convention is that additive notation is only ever used for abelian groups. A multiplicative group can be abelian, such as (R , ), and can be non-abelian,
such as (D 4 , ).
You need to rephrase statements appropriately when using additive
notation. For example, instead of speaking of
a n = |aa{z
a},
n times

you need to talk about

na = |a + a +
{z + a} .
n times

We will mostly state and prove theorems in multiplicative notation, but

its up to you to translate these into additive notation for groups where
the binary operation is addition. Lets do this for Theorem VI.5. Here is
the translation.
Theorem VI.9. Let G be an (abelian) group with addition as the binary
operation, and let a G. Then na G for all n Z. Moreover, if m, n are
integers then
m(na) = (mn)a,

ma + na = (m + n)a.

Further, if a, b G and n an integer then

n(a + b) = na + nb.

CHAPTER VII

More Examples of Groups

Examples are an integral part of abstract algebra, and give it meaning
and life. They are as important as the definitions and theorems. For this
reason, Ive crammed these notes with examples. Dont just flick through
them saying, yeah, yeah, thats obvious. Make a serious effort to study
exam tip! them, and know them for the exam. And enjoy them.
VII.1. Matrix Groups I
We saw that (M 22 (R), +) is a group. This in fact is not an interesting group, because addition of matrices is not a very interesting operation. Multiplication of matrices is a far more interesting and natural operation; as we saw, if A, B represent certain geometric operations (e.g.
scaling, reflection, rotation, etc.) then B A is the operation that one obtains from doing A first then B ; if this doesnt sound familiar look again at
Section IV.4 and in particular at Example IV.8. Can we obtain a group out
of (say) 2 2 matrices under multiplication?
To answer, lets look back to Example V.4. There we obtained a multiplicative group from the real numbers by removing 0. Of course we removed 0 because it doesnt have a multiplicative inverse. It will not be
enough for us to exclude the zero matrix, simply because there are nonzero matrices that do not have an inversesee for example IV.10. What
if we exclude all non-invertible matrices; do we get a group under multiplication?
Define

a b
GL2 (R) =
: a, b, c, d R and ad bc 6= 0 .
c d

Recall that ad bc is the determinant of the 2 2-matrix ac db , and the
matrix is invertible if and only if this determinant is non-zero (Theorem IV.11). So GL2 (R) contains all the invertible 2 2 matrices (with real
entries) and none of the non-invertible ones.
Theorem VII.1. GL2 (R) is group under multiplication of matrices.
We call GL2 (R) the general linear group.
P ROOF. The first thing to check is that GL2 (R) is closed under multiplication. If A and B are in GL2 (R) then AB is a 2 2 matrix with real entries.
Also, we know that det(AB ) = det(A) det(B ) (by Theorem IV.12). Because
A and B have non-zero determinants, so does AB . So AB is in GL2 (R).
41

42

VII. MORE EXAMPLES OF GROUPS

Next we want to show associativity. But we already know that matrix

multiplication is associative thanks
to Theorem IV.9.
The identity matrix I 2 = 10 01 is in GL2 (R) and is the multiplicative
identity element; it satisfies AI 2 = I 2 A = A for any 2 2 matrix A. Finally,
we should ask if every matrix in GL2 (R) has an inverse. We cooked up
GL2 (R) so every element is invertible, but we need to make sure that the
inverse is also in GL2 (R). If A GL2 (R) then det(A) 6= 0. We know by Theorem IV.12 that det(A 1 ) 6= 0 and indeed det(A 1 ) = 1/ det(A). Moreover,
A 1 is a 2 2 matrix with real entries. Hence A 1 GL2 (R).

We can define GL2 (Q) and GL2 (C) in a similar way and show that they
are groups. However, as this very important exercise shows. . .
Exercise VII.2. Show that

a b
: a, b, c, d Z and ad bc 6= 0
c d
is not a group with respect to multiplication.
It turns out that there is a natural definition for a group GL2 (Z). Well
return to this in Example XV.24.
VII.2. Congruence Classes
Let m 2 be an integer. By Z/mZ we mean the set of congruence
classes modulo m. In Foundations this is denoted by Z/m and in most
algebra textbooks by Zm . Our notation is the least economical, but also Zm vs. Z/mZ
the least arbitrary. I have an excellent reason for writing Z/mZ instead of
Z/m and Zm . I want you to get used to the notation of quotient groups
which well cover in Chapter XIII.
If a is an integer, we shall write a for the congruence class of a modulo
m. Thus
a = {. . . , a 3m, a 2m, a m, a, a + m, a + 2m, a + 3m, . . . }.
In otherwords, a consists of all integers congruent to a modulo m. From
Foundations you know that
Z/mZ = {0, 1, 2, . . . , m 1}
and that the classes 0, 1, . . . , m 1 are distinct, so Z/mZ consists of exactly m classes. You know how addition and multiplication is defined on
Z/mZ:
a + b = a + b,
a b = ab.
Example VII.3. The addition and multiplication tables for Z/6Z are in
Table VII.1.

Exercise VII.4. Write down the addition and multiplication tables for Z/4Z
and Z/5Z.

VII.2. CONGRUENCE CLASSES

0 1 2 3 4 5

0 1 2 3 4 5

0 1 2 3 4 5

0 0 0 0 0 0

1 2 3 4 5 0

0 1 2 3 4 5

2 3 4 5 0 1

0 2 4 0 2 4

3 4 5 0 1 2

0 3 0 3 0 3

4 5 0 1 2 3

0 4 2 0 4 2

5 0 1 2 3 4

0 5 4 3 2 1

43

TABLE VII.1. The addition and multiplication tables for Z/6Z.

Theorem VII.5. Let m be an integer satisfying m 2. Then (Z/mZ, +) is

an abelian group.
P ROOF. To show that Z/mZ a group, we want to check that Z/mZ is closed
under addition, that addition is associative, that there is an identity element, and that every element has an additive inverse.
We defined Z/mZ to be the set of congruence classes modulo m. We
defined the sum of classes a and b to be a + b which is a congruence class
modulo m. So Z/mZ is closed under addition. Lets prove associativity.
Note
(a + b) + c = a + b + c
= (a + b) + c
= a + (b + c)

addition in Z is associative

= a +b +c
= a + (b + c).
Thus addition in Z/mZ is associative. Obviously 0 is the additive identity.
What about the additive inverse? Note that a + a = 0 so every class has
an additive inverse 1.
Thus (Z/mZ, +) is a group. We leave the proof that it is abelian as an
easy exercise.


1Perhaps you prefer the inverse of a where 0 0 < m to be of the form b where b

also satisfies 0 b < m. In this case, if 0 < a < m, the observe that 0 < m a < m, and
a + m a = 0, since a + (m a) 0 (mod m). Moreover 0 0 (mod m), thus 0 = 0.

CHAPTER VIII

Orders and Lagranges Theorem

We return to using multiplicative notation. In Theorem VI.5 we observed that if G is a group containing an element a, then a n is also in G
for all integers n. It seems at first sight that this makes every group infinite: just pick an element a and you have an infinite list of elements
. . . , a 4 , a 3 , a 2 , a 1 , 1, a, a 2 , a 3 , a 4 , a 5 , . . . .
The group D 4 is finite, so what goes wrong? Take a = 1 D 4 which represents anti-clockwise rotation by 90 . Then a 4 = 1. Thus the seemingly
infinite list above simply becomes
. . . , 1, a, a 2 , a 3 , 1, a, a 2 , a 3 , 1, . . . .
In reality the list consists of exactly four elements 1, a, a 2 , a 3 .
VIII.1. The Order of an Element
The above discussion leads us to the following definition.
Definition. The order of an element a in a group G is the smallest positive integer n such that a n = 1. If there is no such positive integer n, we
say a has infinite order.
Example VIII.1. The order of 1 is D 4 is 4. The order of 2 is 2. The order
of 0 is 1. What are the orders of the other elements?

Example VIII.2. In (R , ), the element 1 has order 1 and the element 1

has order 2. What is the order of 7? Is there a positive integer n such that
7n = 1? No. Thus 7 has infinite order.
What are the elements of finite order in R . These are the non-zero
real numbers a such that a n = 1 for some positive integer n. You should
know that the only such real numbers are 1 and 1. So the only elements
of finite order in R are 1 and 1 and all the other elements have infinite
order.

Example VIII.3. When you saw the equation a n = 1 in the above example, Im sure you immediately remembered the n-th roots of unity! The
n-th roots of unity dont all live in R; they live in C. In fact, they live in C .
For concreteness we take n = 3. You will know from Foundations that
there are three cube roots of unity. These are 1, , 2 , where = e 2i /3 . See
Figure VIII.1. Let us think of these inside the group C . Then and 2
45

46

VIII. ORDERS AND LAGRANGES THEOREM

have order 3. Lets check this for 2 . We note

(2 )1 = 2 ,

(2 )2 = 4 = 3 = ,

(2 )3 = (3 )2 = 12 = 1.

So the least positive integer n such that (2 )n = 1 is n = 3, so 2 has order

3. Dont forget that 1 has order 1. So there are three cube roots of unity.
Two have order 3 and one has order 1.
Now let us think briefly about the fourth roots of unity. These are
1, i , i 2 , i 3 . Again see Figure VIII.1. Note that i 2 = 1 and i 3 = i . Of the
four, only two have order 4 and these are i and i 3 (check). Of course, 1
has order 2 and 1 has order 1.

F IGURE VIII.1. On the left, the three cube roots of unity:

here = e 2i /3 . On the right, the four fourth roots of unity.
Note that e 2i /4 = e i /2 = i , so the fourth roots of unity are
1, i , i 2 = 1, and i 3 = i .

Exercise VIII.4. Write down and sketch the sixth roots of unity. What are
their orders? Repeat with the eighth roots of unity.
Exercise VIII.5. C has plenty of elements of infinite order. Write down a
few.
Exercise VIII.6. Let G = GL2 (R). Show that

0 1
1 1
A=
,
B=
1 0
0 1
belong to G. Determine their orders.
Whilst reading the above examples and working out your own, the following observations will have dawned on you (given here in multiplicative notation).
Lemma VIII.7. Let G be a group and g be an element of G.
(i) g has order 1 if and only if g is the identity element.
(ii) Let m be a non-zero integer. Then g m = 1 if and only if g has
finite order d with d | m.

abstract algebra is the d**s b*******

VIII.1. THE ORDER OF AN ELEMENT

47

P ROOF. Let G be a group. Suppose g has order 1. By definition of order,

g 1 = 1. Thus g = 1 which is the identity element of G. Conversely, the
identity element clearly has order 1. This proves (i).
Part (ii) is an if and only if statement. Suppose that g has order d and
d | m. Then g d = 1 and m = qd where q is an integer. So g m = (g d )q = 1.
Let us prove the converse. Suppose g m = 1 where m is a non-zero integer.
Then g |m| = 1, and |m| is a positive integer. Thus g has finite order, which
we denote by d . Using division with remainder, we may write
m = qd + r,

q, r Z and 0 r < d .

Now g d = 1 by definition of order, so 1 = g m = (g d )q g r = g r . But 0 r <

d . As d is the order, it is the least positive integer such that g d = 1. So
g r = 1 is possible with 0 r < d if and only if r = 0. This happens if and
only if m = qd which is the same as d | m.

Exercise VIII.8. Let G be an abelian group. Suppose a, b are elements
of orders m and n. Let d = lcm(m, n). Show that (ab)d = 1, ensuring
that you point out where you have used the fact the G is abelian. Give
a counterexample to show that this does not have to be true if G is nonabelian. Hint: Look at D 3 .
Now we return to our examples. Weve looked at various multiplicative groups, but what about additive groups? If (G, +) is a group where
the binary operation is addition, what is the order of an element a? Of
course, it is the smallest positive integer n such that na = 0. If there is no
such positive integer that a has infinite order.
Example VIII.9. In (R, +), (Z, +), (R[x], +), (Z, +), the only element of finite order is 0, which has order 1. All other elements have infinite order.
How do we know this. Look at the equation na = 0 with a in the group
and n a positive integer. We can divide both sides by n and obtain a = 0.

Youre probably wondering if in every additive group, the identity element 0 is the only one of finite order. The following example shows that
this isnt true.
Example VIII.10. Observe that in (Z/mZ, +), every element a has finite
order. Indeed, ma 0 (mod m) and so ma = 0. This does not mean
that every element has order m, since the order of a is defined to be
the least positive integer n such that na = 0. However, we do know by
Lemma VIII.7 that the order n is a divisor of m.
Let us look at the elements of (Z/6Z, +) and determine their orders.
We quickly find that 0 has order 1 (as usual); 1 and 5 have order 6; 2 and 4
have order 3; and 3 has order 2.

Exercise VIII.11. Find the orders of the elements of (Z/4Z, +) and (Z/5Z, +).

48

VIII. ORDERS AND LAGRANGES THEOREM

VIII.2. Lagranges TheoremVersion 1

Mathematics is unique in that supreme beauty goes hand in hand
with tremendous power. Lagranges Theorem is one of the loveliest examples of such a combination of qualities, and were almost ready to meet
it. I know youre brimming with excitement, but please be a little patient; self-control advised
we need one more definition.
Definition. Let G be a group. The order of G is the number of elements
that G has. We denote the order of G by |G| or #G.
Theorem VIII.12. (Lagranges TheoremVersion 1) Let G be a finite group,
and let g be an element of G. The order of g divides the order of G.
The proof of Lagranges Theorem will have to wait till Chapter XII.
Heres a useful corollary.
Corollary VIII.13. Let G be a finite group of order n, and let g be an element of G. Then g n = 1.
P ROOF. Let d be the order of g . By definition of the order of an element,
g d = 1. By Lagranges Theorem, d divides n. Thus n = kd for some integer
k. Now
g n = (g d )k = 1k = 1,
which is what we set out to prove.

Example VIII.14. Lagranges Theorem applies to finite groups of which
you havent seen many examples yet. One example of a finite group is D 4
which has order 8. So every element of D 4 must have order dividing 8. In
fact the elements of D 4 have orders 1, 2 and 4.

Example VIII.15. The set {1, i , 1, i } forms a group of order 4 under

multiplication (convince yourself that this is true). Then 1 has order 1; 1
has order 2; i and i have order 4. This is all consistent with Lagranges
Theorem.

CHAPTER IX

Subgroups
Excruciating pain
It will be a long time before you come to appreciate and enjoy groups.
precedes orgasmic Abstract algebra goes from being mind-numbingly boring to being an acpleasure! quired taste and then an exhilarating experience and finallyif youre not
carefula hopeless addiction. Were still in the mind-numbingly boring
part of the journey; you should see this part as an initiation rite that cant
be skipped.
IX.1. What Were They Again?
We met subgroups in the last chapter when we discussed the group
D 4 . Let us write down the formal definition.
Definition. Let (G, ) be a group. Let H be a subset of G and suppose that
(H , ) is also a group. Then we say that H is a subgroup of G (or more
formally (H , ) is a subgroup of (G, )).
For H to be a subgroup of G, we want H to a group with respect to the
same binary operation that makes G a group.

a trivial but Example IX.1. R is a subset of R and both are groups. But R is not a
important example subgroup of R, since the operation that makes R a group is multiplication and the operation that makes R a group is addition.

Example IX.2. Z is a subgroup of R (or more formally, (Z, +) is a subgroup

of (R, +)); because Z is a subset of R and both are groups with respect to
the same binary operation which is addition.

Example IX.3. R is a subgroup of R[x] since any real number can be viewed
as a polynomial of degree 0.

Example IX.4. (;, +) is not a subgroup of (R, +), simply because (;, +)
is not a group; a group has to be non-empty since it has to contain an
identity element.

IX.2. Criterion for a Subgroup

Theorem IX.5. Let G be a group. A subset H of G is a subgroup if and only
if it satisfies the following three conditions
(a) 1 H ,
(b) if a, b H then ab H ,
(c) if a H then a 1 H .
Lets delay the proof until after weve tried out the theorem.
49

50

IX. SUBGROUPS

Example IX.6. Lets take G = R and H the subset of positive real numbers:
H = {a R : a > 0}.
Lets show that H is a subgroup of G. First, 1 is positive, so 1 H . Hence
condition (a) is satisfied.
To check (b), suppose that a, b are in H . Thus a and b are positive,
and so their product ab is also positive. Hence ab H and we know that
(b) is satisfied.
Finally, we want to check condition (b). Suppose a is an element of
H . Then a is positive, and so a 1 is positive. Hence a 1 is also an element
of H . It follows that condition (c) is satisfied.
By Theorem IX.5, H is a subgroup of R .

Example IX.7. Let

2Z = {2a : a Z} = {. . . , 6, 4, 2, 0, 2, 4, 6, . . . }.
In other words, 2Z is the set of even integers. Now 2Z is a subset of Z,
but is it a subgroup of Z? We should check the three conditions in the
theorem, where G = Z and H = 2Z. Condition (a) is 1 H . What does
that mean in our context? 1 is not the number 1. The 1 in the theorem is
the identity element for the group operation on Z. The group operation
on Z is addition. The identity element is 0. As 0 is an even number (after
all 0 = 2 0) we have 0 2Z. Thus condition (a) is satisfied.
Lets move on to condition (b). This says if a, b H then ab H .
Again ab doesnt always mean the product of a and b; it is shorthand for
a b where is the binary operation on G. Here G = Z and the binary
operation on Z is +. So to check (b) what we must check is the following
if a, b 2Z then a + b 2Z. In words this just says the sum of two even
integers is even, which is true so (b) holds.
Finally we have to interpret (c) in our context. Here a 1 is the inverse
of a with respect to addition, so it just means a. Thus to check (c) we
want to check that if a is an even integer then a is also even. Again this
is true, so (c) holds.
It follows from Theorem IX.5 that 2Z is a subgroup of Z.
By contrast, the set of odd integers
{. . . , 5, 3, 1, 1, 3, 5, . . . }
is not a subgroup of Z. For example, it does not contain the identity element 0, so does not satisfy (a).

Example IX.8. In Subsection V.4.1, we listed the ten subgroups of D 4 . Go

back to that list, and use Theorem IX.5 to verify that a couple of them are
indeed subgroups.

Example IX.9. Let

V = {(a, a) : a R}.

IX.2. CRITERION FOR A SUBGROUP

51

In other words V is the subset of R2 where the x-coordinate equals the

y-coordinate. Thus V is the line y = x in R2 . It is geometrically obvious
that V contains the origin, which is the identity element of R2 ; that if we
add two vectors belonging to it the result also belongs to it; and that if
we multiply any vector belonging to this diagonal by 1 the result also
belongs to V . Figure IX.1 will help you visualise this. But at this stage in
your academic career, you are expected to write a proof in symbols. Let
us do that:
First note that 0 = (0, 0) V . Secondly, suppose u V and v V . By
definition of V , u = (a, a) and v = (b, b) for some a, b R. Thus u + v =
(a + b, a + b) which again belongs to V . Finally, suppose that v V . By
definition of V , v = (a, a) for some a R. So v = (a, a) which is in V .
This shows that V is a subgroup of R2 .

y
V

F IGURE IX.1. The set V = {(a, a) : a R} is the line y = x. It

contains the identity element (0, 0), is closed under addition and negation. Therefore it is a subgroup of R2 .
Example IX.10. This time we take W = {(a, a) : a R, a 0}. The set W
is not all the line y = x but a ray as in Figure IX.2. Note that W does
satisfy the first two conditions (a), (b) for being a subgroup. However, it
does not satisfy condition (c); for example, v = (1, 1) belongs to W but
v = (1, 1) does not. Hence W is not subgroup of R2 .
To show that W is not a subgroup, we gave a counterexample. This
means that we gave an example to show that at least one of the requirements in the theorem is not always satisfied.

Example IX.11. Let

V = {(a, a) : a R},

V 0 = {(a, a) : a R}.

union of subgroups You know from Example IX.9 that V is a subgroup of R2 (and is the line
not (always) y = x). It is just as easy to show that V 0 (which happens to be the line y =
subgroup x) is also a subgroup of R2 . What about their union U = V V 0 ? You can
check that U satisfies conditions (a) and (c) of Theorem IX.5. However,

52

IX. SUBGROUPS

(1, 1)
x
(1, 1)
F IGURE IX.2. The ray W = {(a, a) : a R, a 0} is not a
subgroup of R2 . It contains the identity element (0, 0) and
is closed under addition. The problem is with the existence of additive inverses; e.g. (1, 1) is in W but its inverse
(1, 1) isnt in W .
(1, 1) and (1, 1) are in U but their sum (2, 0) is not in U . So U does not
satisfy (b), and is therefore not a subgroup of R2 . See Figure IX.3.
On the other hand, the intersection V V 0 = {(0, 0)} is a subgroup of
R2 .

y
V

(0, 2)

(1, 1)

V
(1, 1)
x

F IGURE IX.3. The lines y = x and y = x are subgroups of

R2 . Their union is not.
Exercise IX.12. Let G be a group and let H1 , H2 be subgroups. Show that
H1 H2 is also a subgroup of G.
Example IX.13. Lets take
C = {(a, a 3 ) : a R}.
Clearly C is a subset of R2 ; in fact it is the graph y = x 3 (see Figure IX.4).
But is it a subgroup? It contains the identity element (0, 0). Moreover,
(a, a 3 ) = (a, (a)3 ). So C satisfies condition (c) for subgroups. But
it doesnt satisfy condition (b). To show this we give a counterexample.
Note that (1, 1) is in C but (1, 1) + (1, 1) = (2, 2) is not in C .

IX.2. CRITERION FOR A SUBGROUP

53

y
C
(a, a3 )

(a, a3 )

F IGURE IX.4. The set C = {(a, a 3 ) : a R} is the graph y =

x 3 . It satisfies conditions (a) and (c) for subgroups but not
condition (b).
Example IX.14. Z2 is a subgroup of R2 .

Example IX.15. In Example IX.9 we saw that the line y = x in R2 gives us

a subgroup. In this example we would like to think about planes in R3 and
whether they give us subgroups of R3 . One way to specify a plane in R3
is via the point-normal equation which you shouldve met at A-Level, but
which we revise now. Let be a plane in R3 . Let n be a vector normal to
(by normal to we simply mean perpendicular to ) as in Figure IX.5.

Choose and fix a point Q on the plane and let u = OQ be the position

vector of Q. Suppose now that P is any point on and let x = OP be its

position vector. Note that the vector QP = x u is parallel to the plane

and so perpendicular to n. Hence n (x u) = 0. This is the point-normal
equation for the plane:
(IX.17)

: n (x u) = 0.

Here n is any (non-zero) vector normal to the plane, and u is the position
vector of any point on the plane.
The plane in (IX.17) defines a set
V = {x R3 : n (x u) = 0}.
This is the set of points on the plane. It is a subset of the group R3 . Is
V a subgroup? Of course to be a subgroup it has to contain the identity
element of R3 which is 0. So we can choose u = 0. This doesnt mean that
our original Q was the origin. Were free to choose Q anywhere we like on
, and if goes through the origin then we choose it to be the origin, and
so take u = 0. With this choice, we can simplify V to obtain
V = {x R3 : n x = 0}.

54

IX. SUBGROUPS

xu

O
F IGURE IX.5. The point-normal equation of a plane. Here
n is normal to the plane , Q is a fixed point on and u
is its position vector. If P is any point on with position
vector x, then xu is parallel to the plane, and so n(xu) =
0.
Lets check that this is indeed a subgroup of V . If x1 , x2 V then nxi = 0
so
n (x1 + x2 ) = n x1 + n x2 = 0 + 0 = 0.
Thus x1 + x2 V . Also
n (x1 ) = n x1 = 0 = 0.
Thus x1 V . Hence V is a subgroup of R3 .
Conclusion: a plane defines a subgroup of R3 if and only if it passes
through the origin.

Exercise IX.16. Which lines in R2 define a subgroup? Justify your answer. an important
Example IX.17. Recall that
C = { C : 6= 0}.
Geometrically, C is the whole complex plane minus the origin. We have
observed before that C is a group (where the binary operation is multiplication of complex numbers). Let
S = { C : || = 1}.
The set S is the set of all points in the complex plane with distance 1 from
the origin. Of course this is just the unit circle (the circle centred at the
origin with radius 1) as in Figure IX.6. Let us check that S is a subgroup of
C ; it is clearly a subset. Of course the unit element of C is 1 and |1| = 1
so 1 S, which proves (a). Suppose , S. Then || = 1 and || = 1.

geometric exercise

IX.2. CRITERION FOR A SUBGROUP

55

i
F IGURE IX.6. On the left, the group S which is just the unit
circle. On the right, the subgroup of the fourth roots of
unity.
From the properties of the absolute value 1 we have
|| = |||| = 1.
Thus S. This proves (b).
To check (c), suppose S, so that || = 1. Then, again from the
properties of the absolute value,
|1 | =

1
= 1,
||

so 1 S. By Theorem IX.5, S is indeed a subgroup of C .

We shall call S the circle group. Notice that S is an infinite subgroup of

C . But C has plenty of finite subgroups too. An example is {1, i , 1, i }.

This is the set of solutions to the equation x 4 = 1 (check). The solutions
to x 4 = 1 are called the fourth roots of unity. Check for yourself that
{1, i , 1, i } is a subgroup of C (and in fact a subgroup of S). Can you
find a finite subgroup of C that isnt a subgroup of S? Well return to
roots of unity later.

Exercise IX.18. In the following, is H a subgroup of the group G? Give

full justification. Before you start answering: You might be wondering
why I dont specify the binary operation on G. Mathematicians generally
dont; youre expected to figure it out from the context 2.
1At school you probably called || the modulus of . Most mathematicians call ||

the absolute value of .

2Devils advocate: Yes, I know that addition makes R into a group, and multiplication doesnt. But are there really no other binary operations on R that make it into a
group?
In maths it is good to play the rle of the devils advocate, but not to the extent of
renouncing good taste and common sense. Yes, there are binary operations other than
addition that make the set of real numbers into a group. But if I wanted anything other
than the usual or obvious operation Id have told you so.

56

IX. SUBGROUPS

(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
(ix)
(x)

G = R, H = R .
G = R , H = {1, 1}.
G = C, H = 2Z.
G = C, H = {a + ai : a R}.
G = C , H = { C : 3 = 1}.
G = Z, H = Z/2Z.
G = R[x], H = Z[x].
G = R[x], H = { f R[x] : f (0) = 0}.
G = R[x], H = { f R[x] : f (0) = 1}.
G = Z/10Z, H = {0, 5}.

Exercise IX.19. Show that 1 the subgroups of Z/4Z are {0}, {0, 2} and Z/4Z.
Exercise IX.20. Show that the only subgroups of Z/3Z are {0} and Z/3Z.
Exercise IX.21. Let
D = { C : || 1}.
Sketch D. Show that D is not a subgroup of C .
Exercise IX.22. Let r be a positive real number. Let
Sr = { C : || = r }.
What does Sr represent geometrically? For what values of r will Sr be a
subgroup of C ?
P ROOF OF T HEOREM IX.5. The theorem has an if and only if statement.
It usual when proving an if and only if statement to break it up into if and only if
an if part, and an only if part, and prove each part separately. This
is what we will do here. The if part says: if H is a subset of G that
satisfies (a),(b),(c) then it is a subgroup of G. The only if part says: if
H is a subgroup of G then H satisfies (a), (b), (c).
Let us do the if part of the proof first. We have a group G and a
subset H of G. All we have been told is that H satisfies conditions (a), (b),
(c) in the statement of the theorem. We want to show that H is a group,
where the binary operation on H is the same as the binary operation on
G. This means that we have to show that H satisfies properties (i), (ii),
(iii), (iv) in the definition of a group.
Property (i) is closure: we want that if a, b H then ab H . But this
is what (b) is saying. So (i) is satisfied.
Property (ii) is associativity. We want to show that for all a, b, c H ,
we have (ab)c = a(bc). But if a, b, c are elements of H then they are also
elements of G. We know that associativity holds in G: (ab)c = a(bc). So
(ii) holds 2.
1When answering a maths question, you should always be careful about what is

being asked. Here youre being asked to show two things. The first is that the three listed
sets are indeed subgroups. The second is that there arent any other subgroups.
2There is a subtle point here that is camouflaged by our notation, and that is that
the binary operation were using on H is precisely the same one as the binary operation

IX.3. ROOTS OF UNITY

57

Property (iii) is the existence of the identity element in H . But (a)

tells us that 1 H . This 1 is the identity element of G and so satisfies
a1 = 1a = a for all a in G. Since every a in H is also in G we have that
a1 = 1a = a for all a in H so 1 is the identity element of H , and so (iii)
holds.
Finally, property (iv) asserts the existence of an inverse for every a
H . This follows from (c). Hence H is a group contained in G and so a
subgroup. We have now finished the proof of the if part.
Next we do the only ifpart of the proof. But Im already bored typing
this proof, so Ill leave this part as a (mandatory) exercise.


IX.3. Roots of Unity

Let n be a positive integer. Let = e 2i /n . The n-th roots of unity are
the solutions in C to the equation x n = 1. Recall that there are exactly n
of them:
1, , 2 , . . . , n1 .
See Figure VIII.1 for the roots of unity when n = 3 and n = 4 and note how
theyre distributed on the unit circle. Write
Un = {1, , 2 , . . . , n1 }.
That is, Un is the set of n-th roots of unity.
Lemma IX.23. Un is a subgroup of C of order n.
P ROOF. Clearly Un is a subset of C containing 1. Suppose a, b Un . We
want to check that ab Un . But since a n = b n = 1 we know that (ab)n =
a n b n = 1. So ab is also an n-th root of unity and so ab Un . Likewise,
(a 1 )n = (a n )1 = 1. So a 1 is an n-th root of unity and so a 1 Un . Thus
Un is indeed a subgroup of C . Since it has n elements, it has order n. 
L Notation Warning. The notation Un is not standard. Why do I point this
out? You must always be careful with notation: do other people understand you? If you write C then this is standard notation and every mathematician will know what you mean. If you write Un , others (e.g. your
tutor and supervisor) will not know what you mean. They will of course
know that the n-th roots of unity are a subgroup of C , but they will not
know that youre denoting this subgroup by Un . If you write Un , even in
your homework, then you have to say what it is.
Exercise IX.24. Is U2 U3 a subgroup of C ?
were using on G. If it was different we would have no right to say: because associativity
holds in G it holds in H .

58

IX. SUBGROUPS

IX.4. Matrix Groups II

In Section VII.1 you met the general linear group
GL2 (R) = {A M 22 (R) : det(A) 6= 0}.
This is group where the operation is multiplication of matrices. In this
section well meet some subgroups of it.
Exercise IX.25. Let
SL2 (R) = {A M 22 (R) : det(A) = 1}.
Show that SL2 (R) is a group 1 (with respect to multiplication). This is
known as the special linear group 2.
Exercise IX.26. Show that
{A M 22 (Z) : det(A) 6= 0}
is not a group under multiplication. Let
SL2 (Z) = {A M 22 (Z) : det(A) = 1}.
Show that SL2 (Z) is a group. This is known as the modular group 3.
Now is a good time to revise Section IV.7 on rotation matrices. Recall
that the matrix

cos sin
R =
sin cos
represents anticlockwise rotation about the origin through an angle . It
is geometrically clear that if compose two rotations about the origin we
obtain a rotation about the origin. So it is natural to expect that rotations
form a subgroup of GL2 (R), and indeed this is the case. We define
SO2 (R) = {R : R}.
This is called the special orthogonal group.
Theorem IX.27. SO2 (R) is a subgroup of GL2 (R).
P ROOF. First we have to check that SO2 (R) is a subset of GL2 (R). In other
words, we want to check that every matrix R has non-zero determinant.
Note det(R ) = cos2 + sin2 = 1. Hence SO2 (R) is contained in GL2 (R).
Also 4 I 2 = R 0 , so SO2 (R) contains the identity element of GL2 (R).
Next we have to show that SO2 (R) is closed under multiplication. Consider two elements of SO2 (R) and call them R and R . Now R and R
represent anticlockwise rotation about the origin through angles and
1Recall, the easiest way to show that a set is a group is to show that it is a subgroup

of a something you already know to be a group.

2If youve done Exercise IV.13 then youll see that SL (R) consists of the matrices
2
that preserve area and orientation.
3The modular group is probably the most interesting group in mathematics. Google
it!
4In geometric terms, both I and R mean do nothing, so they must be equal.
2
0

IX.5. DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS

59

. Thus R R represents the combined effect of rotations through angles

then . Clearly, from this geometric reasoning R R = R + , but lets
check this algebraically:

cos sin cos sin

R R =
sin cos sin cos

cos cos sin sin cos sin cos sin

=
cos sin + cos sin cos cos sin sin

cos( + ) sin( + )
=
sin( + ) cos( + )
= R + .
Thus SO2 (R) is closed under multiplication.
Finally we must check that the inverse of every matrix in SO2 (R) is
again in SO2 (R). Geometrically, its easy to see that the inverse of R is
R ; Ill leave it to you to check this algebraically. This completes the
proof.

Remark. It is clear (at least geometrically) that R R = R R . Thus SO2 (R)
is an abelian subgroup of the non-abelian group GL2 (R). We saw this
phenomenon before: the group D 4 is non-abelian, but its subgroup of
rotations is abelian.
IX.5. Differential Equations
Let C be the set of infinitely differentiable real functions. This probably sounds scary, but to reassure you Ill just point out that C contains all
polynomials, as well as sin t , cos t , e t , e t . It is a fact that C is an additive
group. Dont worry about the proof; it depends on properties of differentiability that youll see eventually in analysis. Addition in C is done in a
common sense way. For example, if f (t ) = t 2 + sin(t ) and g (t ) = 2t 2 e t
then f (t ) + g (t ) = 3t 2 + sin(t ) e t . The identity element is 0.
Lets dive straight into an example. We define the following subset

dx
H = x(t ) C : t
2x = 0 .
dt
In other words, H is the set of infinitely differentiable functions x(t ) that
satisfy the differential equation
t

(IX.18)

dx
2x = 0.
dt

The function x(t ) = 0 (which is the identity element of C ) clearly satisfies

(IX.18) and so belongs to H . Suppose x 1 (t ) and x 2 (t ) are in H . Thus
t

d x1
2x 1 = 0,
dt

d x2
2x 2 = 0.
dt

60

IX. SUBGROUPS

Let x(t ) = x 1 (t ) + x 2 (t ). By the properties of differentiation,

d x d x1 d x2
=
+
.
dt
dt
dt
Thus

d x1 d x2
dx
t
2x = t
+
2(x 1 + x 2 )
dt
dt
dt
d x2
d x1
2x 1 + t
2x 2
=t
dt
dt
= 0.
Therefore x(t ) H . Similarly, using the properties of differentiation, you
can show that if x 1 (t ) H then x 1 (t ) H (easy exercise). So H is a subgroup of C .
Note that we didnt have to solve the differential equation to know
that its set of solutions is a group; we merely used the properties of differentiation. But in fact it is easy to solve this particular equation using
separation of variables. If you do that (try it) youll find that
H = {at 2 : a R}.
Now check again that H forms an additive group.
Exercise IX.28. Which of the following differential equations define subgroups of C ?
(i) t
(ii)

dx
2x = t 3 .
dt

d2 x
2

dx
+ 6x = 0.
dt

dt
dx
(iii)
x 2 = 0.
dt

IX.6. Non-Trivial and Proper Subgroups

Its very easy for you to prove the following proposition.
Proposition IX.29. Let G be a group. Then G and {1} are subgroups.
Here, of course, {1} is the subset containing the identity element of G.
We call {1} the trivial subgroup of G; any other subgroup is called nontrivial. A subgroup of G that is not equal to G is called proper. The subgroups {1} and G are boring, since theyre always there. The interesting
subgroups are the proper non-trivial subgroups.
Example IX.30. The trivial subgroup of Z is {0}. Examples of a non-trivial
subgroups are Z and 2Z. The subgroup 2Z is proper and non-trivial.

IX.7. LAGRANGES THEOREMVERSION 2

61

Example IX.31. Consider the group U4 which is the group of fourth roots
of unity. Thus U4 = {1, i , 1, i }; of course the binary operation is multiplication. The trivial subgroup is {1}. We note that U2 = {1, 1} is a nontrivial proper subgroup. Are there any others? Suppose H is another nontrivial proper subgroup of U4 . Then 1 H , as subgroups always contain
the identity element. Since H is non-trivial, and H 6= {1, 1}, it must contain either i or i . Suppose H contains i . Then H contains i 2 = 1 and
i 3 = i . Therefore H = U4 , which contradicts the assumption that H is
proper. Similarly if H contains i then H = U4 (check). Therefore the
only non-trivial proper subgroup of U4 is U2 = {1, 1}.

Exercise IX.32. For what values of m does Z/mZ have non-trivial proper
subgroups? Try out a few examples and see if you can make a conjecture.
Can you prove your conjecture?
IX.7. Lagranges TheoremVersion 2
Here is another version of Lagranges Theorem. The relation between
this version and the earlier one (Theorem VIII.12) will be explained once
we have studied cyclic groups.
Theorem IX.33. (Lagranges TheoremVersion 2) Let G be a finite group,
and H a subgroup of G. Then the order of H divides the order of G.
Example IX.34. We saw in Example IX.31 that U4 , the group of 4-th roots
of unity, contains U2 , the group of square-roots of unity. Now U2 has order 2, U4 has order 4. Lagranges Theorem tells that the order of U2 must
divide the order of U4 which is correct.

Example IX.35. Recall that D 4 has order 8. In Figure V.3 we listed the ten
subgroups of D 4 . These have orders 1, 2, 4 and 8. This is consistent with
Lagranges Theorem.

Exercise IX.36. Let G be a group, and suppose the order of G is p where

p is a prime. Show that the only subgroups of G are {1} and G.
Still hurting?

CHAPTER X

Cyclic Groups and Cyclic Subgroups

Cyclic groups are the simplest groups to understand.
Theorem X.1. Let G be a group, and let g be an element of G. Write g for
the set
g = {g n : n Z} = {. . . , g 2 , g 1 , 1, g , g 2 , g 3 , . . . }.
Then g is a subgroup of G.
P ROOF. This is very easy to prove using Theorem IX.5. Have a go!

Definition. We call g the cyclic subgroup generated by g . If G = g then

we call G a cyclic group, and we say that g is a generator of G.
Example X.2. As roots of unity are fresh in your mind, lets start with
them. The group of n-th roots of unity Un is cyclic, since every element
is a power of = e 2i /n ; indeed the elements of Un are precisely
0 = 1, , 2 , . . . , n1 .
Thus Un = and is a generator.
Lets consider U6 , and calculate the cyclic subgroup generated by each
element. Write = e 2i /6 . Note that 6 = 1. Consider for example h = 2 .
The powers of h are 1, h, h 2 . Indeed, note that h 3 = 6 = 1. Thus
h 4 = h, h 5 = h 2 , h 6 = 1, h 7 = h, . . . .
What about h 1 . We know that h 3 = 1; multiplying both sides by h 1 we
deduce that h 1 = h 2 . Thus
h 2 = h, h 3 = 1, h 4 = h 2 , h 5 = h, . . . .
Thus the distinct powers of h are 1, h, h 2 , which are 1, 2 , 4 . We cant write
all the elements of U6 as powers of h; therefore h is not a generator of U6 .
However, let us consider g = 5 . We can write the powers of g and
simplify them using the fact that 6 = 1. For example,
g 2 = 10 = 6 4 = 4 .
We find that 1, g , g 2 , g 3 , g 4 , g 5 are respectively, 1, 5 , 4 , 3 , 2 , . Since every element of U6 is a power of g = 5 , we see that g is also a generator of
U6 . Table X.1 lists the elements of U6 and the subgroups they generate.

63

64

X. CYCLIC GROUPS AND CYCLIC SUBGROUPS

{1}

{1, , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 }

2 {1, 2 , 4 }
3 {1, 3 }
4 {1, 2 , 4 }
5 {1, , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 }
TABLE X.1. The six elements of U6 and the cyclic subgroups they generate.
Example X.3. For each element of the group Z/mZ, we write down the
cyclic group it generates. Note that since Z/mZ is an additive group, the
subgroup generated by g is g = {ng : n Z}. That is, it is the set of
multiples of g rather than the set of powers of g . See Table X.2.

a a
0 {0}
1 {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
2 {0, 2, 4}
3 {0, 3}
4 {0, 2, 4}
5 {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
TABLE X.2. The six elements of Z/6Z and the cyclic subgroups that they generate.

Example X.4. Recall the group D 4 of the symmetries of the square. It

has 8 elements. Its easy to write down the subgroup generated by each
element (see Section V.4 to remind yourself of the notation):
g g
1 {1}
1 {1, 1 , 2 , 3 }
2 {1, 2 }
3 {1, 1 , 2 , 3 }
0 {1, 0 }
1 {1, 1 }
2 {1, 2 }
3 {1, 3 }

X. CYCLIC GROUPS AND CYCLIC SUBGROUPS

65

None of the elements of D 4 generates it. We see that D 4 is not a cyclic

group.

Theorem X.5. Cyclic groups are abelian.

P ROOF. Let G be a cyclic group generated by g . Let a, b be elements of
G. We want to show that ab = ba. Now, a = g m and b = g n for some
integers a and b. So, ab = g m g n = g m+n and ba = g n g m = g n+m . But
m + n = n + m (addition of integers is commutative). So ab = ba.

Whilst working through the above examples, you will have noticed a
pattern about g , which we state in the following theorem.
Theorem X.6. Let G be a group and let g be an element of finite order n.
Then
g = {1, g , g 2 , . . . , g n1 }.
In particular, the order of the subgroup g is equal to the order of g .
P ROOF. Observe that g is a set, and {1, g , . . . , g n1 } is a set. We want to
a fundamental show that these sets are the same. Whenever you have two sets, A and
principle B , and you want to prove that theyre equal, one way to do this is to show
that every element of A belongs to B and every element of B belongs to A.
You will see this principle again and again throughout your undergraduate career.
Lets apply this principle in our situation. By definition,
g = {g n : n Z} = {. . . , g 2 , g 1 , 1, g , g 2 , g 3 , . . . }.
That is g is the set of all powers of g . It is obvious that every element
of {1, g , . . . , g n1 } belongs to g . What about the other way round. Suppose that h is an element of g . We want to show that h is an element
of {1, g , . . . , g n1 }. We can write h = g m where m is an integer (positive or
negative). We want to show that h = g r where r is one of 0, 1, 2, . . . , n 1.
The division For this we will use the division algorithm which you met in Foundations.
algorithm is one of We can write
the most powerful
m = qn + r,
q, r Z, 0 r < n.

ideas in algebra. Here we simply divided m by n; the integers q, r are respectively the quotient and the remainder. Thus
h = g m = g qn+r = (g n )q g r .
However, g n = 1 since g has order n. So h = g r . Since 0 r < n, we
see that r is one of 0, 1, . . . , n 1. Therefore h is in {1, g , . . . , g n1 }. By our
principle, we see that g = {1, g , . . . , g n1 }.

Exercise X.7. In each of the following groups G, write down the cyclic
subgroup generated by g .
(a) G = S, g = exp(2i /7).
(b) G = Z/12Z, g = 8.
0 1
(c) G = GL2 (R), g = 1
0 .

66

X. CYCLIC GROUPS AND CYCLIC SUBGROUPS

Exercise X.8. Which of the following groups G are cyclic? Justify your
answer for each, and if G is cyclic then write down a generator.
(a) G = kZ (where k is a non-zero integer).
(b) G = Z/mZ (where m is a positive integer).
(c) D 3 .
Exercise X.9. In this exercise, you will show using contradiction that R
is not cyclic. Suppose that it is cyclic and let g R be a generator. Then
R = g . In particular, |g |1/2 R and so |g |1/2 = g m for some integer
m. Show that the only solutions to this equation are g = 1. Wheres the
contradiction?
Exercise X.10. In this exercise youll show that Q is not cyclic. Let a, b be
integers with b 6= 0. Let p be a prime that does not divide b. Show that
1/p cannot be written in the form na/b with n an integer. Deduce that Q
is not cyclic.
Exercise X.11. Show that S is not cyclic.

X.1. Lagrange Revisited

You saw two versions of Lagranges Theorem:
Theorem X.12. (Lagranges TheoremVersion 1) Let G be a finite group,
and let g be an element of G. The order g divides the order of G.
Theorem X.13. (Lagranges TheoremVersion 2) Let G be a finite group,
and H a subgroup of G. Then the order of H divides the order of G.
In fact Version 2 implies Version 1. Let us prove that.
Proposition X.14. Version 2 of Lagranges Theorem implies Version 1 of
Lagranges Theorem.
P ROOF. We assume Version 2 and deduce Version 1. Let G be a finite
group and g an element of G. Suppose g has order n. By Theorem X.6, the
cyclic subgroup generated by g , denoted g , also has order n. By Version
2, the order of the subgroup g divides the order of G. Hence n divides
the order of G, which is what we wanted to prove.

This doesnt mean that weve proved Version 1 of Lagranges Theorem.
It does mean that once we prove Version 2, then we will have also proved
Version 1.
Exercise X.15. Let G be a group of order p, where p is a prime number.
Let H be a subgroup. Show that H must either equal G or the trivial subgroup {1}. Deduce that if g G is not the identity element, then G = g .

X.2. SUBGROUPS OF Z

67

X.2. Subgroups of Z

Trust me, Im a
Im feeling particularly inarticulate at the moment, so I cant explain
doctor. why subgroups of Z are important. But nevertheless they are important
and so well do them.
The first thing to note about Z is that it is cyclic. Does that mean
that all elements of Z are powers of some element. No, because it is an
additive group. If G is an additive group, and g is an element of G then
g = {ng : n Z} = {. . . , 2g , g , 0, g , 2g , 3g , . . . }.
Thus Z = 1 and so it is cyclic. In fact, it is infinite and cyclic, unlike for
example, Un .
Lemma X.16. Let k be an integer. Write
kZ = {ka : a Z}.
Then kZ is a subgroup of Z.
P ROOF. You can prove this in a similar way to Example IX.7. However, it
is quicker to note that kZ = k, and so is a subgroup by Theorem X.1. 
Note that 0Z = {0} has only the identity element. Also
(k)Z = {. . . , 2(k), (k), 0, k, 2(k), . . . }
= {. . . , 2k, k, 0, k, 2k, . . . }
= {. . . , 2k, k, 0, k, 2k}
= kZ
because the order of elements in a set does not matter. In other words,
Z = Z,

2Z = 2Z,

3Z = 3Z, . . . .

So we have an infinite list of subgroups

{0},

Z,

2Z,

3Z,

4Z, . . .

and we want to know if theyre all the subgroups of Z. The following theorem tells us that they are.
Theorem X.17. Any subgroup of Z has the form kZ for some non-negative 1
integer k. In particular, all subgroups of Z are cyclic.
P ROOF. Let H be a subgroup of Z. We want to show that there is a nonnegative integer k such that H = kZ. We divide the proof into two cases.
The first case is when H is the subgroup {0}. Then H = 0Z and weve done
what we wanted.
So lets look at the second case where H has non-zero elements. If a is
a non-zero element of H then because H is a(n additive) group, a is also
a non-zero element of H but it has a different sign. So we know for sure
that H has some positive elements. Let k be the smallest positive element
of H . We will prove that H = kZ.
1The non-negative integers are 0, 1, 2, 3, . . . .

68

X. CYCLIC GROUPS AND CYCLIC SUBGROUPS

Whenever you have two sets, A and B , and you want to prove that Is this familiar?
theyre equal, one way to do it is to show that every element of A belongs
to B and every element of B belongs to A.
As k is in H , we know by Theorem VI.9 that all the multiples of k belong to H . Thus every element of kZ belongs to H . We must show the
converse: every element of H is a multiple of k.
Let a be an element of H . By the division algorithm which you have
met in Foundations, we can write
a = qk + r,

q, r are integers and 0 r < k.

To remind: here q is the quotient of dividing a by k and r is the remainder.

Now a is in H ; qk is in H because it is a multiple of k H . So r = a qk punchline
is also in H . But 0 r < k, and k is the smallest positive element of H . If
r > 0 then it would be an even smaller positive element of H giving us a
contradiction. So r = 0. Hence a = qk is a multiple of k.
Thus weve also shown that every element of H is a multiple of k and
so belongs to kZ. Hence H = kZ, as required.

Exercise X.18. The subgroups of Z2 are harder to describe. Write down a
few.
Thrilled? Arent you glad you trusted me?

CHAPTER XI

Isomorphisms
You mustve noticed that theres a lot in common between the group
of m-th roots of unity Um , and the group Z/mZ. If not, take another
look Tables X.1 and X.2. In fact the groups Um and Z/mZ are isomorphic.
What does this mean?
Definition. Let (G, ) and (H , ) be groups. We say that the function :
G H is an isomorphism if it is a bijection and it satisfies
(g 1 g 2 ) = (g 1 ) (g 2 )
for all g 1 , g 2 in G. In this case we say that (G, ) and (H , ) are isomorphic.
Isomorphic groups may look different, but in essence are the same.
An isomorphism is a way of relabeling the elements of one group to obtain another group, as the following examples will make clear.
Example XI.1. Define : Z/mZ Um by the simple rule
(a) = a ,

a = 0, 1, . . . , m 1.

Then is a bijection and satisfies the magical property

(a + b) = (a + b) = a+b = a b = (a)(b).
So is an isomorphism.

Example XI.2. Recall that the matrix

cos sin
R =
sin cos
represents anticlockwise rotation around the origin through an angle .
The identity
R + = R R .
turns addition into multiplication, and so it should remind you of the
identity e + = e e . In fact, a more accurate analogy is identity
e i (+) = e i e i .
The reason is because multiplying a complex number by e i rotates it
about the origin anticlockwise through the angle (prove this using the
exponential form for complex numbers).
Now that you know that R and e i are analogues, you will expect that
the groups SO2 (R) and S are isomorphic. Recall that SO2 (R) is the special
69

70

XI. ISOMORPHISMS

orthogonal group (Theorem IX.27) defined by

SO2 (R) = {R : R},
and S is the circle group (page 55) given by
S = { C : || = 1} = {e i : R}.
You can satisfy yourself that the map
: SO2 (R) S,

(R ) = e i

is an isomorphism. You should have no trouble guessing what the matrix

analogues of the n-th roots of unity are. If we let

cos (2/n) sin (2/n)

Z = R 2/n =
,
sin (2/n) cos (2/n)
then I 2 , Z , . . . , Z n1 all satisfy the relationship A n = I 2 .

Exercise XI.3. Let Z = R 2/6 . Show that {1, Z , . . . , Z 5 } is a subgroup of

SO2 (R). Write down the orders of its elements and check that they are
consistent with Lagranges Theorem.
Exercise XI.4. Suppose groups G and H are isomorphic. Show that G and
H have the same order. Show that G is abelian if and only if H is abelian.
Show that G is cylic if and only if H is cyclic.
Tragically, the powers that be (who shall remain nameless) decided
that this Introduction to Abstract Algebra should be a half-module, and
so we wont have the time to explore the manifold pleasures of isomorphisms.

SAMIR, WHY HAVE THEY DENIED US THE CATS TO

EXPERIENCE THESE PLEASURES ? D ON T THEY LOVE
US LIKE YOU DO ? D O THEY WANT US TO FAIL AND
TURN TO THE BOTTLE ?
Dont be a drama queenthere must be a perfectly innocent explanation.

Indignant?
Paranoid? Seething
with self-righteous
rage?

CHAPTER XII

Cosets
Cosets are what we get when we shift a subgroup by the elements of
the group.
Definition. Let G be a group and H a subgroup. Let g be an element of
G. We call the set
g H = {g h : h H }
a left coset of H in G and the set
H g = {hg : h H }
a right coset of H in G.
Example XII.1. Lets take G to be D 4 and R the subgroup made up of
rotations:
R = {1, 1 , 2 , 3 }.
Revisit Section V.4 to remind yourself of the notation. Lets compute 1 R.
By definition,
1 R = {1 1, 1 1 , 1 2 , 1 3 }
= {1 , 0 , 3 , 2 }
= {0 , 1 , 2 , 3 }.
Lets try another coset.
2 R = { 2 1, 2 1 , 2 2 , 2 3 }
= { 2 , 3 , 1, 1 }
= {1, 1 , 2 , 3 }.
We see that 2 R is equal to R, and 1 R isnt equal to R. In fact, 1 R isnt
even a subgroup of D 4 ; why? You can carry on computing all eight left
cosets, and youll find
1 R = 1 R = 2 R = 3 R = {1, 1 , 2 , 3 }
and
0 R = 1 R = 2 R = 3 R = {0 , 1 , 2 , 3 }.

Exercise XII.2. Recall that H = {1, 2 } is also a subgroup of D 4 . Compute

its left cosets. Check that 1 H 6= H 1 .
71

72

XII. COSETS

Of course, for an additive group G, a subgroup H , a left coset would

be of the form
g + H = {g + h : h H }
for some g in G.
Example XII.3. Z is an additive group. The set of even integers 2Z is a
subgroup. What are its cosets? Lets compute a few:
0 + 2Z = {. . . , 0 + (4), 0 + (2), 0 + 0, 0 + 2, 0 + 4, . . . } = {. . . , 4, 2, 0, 2, 4, . . . };
1 + 2Z = {. . . , 1 + (4), 1 + (2), 1 + 0, 1 + 2, 1 + 4, . . . } = {. . . , 3, 1, 1, 3, 5, . . . };
2 + 2Z = {. . . , 2 + (4), 2 + (2), 2 + 0, 2 + 2, 2 + 4, . . . } = {. . . , 4, 2, 0, 2, 4, . . . };
3 + 2Z = {. . . , 3 + (4), 3 + (2), 3 + 0, 3 + 2, 3 + 4, . . . } = {. . . , 3, 1, 1, 3, 5, . . . }.
Youll quickly discover that
= 4 + 2Z = 2 + 2Z = 2Z = 2 + 2Z + 4 + 2Z = . . .
and
= 3 + 2Z = 1 + 2Z = 1 + 2Z = 3 + 2Z = . . . .
So 2Z has two cosets in Z, which happen to be 2Z itself, and 1 + 2Z which
is the set of odd integers.

Exercise XII.4. You know that Z2 is a group. Let

2Z2 = {(2a, 2b) : a, b Z}.
In otherwords, 2Z2 is the set of vectors in Z2 with both coordinates even.
Check that 2Z2 is a subgroup of Z2 , having four cosets. What are they?
Exercise XII.5. Let R+ be the subset of R consisting of the positive numbers. Show that R+ is a subgroup and that it has exactly two cosets in
R .
XII.1. Geometric Examples
Long ago (page 1) I told you:
You should get used to thinking geometrically, and to drawing pictures. The true meaning of most mathematical concepts is geometric. If you spend all your time manipulating
symbols (i.e. doing algebra) without understanding the relation to the geometric meaning, then you will have very
little in terms of mathematical insight.
No doubt you have taken my advice on board and so there is no need for
me to repeat it.
Example XII.6. Youll recall the circle group S which is the subgroup of
C consisting of all elements of absolute value 1; see Example IX.17 if you
need to refresh your memory. Lets study the cosets of S in C . Of course
C is abelian, and so there is no distinction between left and right cosets;
theyre the same. A coset of S in C has the form S where is in C

XII.1. GEOMETRIC EXAMPLES

73

(i.e. is a non-zero complex number). As such, we can write = r e i ,

where r is positive (it is the absolute value of ), and is the argument of
. Consider e i S. Multiplying any complex number by e i simply rotates
anticlockwise through angle about the origin. So e i S = S. Now S =
r S. What does multiplying by r do? It scales the circle S by a factor of
r . Two different positive real numbers r 1 6= r 2 will give different cosets
r 1 S 6= r 2 S, since the first has radius r 1 and the second has radius r 2 . See
Figure XII.1.

1.5S
S
0.5S
1

F IGURE XII.1. S and its cosets 0.5S and 1.5S in C .

So S has as many cosets in C as there are positive real numbers.
Summary: S is the circle centred at the origin of radius 1, and its cosets
in C are the circles centred at the origin (of positive radius).

Example XII.7. In Exercise IX.16 I asked you the following question: which
lines in R2 define a subgroup? Lets go back to this question and answer
it again, and this time for lines that define a subgroup we want to determine the cosets too.
One convenient way of a specifying a line L in R2 is as follows. Let Q
be a point on L, with position vector w. Let v be a vector parallel to L.
Then L has the parametric form
L : x = w + t v.
This is a (slightly clumsy) school way of saying things. What it means
is that the points with position vector w + t v are on the line, where t is
any scalar (i.e. real number). A much better way is to just write L in set
notation:
L = {w + t v : t R}.

74

XII. COSETS

Now L is a subset of R2 and we want to know if it defines a subgroup. Of

course, if L does not pass through the origin, then it does not contain the
identity element, and so cannot be a subgroup. So, lets suppose L passes
through the origin. The point Q was any point on the line; we will choose
Q to be the origin, and so its position vector is w = (0, 0). Now we have
L = {t v : t R}.
Is L a subgroup of R2 ? It is straightforward to see geometrically that if we
add two vectors in L then the sum is in L. Lets check that algebraically. If
v1 and v2 are in L then they have the form v1 = t 1 v and v2 = t 2 v. So
v1 + v2 = (t 1 + t 2 )v
which in L. Also, v1 = (t 1 )v1 is in L. Hence L is a subgroup of R2 .
What are the cosets of L in R2 ? They have the form
w + L = {w + t v : t R}
where w is a vector in R2 . This is the line with parametric form w + t v.
Note that both L and its coset w + L are parallel to v. See Figure XII.2
w+L
y

v
x

F IGURE XII.2. A line L defines a subgroup of R2 if and only

if it passes through the origin. In that case, its cosets are
the lines parallel to it.
Conclusion: A line in R2 is a subgroup if and only if it passes through the
origin. If it does, then its cosets are the lines parallel to it.

XII.2. Solving Equations

Cosets arise naturally when solving certain types of equations. Its
difficult to make this precise at present. Instead Ill show you some examples so that you can see what I mean.

XII.2. SOLVING EQUATIONS

75

Example XII.8. If you did matrices at school, then you will probably know
that a system of m linear equations in n variables can be written as a single matrix equation
Ax = b

(XII.19)

where A is an m n matrix, b is a vector in Rm and x is an unknown vector

in Rn .
Let
K = {x Rn : Ax = 0}.
That is, K is the set of solutions x of the equation Ax = 0. It is easy to show
that K is a subgroup of Rn (exercise!). We call K the kernel of A. What is
the relation between K and the solutions of (XII.19)? If (XII.19) has no
solutions then there is no relation. So lets suppose it has some solutions,
and lets take x0 to be one of them. Let x be any other solution. Then
Ax = b,

Ax0 = b.

Subtracting we find
A(x x0 ) = 0.
So the difference x x0 belongs to the subgroup K . Thus x belongs to the
coset x0 + K . In fact, the set of solutions to (XII.19) is precisely the coset
x0 + K .

Example XII.9. In the Differential Equations module, one of things youll

look at are linear second order differential equations. For example, youll
see equations of the form
(XII.20)

d 2x
dx
+ c = f (t ),
+b
2
dt
dt

with a, b, c constants (again, it is likely that youve seen these at school).

To solve this you look at the corresponding homogeneous equation
(XII.21)

d 2x
dx
+ c = 0.
+b
2
dt
dt

Convince yourself that the solutions to the homogeneous equation (XII.21)

form a group K with respect to addition (revise Section IX.5 if you need
to). In some textbooks on differential equations (and some old A-Level
maths textbooks), K is called the kernel. Now we ask the same question
as in the previous example: what is the relation between the solutions to
(XII.20) and K ? Again, if (XII.20) does not have a solution then there is no
relation. Suppose it has solutions, and let x 0 (t ) be one of them. In your
Differential Equations module, x 0 (t ) is called a particular integral. If x(t )
is any other solution to (XII.20), then you can check that x(t ) x 0 (t ) is a
solution to the homogeneous equation (XII.21), and so is an element of
K . It follows that the set of solutions to (XII.20) is the coset x 0 (t ) + K .

76

XII. COSETS

Are the similarities between the above two examples a coincidence?

No, they are instances of a recurrent theme in mathematics. This theme is
formalized in the First Isomorphism Theorem, which youll meet in Algebra II. A lot of maths students never understand the First Isomorphism a fate almost
Theorem. They somehow dont realize that theyve been using it for years worse than death
when solving linear equations (and linear differential equations). Dont
let that happen to you; after you meet the First Isomorphism Theorem,
come back and review these two examples again.
XII.3. Index
Definition. Let G be a group and H be a subgroup. We shall define the
index of H in G, denoted by [G : H ], to be the number of left cosets of H
in G.
Example XII.10. In Example XII.1, we computed the left cosets of R =
{1, 1 , 2 , 3 } in D 4 and found exactly two of them: namely
{1, 1 , 2 , 3 }

and

{0 , 1 , 2 , 3 }.

So the index [D 4 : R] = 2.

Example XII.11. In Example XII.3 we found that the cosets of 2Z in Z are

2Z itself, and 1+2Z, so the index [Z : 2Z] = 2. If youve done Exercise XII.4
then youll know that [Z2 : 2Z2 ] = 4.

Example XII.12. In Example XII.6, we found that the cosets of the circle
group S in C are the circles centred at the origin. So the index [C : S] =
.
Example XII.13. Now lets look at the index of the trivial group {0} as a
subgroup of Z. Note that
a + {0} = {a}.
So the cosets of {0} in Z are
. . . , {2}, {1}, {0}, {1}, {2}, . . .
Clearly [Z : {0}] = .

Exercise XII.14. Let G be a finite group. Let {1} be the trivial subgroup
consisting only of the identity element. Explain why [G : {1}] = |G|.
XII.4. The First Innermost Secret of Cosets
Apart from the definition, you need to know two facts about cosets.
The first is that a coset of a subgroup has the same size as the subgroup.
Lemma XII.15. Let G be a group and H a finite subgroup. If g G then
g H and H g have the same number of elements as H .
P ROOF. Well just prove the lemma for left cosets. The proof for right
cosets is nearly the same. Let g be an element of G. We want to show
that H and g H has the same number of elements. The sets H and g H are

XII.5. THE SECOND INNERMOST SECRET OF COSETS

77

A priceless tip! finite. The best way to show that two finite sets have the same number
of elements is to set up a bijection between them. Let
: H g H,

h 7 g h.

From the definition of g H it is clear that (h) is in the coset g H whenever

h is in the subgroup H . So the map makes sense. To check that it is a
bijection we need to show that it is injective and surjective.
Injectiveness: Suppose two elements h 1 , h 2 map to the same element in
g H . In otherwords, (h 1 ) = (h 2 ). We want to show that h 1 = h 2 . But
(h 1 ) = (h 2 ) means
g h1 = g h2 .
Now we cant say, divide by g . If youve forgotten why, see the pitfall on
page 40. By we can say multiply both sides on the left by g 1 , to obtain
g 1 (g h 1 ) = g 1 (g h 2 ).
Thus h 1 = h 2 .
Surjectiveness: Suppose k is an element of the coset g H . We want to
show that k is of the form (h) for some element h of the subgroup H . But
by definition, g H = {g h : h H }, so k = g h = (h) for some h in H .

A Highbrow Remark for the Cognoscenti. Note that the proof that :
H g H is a bijection did not assume the finiteness of H ; it is true for any
subgroup H whether finite or infinite. The finiteness is used to conclude
that the number of elements of H and the number of elements of g H are
the same. What happens if H is infinite? Mathematicians still think of H
and g H as having the same number of elements, even though they are
infinite, simply because there is a bijection between them. Thus |2Z| =
|1 + 2Z|, and |S| = |2S|. However, |2Z| 6= |S|, because 2Z is countable and
S is uncountable. If you find this interesting, have a look at cardinalities
on Wikipedia. But only a brief look; trust me, set theory is as boring as
hell. In any case, feel free to ignore this remark.

n
w

a
y
,
n
w
a
y

Example XII.16. Now is a good time to revisit the examples at the beginning of the chapter and make sure that Lemma XII.15 holds for them.
XII.5. The Second Innermost Secret of Cosets
Lemma XII.17. Let G be a group and H be a subgroup. Let g 1 , g 2 be elements of G. Then the cosets g 1 H , g 2 H are either equal or disjoint 1.
1Two sets A, B are disjoint if they have no members in common. Another way of

saying the same thing is: two sets A, B are disjoint if A B = ;. Im now confusedhave
I said it in another way, or in the same way but with more notation?

78

XII. COSETS

Example XII.18. Look again at Example XII.6 and in particular Figure XII.1.
There we looked the cosets of the circle subgroup S inside C . We found Geometric Epiphany
that the cosets are the circles centred at the origin of positive radius. It is I
obvious that two such circles are either equal or disjoint.

Example XII.19. In Example XII.7, we saw that a line L in R2 passing Geometric Epiphany
through the origin defines a subgroup. The cosets of L are the lines par- II
allel to it. Again it is clear that two lines parallel to L are either equal or
disjoint.

P ROOF OF L EMMA XII.17. Suppose g 1 H and g 2 H are not disjoint. We

want to show that theyre equal. If you look again at the examples youll
see that g 1 H = g 2 H doesnt necessarily mean that g 1 = g 2 .
As g 1 H and g 2 H are not disjoint, they must have a common element.
The elements of g 1 H have the form g 1 h 1 and the elements of g 2 H have
the form g 2 h 2 where h 1 , h 2 are in H . Thus there is a pair h 1 , h 2 in H so
that g 1 h 1 = g 2 h 2 . In particular
(XII.22)

g 1 = g 2 h 2 h 11 .

We want to show that g 1 H1 = g 2 H2 . Youll no doubt recall that to

prove two sets are equal we have to show that every element in either
set is an element of the other set. Take an element of g 1 H . This must
have the form g 1 h for some h in H . We want to show that g 1 h is also an
element of g 2 H . Now note
g 1 h = (g 2 h 2 h 11 )h

by (XII.22)

= g 2 (h 2 h 11 h).
However, h 2 h 11 h is a product of elements of the subgroup H and therefore an element of H . Hence weve written g 1 h in the form g 2 h 0 where
h 0 = h 2 h 11 h is an element of H . Thus every element of g 1 H is again an
element of g 2 H . Similarly, every element of g 2 H is an element of g 1 H .
Hence g 1 H = g 2 H .

XII.6. Lagrange Super-Strength
Ive stated Lagranges Theorem a very long time ago, and kept you
waiting for the proof ever since. Surely you consider this delay a deliberate act of unspeakable cruelty. It was indeed deliberate; I thought the
prolonged wait would heighten the anticipation and make you appreciate and enjoy the proof even more. Alas, through an act of infinite selflessness, Ive sacrificed my popularity to intensify your infatuation with
the subject.
We now state an even stronger version of Lagranges Theorem.
Theorem XII.20. (Lagranges TheoremVersion 3) Let G be a finite group
and H a subgroup. Then
|G| = [G : H ] |H |.

shedding bitter tears

of remorse and
penantly pleading for
forgiveness

XII.6. LAGRANGE SUPER-STRENGTH

79

This version is saying more than Version 2 of Lagranges Theorem

(Theorem IX.33). Version 2 says that |H | divides |G|. Version 3 tells us
that not only does |H | divide |G|, but that the ratio is the index [G : H ]. So
if we prove this version of Lagranges Theorem then we have also proved
Version 2.
P ROOF OF T HEOREM XII.20. Let g 1 H , g 2 H , . . . , g m H be the distinct left cosets of H . As they are distinct, we know by Lemma XII.17 that they are disjoint. Suppose now that g is an element of G. Then g H must equal one of
the g i H . But g g H , since 1 H . Hence the cosets g 1 H , g 2 H , . . . , g m H are
not only disjoint, but every element of G belongs to exactly one of them.
Hence
|G| = |g 1 H | + |g 2 H | + + |g m H |.
Now by Lemma XII.15,
|g 1 H | = |g 2 H | = = |g m H | = |H |.
Hence
|G| = m |H |.
What is m? It is the number of left cosets of H in G. We defined this to be
the index of H in G, so m = [G : H ]. This completes the proof.

Pure ecstacy? Of course! Maths is about delayed gratification.

CHAPTER XIII

Quotient Groups
Taking quotients is one of the most powerful concepts in mathematics. It should also be one of the least painful to assimilate. Instead of
revelling in quotients, most Warwickers go through three or four miserallow me to end your able years of being terrorised by them. The difficulties with quotients are
suffering purely psychological. To overcome them, you just need to study and visualize a good number of examples. What are we waiting for?

love quotie

ve
q

I lo

ve
uotients! I lo

tie
nts

eq
tients! I lov

ot
! I love qu

ie
n
ts!
I

ts
!

qu
o

uo
tie
nt
s!

Il

ov

ts
ien
ot
qu

I lo
ve
qu
o

s!
nt
e
ti

o
qu
e
v
I lo

F IGURE XIII.1. Nurture a positive attitude to quotients

it wont let you down!

XIII.1. Congruences Modulo Subgroups

Let (G, +) be an abelian group, where the binary operation is addition. For example, G could be R, R2 , C, Z, R[x] etc. Let H be a subgroup.
Let a, b be elements of G. We say that a, b are congruent modulo H if
a b H . In this case we write a b (mod H ).
Example XIII.1. Let m 2 be an integer. We know that mZ is the subgroup of Z consisting of the multiples of m. Let a, b Z. Then a b
(mod mZ) if and only a b is a multiple of m. In other words, a b
81

82

XIII. QUOTIENT GROUPS

(mod mZ) if and only if a b (mod m). The concept of congruence modulo subgroups is a generalization of the earlier concept of congruence modulo integers.

Example XIII.2. Z is a subgroup of R. Two real numbers a, b are congruent modulo Z if and only if a b Z. This means that their difference
is an integer. So, for example 1437.14 0.14 (mod Z). It may seem that
congruence modulo Z is a stupid idea. After all, were concentrating on
the small fractional part of number and ignoring the bigger integer part.
However in some situations, the fractional part is the important one. Lets
see one of those situations. In Example IX.17 we defined the circle group
S = { C : || = 1}.
Let
f : R S,

f () = e 2i .

What happens to f () as changes. If we start with = 0 R and increase

the value of , then f () starts at 1 S and moves anticlockwise. When
reaches 1 R then f () will have done a complete circle and returned to
1 S. By the time reaches 2 R, f () will have done another complete
circle and returned again to 1 S. Of course, you want me to be less
clumsy and say that f is periodic with period 1. Indeed f () = f () if and
only if = + n where n is an integer. Now Z is a subgroup of R. So we
can rewrite that fact as f () = f () if and only if (mod Z).

Example XIII.3. Let X = {(a, 0) : a R}. Its easy to show that X is a subgroup of R2 , which is simply the x-axis. What does it mean for two points
to be congruent modulo X ? Suppose (a 1 , b 1 ) and (a 2 , b 2 ) are in R2 . Then
(a 1 , b 1 ) (a 2 , b 2 ) (mod X ) if and only if (a 1 a 2 , b 1 b 2 ) belongs to X . This
happens if and only if b 1 b 2 = 0. So two points are congruent modulo X
if and only if they have the same y-coordinate.

Example XIII.4. Let G = R[x]. Let H = { f R[x] : f (0) = 0}. It is an easy

exercise to show that H is a subgroup of R[x]. Now lets understand what
it means for two polynomials to be congruent modulo H . Suppose g ,
h R[x]. Write 1
g = a0 + a1 x + + an x n ,

h = b0 + b1 x + + bn x n ,

where a 0 , . . . , a n and b 0 , . . . , b n are real numbers. Let f = g h. Then g h

(mod H ) if and only if f (0) = 0, which means a 0 b 0 = 0. Therefore g and
h are congruent modulo H if and only their constant terms are equal.
1It seems that were writing f and g both as polynomials of the same degree n; this

looks wrong as there is no reason to suppose that g and h have the same degree. But
looks can be misleading. Here were in fact writing g and h as polynomials of degree at
most n. For example, if g = 2 + 7x and h = 4 3x + 2x 3 then we can take n = 3 and let
a 0 = 2, a 1 = 7, a 2 = a 3 = 0, and b 0 = 4, b 1 = 3, b 2 = 0, b 3 = 2

XIII.2. CONGRUENCE CLASSES AND COSETS

83

Exercise XIII.5. Let (G, +) be an abelian group. We know that {0} and G
are subgroups of G. What does it mean for a and b to congruent modulo
{0}? What does it mean for a and b to be congruent modulo G?

XIII.2. Congruence Classes and Cosets

Let (G, +) be an additive abelian group and H a subgroup. Let a G.
We shall denote by a the congruence class of a modulo H ; this is defined
by
a = {b G : b a

(mod H )}.

In words, the congruence class of a modulo H is the set of all elements of

G that are congruent to a modulo H .
Example XIII.6. If G = Z and H = mZ, then a is simply the congruence
class of a modulo m:
a = {. . . , a 2m, a m, a, a + m, a + 2m, a + 3m, . . . }.
In Foundations, a is denoted by [a].

Lemma XIII.7. Let (G, +) be an additive abelian group and H a subgroup.

Let a G let a be the congruence class of a modulo H . Then
a = a + H.
P ROOF. We know a is the set of b G that are congruent to a modulo
H . But b a (mod H ) is the same as saying b a H or b a + H . So
a = a + H.

We made the set of congruence classes in Z modulo mZ into a group
Z/mZ, and in the same way we can form a group out of the set of congruence classes in an additive abelian group G modulo a subgroup H .
Definition. Let (G, +) be an additive abelian group and H a subgroup.
We define the quotient group (G/H , +) to the set of congruence classes
(or the set of cosets)
G/H = {a : a G}
with addition being defined by
(XIII.23)

a + b = a + b.

As usual, we need to prove that (G/H , +) is a group (in fact it is abelian).

There is a more serious point which is that we need to show that the operation (XIII.23) is well-defined. These details will disrupt the flow of things
and Ive relegated them to Section XIII.6. For now, we want to focus on
understanding quotient groups and how to think about them.

84

XIII. QUOTIENT GROUPS

XIII.3. R/Z
In Example XIII.2 we looked at congruences in R modulo Z. We now
want to understand the group R/Z. Note that every real number is congruent modulo Z to a unique number in the half-open interval
[0, 1) = {x R : 0 x < 1}.
Therefore
R/Z = {a : a [0, 1)}.
So when we add a + b, we take the result of a + b, and and simplify by
subtracting an integer if necessary to obtain c [0, 1), and then letting
a + b = c. For example,
0.7 + 0.2 = 0.9,

0.7 + 0.4 = 0.1,

0.3 0.5 = 0.8.

If we go back to the map

f : R S,

f () = e 2i ,

we can define a similar map,

f : R/Z S,

f = e 2i .

Check that f is a bijection that satisfies

f + = f f .
In essence what this is saying is that the two groups (R/Z, +) and (S, ) are
essentially the same. Indeed, theyre isomorphic. Now is a good time to
look again at Chapter XI.
Here is how you should think about R/Z. We identified it with the
interval [0, 1). Think of starting at 0.95 and moving up in small steps of
0.01:
0.95, 0.96, 0.97, 0.98, 0.99, 0.00, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, . . .
So we should really think of R/Z as the interval [0, 1) with one end joined
to the other. If you take a string and join one end to the other you obtain a loop, or a circle. This is what f is doing. It is showing that R/Z is
isomorphic to the unit circle S. Indeed, the 2 in the formula for f is a
stretching factor, since the interval [0, 1) of length 1 has to be stretched
around the unit circle of perimeter 2.
Exercise XIII.8. R/Z has four elements of order 5. Find them.
Exercise XIII.9. Let [0, 1). Show that has finite order in R/Z if and
only if is rational.
Exercise XIII.10. Show that f takes rational numbers to roots of unity.

XIII.4. R2 /Z2

85

XIII.4. R2 /Z2
After R/Z you shouldnt have any trouble imagining R2 /Z2 . Youre allowed to shift any point in R2 by an integer multiple of i and an integer
multiple of j. So you end up in the unit square:
{(x, y) : 0 x < 1, 0 y < 1}.

(XIII.24)

But you should think of this square as having the top side glued to the
bottom side, and the right side glued to the left side! See Figure XIII.2
(1, 1)
Peb

(0, 1)

bles

Bub

(0, 0)

(1, 0)

F IGURE XIII.2. R2 /Z2 is really just the unit square with the
top side glued to the bottom side, and the right side glued
to the left side.

Example XIII.11. In this example, well find the elements of order 2 in

R2 /Z2 . Suppose (x, y) is such an element, where x, y belong to the interval [0, 1). Then (2x, 2y) = 0 and so 2x, 2y are integers. Hence
2x = . . . , 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, . . . ,

2y = . . . , 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, . . . .

Therefore,
1
1
3
1
1
3
x = , , 0, , 1, , ,
y = , , 0, , 1, , .
2
2
2
2
2
2
As x and y belong to the interval [0, 1), we see that x = 0 or 1/2 and y = 0
or 1/2. Hence
(x, y) = (0, 0),

(1/2, 0),

(0, 1/2),

(1/2, 1/2).

However, the first of these has order 1. So the elements of order 2 in R2 /Z2
are
(x, y) = (1/2, 0), (0, 1/2), (1/2, 1/2).

ahhhpsychedelic visions of ponies and glitter

bles

86

XIII. QUOTIENT GROUPS

Exercise XIII.12. Find all elements of orders 3 in R2 /Z2 (there are eight
of them).
Exercise XIII.13. In Z2 we let i = (1, 0) and j = (0, 1) as usual. Write 2Z2 =
{(2a, 2b) : a, b Z}. Convince yourself that 2Z2 is a subgroup of Z2 of
index 4 and that
Z2 /2Z2 = {0, i, j, i + j}.
Write down an addition table for Z2 /2Z2 .
Exercise XIII.14. How would you describe C/Z[i ]? Is it really different
from R2 /Z2 ?
Exercise XIII.15. How would you describe C/Z? Find all elements of order 2.
XIII.5. R/Q
In this section, we shall briefly think about R/Q. In R/Z, we treat the
integers as zero. In R/Q, we treat the rationals as zero. This is a much
trickier quotient group. The trickiness does not come from the definition; there is no difficulty there. We can add in R/Q using the definition (XIII.23). The problem is with simplifying the result. Lets try some
p
numerical examples
so that you see what I mean. If we take a = 1 + 2
p
and b = 2/3 2, then
a + b = a + b = 5/3 = 0,
because 5/3 0 = 5/3 Q. However, if we take a = and b = e (where
these have their usual values) then
a + b = + e.
Can we simplify this? For example, is this equal to 0? It is if and only if
+ e is a rational number. No one knows if the number + e is rational
or not (but we know that both and e are irrational). So we dont know if
the result of the above calculation is equal to 0 or not.
XIII.6. Well-Defined and Proofs
We know that in Z/mZ, not only does addition make sense, but also
multiplication makes sense. In Z/mZ we defined multiplication by
(XIII.25)

a b = ab.

Now, you might ask why we dont define multiplication on R/Z in the
same way? OK, lets try using the same definition for multiplication on
R/Z and see what happens:
0.5 0.5 = 0.25,

1.5 0.5 = 0.75.

There is a problem: in R/Z, the classes 1.5 and 0.5 are equal, but the
classes 0.75 and 0.25 arent. Multiplication doesnt make sense on R/Z.

XIII.6. WELL-DEFINED AND PROOFS

87

The problem comes from the definition for multiplication in (XIII.25).

Were trying to define the product of a and b in terms of the representatives a, b of these classes. But each class has many representatives. For
a definition such as this to make sense, the result must be independent
of the choice of representatives. Now you might be wondering why multiplication in Z/mZ makes sense. This was actually done in Foundations
but it is worth looking at the proof again.
Lemma XIII.16. Let m 2 be an integer. Let a, a 0 , b, b 0 satisfying
a = a0,

b = b0,

in Z/mZ. Then
ab = a 0 b 0 .
We say that multiplication is well-defined on Z/mZ. This means that
the result of a product does not depend on the choice of representatitives,
even though it defined in terms of those representatives.
P ROOF. As a = a 0 and b = b 0 we know that
a 0 = a + km,

b 0 = b + `m,

where k and ` are integers. So

a 0 b 0 = ab + m(kb + `a + mk`).
But kb + `a + mk` is an integer as it a sum of products of integers. So
a 0 b 0 ab

(mod mZ),

which means
ab = a 0 b 0 .


Are we sure addition that addition is well-defined in R/Z and the other
quotient groups that weve been working with? The following lemma
checks that.
Lemma XIII.17. Let (G, +) be an additive abelian group and H a subgroup. Let a, a 0 , b, b 0 be elements of G such that in G/H we have
a = a0,

b = b0,

then
a + b = a0 + b0.
P ROOF. Suppose a = a 0 and b = b 0 in G/H . Then aa 0 = h 1 and bb 0 = h 2
where h 1 , h 2 H . Thus
(a + b) (a 0 + b 0 ) = (a a 0 ) + (b b 0 ) = h 1 + h 2 .
As H is a subgroup containing h 1 and h 2 , we know that the sum h 1 + h 2
belongs to H . Thus the classes a + b and a 0 + b 0 are equal.


88

XIII. QUOTIENT GROUPS

To wrap up this chapter, we need to check one thing: that G/H is indeed a group.
Theorem XIII.18. Let (G, +) be an additive abelian group and H a subgroup. Then (G/H , +) is an abelian group.
P ROOF. All we have to do is check the defining properties for abelian
groups. Ill just check that addition is commutative and leave the rest
to you. Suppose a, b G. Then
b+a =b+a
(XIII.26)

from the definition of addition in G/H

= a +b

b + a = a + b as G is abelian

= a +b

from the definition of addition in G/H .


Weve only looked at quotients of abelian additive groups. For general
groups, things are more tricky. At the heart of the trickiness is that in the
non-abelian setting the binary operation on cosets might not be welldefined. For now, if youve got to grips with Z/mZ, R/Z and R2 /Z2 then
youve made an excellent start with quotients.

CHAPTER XIV

Symmetric Groups
The coolest groups have elements that are functions. Matrix groups
are examples, and symmetric groups are other examples. It turns out that
every finite group is a subgroup of one of the symmetric groups. So if we
understand symmetric groups completely, then well understand finite
groups completely. Have I given you hope that youll have a complete
understanding of finite groups by the end of the chapter? Sorry, I was
saying if . . .
XIV.1. Motivation
Let A be a set, and let f , g be functions from A to itself. We know that
we can compose f , g to obtain f g which is also a function from A to
itself. We shall write Map(A) for the set of functions from A to itself. Then
is a binary operation on Map(A). And its natural to ask if this makes
Map(A) into a group. After all, we know by Lemma III.2 that composition
of functions is associative. The following example will help clarify these
ideas.
Example XIV.1. Let A = {1, 2}. You will quickly convince yourself that
there are only four functions from A to itself, which are given in Figure XIV.1.

1
2

f1

f3

f2

f4

F IGURE XIV.1. f 1 , f 2 , f 3 and f 4 are the four functions from

{1, 2} to itself.
89

90

XIV. SYMMETRIC GROUPS

Thus Map(A) = { f 1 , f 2 , f 3 , f 4 }. Is Map(A) a group with respect to composition of functions? Here is the composition table for Map(A):

f1
f2
f3
f4

f1
f1
f2
f3
f4

f2
f2
f1
f3
f4

f3
f3
f4
f3
f4

f4
f4
f3
f3
f4

Make sure you understand the table. The entry for f i f j is at the intersection of the i -th row and j -th column. As always, f i f j means apply
f j first then f i . We know that composition of functions is associative by
Lemma III.2. Moreover, it is clear from the table that f 1 is the identity element. But f 3 and f 4 dont have inverses; we cant combine either of them
with any of the four functions to obtain the identity f 1 .
But if you look carefully at the table, you will see a group with respect
to composition. It is the subset: { f 1 , f 2 }. If youve been paying attention
in Foundations you will know why f 1 , f 2 have inverses (which in this case
happen to be f 1 and f 2 respectively), and f 3 , f 4 dont: the functions f 1 , f 2
are bijections and f 3 and f 4 are not.
Now is a good time for you to revise Example IV.10. There you saw a
that non-invertible matrix (which represented projection onto the y-axis)
was also a non-bijective function R2 R2 .

XIV.2. Injections, Surjections and Bijections

In this section we revise some stuff that youve done in Foundations.
For the proofs you should refer back to your Foundations lecture notes.
Definition. Let A, B be sets, and let f : A B be a function from A to
B (also called a map or a mapping from A to B ). We call A the domain
of f and B the codomain of f or the range of f . We say f is injective if
whenever a 1 , a 2 A satisfy a 1 6= a 2 then f (a 1 ) 6= f (a 2 ). In other words,
distinct elements of A are mapped to distinct elements of B .
We say f is surjective if for every b B , there is some element a A
such that f (a) = b. In other words, every element of B is in the image.
We say f is bijective if it is injective and surjective.
Example XIV.2. See Figure XIV.2. Here f 1 is not a function, since f 1 (2) =
b and f 1 (2) = c. A function takes one element
p of the domain to exactly
one element of the codomain. If you write 4 = 2, then youre thinking
p
of
as a multifunction and not a function. In terms of pictures as in
the figure, for f to be a function, exactly one arrow originates at any one
element of the domain.
f 2 is injective since there are exactly two distinct elements in its domain which are 1 and 2 and these get mapped to distinct elements c and
a. However, f 2 is not surjective, since b is in the codomain, but f (1) 6= b

XIV.2. INJECTIONS, SURJECTIONS AND BIJECTIONS

b
2

f1

b
c

f3

91

b
2

f2

f4

F IGURE XIV.2. f 1 is not a function, f 2 is injective but not

surjective, f 3 is surjective but not injective and f 4 is a bijection.

and f (2) 6= b. In terms of pictures, surjective means that every element of

the codomain is the end point of at least one arrow.
f 3 is surjective but not injective. In terms of pictures, injective means
that no two arrows share the same end point.
bijection is
f 4 : B C is a bijection. A bijection is merely an act of relabelling.
relabelling The sets B and C are the same if we relabel a as v, b as u and c as w.
Example XIV.3. Let f 1 , f 2 , f 3 , f 4 be the functions {1, 2} {1, 2} in Figure XIV.1. Then f 1 and f 2 are bijections. However, f 3 and f 4 are neither
injective nor surjective.

Remarks.
(i) Instead of saying that a function is injective, mathematicians sometimes say that it is one-to-one (also written 1 1).
(ii) The definition of injective is often given in the contrapositive
form: if f (a 1 ) = f (a 2 ) then a 1 = a 2 . The way weve phrased the
definition is more helpful for this chapter, but you should get
used to both forms.
(iii) Instead of saying that a function is surjective, mathematicians
sometimes say that it is onto. I found this jarring when I first saw
it. But I quickly got used to it.
(iv) A bijection is also called a one-to-one correspondence.
Here is a theorem you have seen in Foundations where it was probably called the pigeon-hole principle.
Theorem XIV.4. Let A be a finite set and let f be a function from A to itself.
Then f is injective if and only if f is surjective.

92

XIV. SYMMETRIC GROUPS

Example XIV.5. Look back at the functions in Figure XIV.1 for a very basic
illustration of Theorem XIV.4.

Example XIV.6. Theorem XIV.4 is true for finite sets only. For infinite sets
it might or might not hold. Let f 1 : N N be given by f 1 (x) = x + 1. Then
f 1 is not surjective since 0 is not in the image. However, f 1 is injective. See
Figure XIV.3. By contrast, let f 2 : Z Z be also given by x 7 x + 1. Then
N

N
0

Z
..
.

Z
..
.

0
1

..
.

..
.

..
.

..
.

f1

f2

F IGURE XIV.3. f 1 : N N and f 2 : Z Z are both given by

x 7 x + 1. The function f 1 is injective but not surjective.
The function f 2 is injective and surjective; therefore it is
a bijection. The pigeon-hole principle holds only for finite
sets!
f 2 is a bijection.

The following theorems collect together key results regarding bijections. Again you know all of this from Foundations.
Theorem XIV.7. Let f : A B and g : B C be bijections. Then g f is a
bijection A C .
Definition. Let A be a set. The identity map on A is the map id A : A A
satisfying id A (x) = x for all x A.
Let f : A A be a function on A. We say that f is invertible if there
exists a function g : A A such that f g = g f = id A . If such a g exists
then we call it the inverse of f and denote it by f 1 .
Of course you know from Foundations that if f has an inverse then it
is unique.
Theorem XIV.8. Let f : A A be a function. Then f is invertible if and
only if f is a bijection. If f is invertible then f 1 is also a bijection.

XIV.4. S n

93

XIV.3. The Symmetric Group

Let A be a set. We shall denote the set of bijections from A to itself by
Sym(A).
Example XIV.9. In Example XIV.1 we wrote down all the functions from
A = {1, 2} to itself and found that exactly two of these are bijections. These
were called f 1 and f 2 in Figure XIV.1. Hence Sym(A) = { f 1 , f 2 }. Note that
f 1 = id A . In that example, we noted that { f 1 , f 2 } is a group under composition with f 1 being the identity element. Check this again, and note that
the group is abelian.

Theorem XIV.10. Let A be a set. Then (Sym(A), ) is a group with id A as

the identity element.
We call Sym(A) the symmetric group on A.
P ROOF. By Theorem XIV.7, Sym(A) is closed under composition. Moreover, composition of functions is associative by Lemma III.2.
Clearly id A is a bijection and so is in Sym(A). We want to check that
id A is the identity for composition, which means that for any f Sym(A)
we want f id A = id A f = f . Note
( f id A )(x) = f (id A (x)) = f (x),

(id A f )(x) = id A ( f (x)) = f (x).

Thus f id A = id A f = f holds.
Finally we want every element of Sym(A) to have an inverse in Sym(A).
This is true by Theorem XIV.8.

Example XIV.11. Let f 1 , f 2 be as in Example XIV.6. Note that f 1 Sym(N)
since it is not a bijection. However f 2 Sym(Z). What is f 21 ? It is simply
the function Z Z given by x 7 x 1.
Lets calculate g = f 23 = f 2 f 2 f 2 . Then
g (x) = f 2 ( f 2 ( f 2 (x))) = f 2 ( f 2 (x + 1)) = f 2 (x + 2) = x + 3.
It will be easy for you to show, for any integer n, that f 2n is the function
Z Z satisfying x 7 x + n. In particular, f 2n 6= id A for n 6= 0. Thus f 2 is an
element of infinite order in the group Sym(Z).

Exercise XIV.12. Let f : Z Z and g : R R be given by x 7 2x. Show

that f Sym(Z) but g Sym(R). Write down g n for integers n.
Exercise XIV.13. Let f : C C, g : C C, h : C C be given by f (z) =
z + 1, g (z) = z + i , h(z) = i z. Describe f , g , h geometrically. Show that f ,
g , h are in Sym(C). Show that f and g commute. What about f and h or
g and h? What are the orders of f , g and h?
XIV.4. S n
We define S n to be the group Sym({1, 2, . . . , n}). We call S n the n-th
symmetric group. In Example XIV.9 we found that S 2 is a group of order 2.
Theorem XIV.14. S n has order n!.

94

XIV. SYMMETRIC GROUPS

P ROOF. S n is the set of bijections from {1, 2, . . . , n} to itself. So we want

to count these bijections. Since the set {1, 2, . . . , n} is finite, Theorem XIV.4
tells us that a bijection from the set to itself is the same as an injection. So
lets count the injections. Let f be an injection from {1, 2, . . . , n} to itself.
Then f (1) can be any of 1, 2, . . . , n; that is, there are n choices for f (1). If
we fix f (1) then f (2) 6= f (1). So there are n 1 choices for f (2) once weve
chosen f (1). Likewise there are n 2 choices for f (3) once weve chosen
f (1) and f (2). It is now clear that the number of injections is
n (n 1) 1 = n!.


The elements of S n are called permutations. One way of representing permutations is to use diagrams such as those for f 1 , f 2 S 2 in Figure XIV.1. The following is a more economical way. Let a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a n be
the numbers 1, 2, . . . , n in some order. Then

1 2 n
a1 a2 an
represents the unique permutation in S n that sends 1 to a 1 , 2 to a 2 , . . . ,
and n to a n .
Example XIV.15. S 2 has two elements:

1 2
1 2
,
.
1 2
2 1
These are respectively the same as f 1 , f 2 in Figure XIV.1. The first of these
is the identity element. We noted in Example XIV.9 that S 2 = Sym({1, 2}) is
abelian.

Example XIV.16.
These are

1
1

1
1

We know from Theorem XIV.14 that S 3 has 6 elements.

2 3
,
2 3

2 3
,
3 2

1
2

1
2

2 3
,
3 1

2 3
,
1 3

1 2 3
3 1 2

1 2 3
.
3 2 1

Again, the first of these is the identity element. It is important that you
know what the notation means and how to multiply two permutations
written in this notation, so lets have some practice. Let

1 2 3
1 2 3
=
,
=
.
3 1 2
1 3 2
Never forget that these are bijections from {1, 2, 3} to itself. To find out
what does, look at the columns. is the function that sends 1 to 3, 2 to
1 and 3 to 2. Thus
(XIV.27)

(1) = 3,

(2) = 1,

(3) = 2.

XIV.4. S n

95

Likewise,
(1) = 1,

(2) = 3,

(3) = 2.

Now let us compute . As always, this means apply first then . So

()(1) = ((1)) = (1) = 3;
()(2) = ((2)) = (3) = 2;
()(3) = ((3)) = (2) = 1.
Thus

1 2 3
.
=
3 2 1
Similarly,

1 2 3
=
.
2 1 3
Note that 6= , so S 3 is non-abelian. How do we compute 1 ? From
(XIV.27) we find
1 = 1 (3),

2 = 1 (1),

3 = 1 (2).

1 (2) = 3,

1 (3) = 1.

We rearrange this:
1 (1) = 2,
Hence

1 2 3
=
.
2 3 1

Exercise XIV.17. Write down a multiplication table for S 3 and determine

the orders of all six elements checking that your answers are consistent
with Lagranges Theorem.
Exercise XIV.18. Let and be the following permutations:

1 2 3 4 5
=
,
2 3 5 1 4

1 2 3 4 5
=
.
3 1 2 5 4

Compute 1 , , 2 .
Exercise XIV.19. Show that S n is non-abelian for n 3.
Exercise XIV.20. Recall (page 34) that we interpreted elements of D 4 as
functions from {1, 2, 3, 4} to itself. Go back and check that these are bijections. Thus D 4 is a subgroup of S 4 .

96

XIV. SYMMETRIC GROUPS

XIV.4.1. Whats Special About S n ? We started the chapter by looking at symmetry groups of arbitrary sets A. Then we restricted ourself to
S n = Sym({1, 2, . . . , n}). This is not as big a restriction as it looks. Suppose
the set A is finite, and let n = |A|, the number of elements of A. Then
Sym(A) is isomorphic to S n . One way of seeing this is convince ourselves
that every permutation of {1, 2, . . . , n} gives us a permutation of A. For
example, suppose A = {a 1 , a 2 , a 3 }. Then the permutation {1, 2, 3} given by

1 2 3
2 3 1
corresponds to the permutation of A given by

a1 a2 a3
.
a2 a3 a1
Understanding Sym(A) with |A| = n is the same as understanding S n .
XIV.5. A Nice Application of Lagranges Theorem
Let n, m be integers with n 2 and 0 m n. You met before the
binomial coefficient
!
n
n!
=
.
m
m!(n m)!
It is not all obvious from this formula that the binomial coefficient is an
integer. As an application of Lagranges Theorem, we show that it is. Recall that S n has order n!. If we can find a subgroup H of S n of order
m!(n m)!, then
!
n
|S n |
=
.
m
|H |
We know by Lagranges Theorem that the right-hand side is simply [S n :
H ], the number of cosets of H in S n , and is therefore an integer. All
we have to do now is give the subgroup H of order m!(n m)!. Let H
be the subset of S n consisting of permutations such that permutes
{1, 2, . . . , m} and permutes {m + 1, m + 2, . . . , n}. What do we mean by this?
Write
A = {1, 2, . . . , m},
B = {m + 1, m + 2, . . . , n}.
Note that
{1, 2, . . . , n} = A B.
The elements of S n are the bijections from the set {1, 2, . . . , n} to itself. The
elements of H are those elements of S n that satisfy (a) A for all a
A, and (b) B for all b B . Its an easy exercise to show that H is a
subgroup of S n . We want to check that its order is really m!(n m)!. We
count the elements of H in a similar way to the argument in the proof
of Theorem XIV.14. Let be an element of H . Then (1) can be any of
1, 2, . . . , m. Once weve chosen (1), we know (2) can be any of 1, 2, . . . , m
except for (1). Thus there are m choices for (1), m 1 choices for (2)

XIV.6. CYCLE NOTATION

97

and so on. Until we reach (m + 1). This can be any element of B , and so
there are n m choices for (m + 1). etc. You see that the order of H is
m(m 1) 1 (n m)(n m 1) 1 = m!(n m)!
Dont you just love maths?
Exercise XIV.21. To make sure youve understood the argument above,
let m = 2 and n = 4, so that
A = {1, 2},

B = {3, 4}.

Now write down all permutations in S 4 that satisfy (a) A for all a A
and (b) B for all b B , and convince yourself that these form a group.
XIV.6. Cycle Notation
Let a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a m be distinct elements of the set {1, 2, . . . , n}. By the notation
(a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a m )

(XIV.28)

we mean the element of S n that takes a 1 to a 2 , a 2 to a 3 , . . . , a m1 to a m

and a m back to a 1 , and fixes all other elements of {1, 2, . . . , n}. The permutation (XIV.28) is called a cycle of length m. A cycle of length 2 is called a
transposition.
Example XIV.22. Let = (1, 4, 5) S 5 . The cycle is of length 3 and is
illustrated in Figure XIV.4.
4
1
2

F IGURE XIV.4. The cycle (1, 4, 5) S 5 .

We can write (1, 4, 5) using our old notation:

1 2 3 4 5
(1, 4, 5) =
.
4 2 3 5 1
Notice that (1, 4, 5) = (4, 5, 1) = (5, 1, 4). However, (1, 4, 5) 6= (1, 5, 4).
The transposition (1, 5) S 5 is given in Figure XIV.5.
In our old notation, the transposition (1, 5) is written as follows:

1 2 3 4 5
(1, 5) =
.
5 2 3 4 1
Note that (1, 5) = (5, 1).

98

XIV. SYMMETRIC GROUPS

1
2

F IGURE XIV.5. The transposition (1, 5) S 5 . This merely

swaps 1 and 5, and fixes all other elements.
Finally (1) is the cycle that takes 1 to itself and fixes all the other elements. Clearly (1) = (2) = (3) = (4) = (5) = id is nothing other than the
identity permutation.

I hope that the above example has convinced you that cycle notation
is simultaneously more concise and and more transparent than the old
notation. If so, the following theorem will come as a pleasant surprize.
Theorem XIV.23. Every permutation can be written as a product of disjoint cycles.
What does disjoint mean? Two cycles (a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a n ) and (b 1 , b 2 , . . . , b m )
are said to be disjoint if a i 6= b j for all i , j . What does product mean? The
product of two permutation is of course their composition as functions.
Before we prove the theorem, lets see and example where we write down
a permutation as a product of cycles.
Example XIV.24. Let

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
=
.
5 7 1 4 8 2 6 3
Write as a product of disjoint cycles.
Answer: We start with 1 are repeatedly apply to it:
1 7 5 7 8 7 3 7 1.
Therefore contains the cycle (1, 5, 8, 3). Now we start with an element of
the set {1, 2, . . . , 8} that is not contained in the cycle (1, 5, 8, 3). For example
start with 2 and repeatedly apply to it:
2 7 7 7 6 7 2.
So also contains the cycle (2, 7, 6). Note that the cycles (1, 5, 8, 3) and
(2, 7, 6) are disjoint, and contains the product (or composition) (1, 5, 8, 3)(2, 7, 6).
There still remains one element of the set {1, 2, . . . , 8} that does not appear
as either of the two cycles (1, 5, 8, 3) and (2, 7, 6) and this is 4. Applying
to 4 we find:
4 7 4.
So
= (1, 5, 8, 3)(2, 7, 6)(4)

XIV.6. CYCLE NOTATION

99

as a product of disjoint cycles. Recall that (4) is just the identity, so it is

usual to omit it and write,
= (1, 5, 8, 3)(2, 7, 6).
You might be wondering why we wrote as above and not = (2, 7, 6)(1, 5, 8, 3).
This does not matter since disjoint cycles commute; more on this below.

Example XIV.25. Let

= (1, 3, 10, 9)(2, 5, 6),

= (4, 3, 10)(1, 5, 8).

Express and 1 as a product of disjoint cycles.

Answer: We start with 1 and follow the same procedure as the above example. Note that 1 means apply first to 1 and then apply to the
result. Now 1 = 5 and 5 = 6. So 1 = 6. Next we apply to 6. The
permutation does not have 6 in its cycle decomposition, so 6 = 6. So
6 = 6 = 2. We keep applying until we return to 1:
1 7 6 7 2 7 5 7 8 7 3 7 9 7 1.
Thus has the cycle (1, 6, 2, 5, 8, 3, 9) in its decomposition as a product
of disjoint cycles. We note that this cycle has no 4 in it. So we apply
repeatedly starting with 4:
4 7 10 7 4.
Hence has the product (1, 6, 2, 5, 8, 3, 9)(4, 10) in its decomposition as
a product of disjoint cycles. Finally, note that of the elements of the set
{1, 2, . . . , 10}, the only one not appearing in the product (1, 6, 2, 5, 8, 3, 9)(4, 10)
is 7. However 7 = 7. So
= (1, 6, 2, 5, 8, 3, 9)(4, 10)
as a product of disjoint cycles.
You may have noticed that we were tacitly assuming that and are
elements of S 10 and computed the product under that assumption. In
fact, we would have obtained the same result had and been elements
of S 11 , S 12 , . . . . Indeed viewed as elements of S 11 , the permutations and
, and the cycles (1, 6, 2, 5, 8, 3, 9) and (4, 10) all fix 11.
To compute 1 we start with = (1, 3, 10, 9)(2, 5, 6) and reverse the
arrows:
:

1 7 3 7 10 7 9 7 1,

2 7 5 7 6 7 2;

1 [ 3 [ 10 [ 9 [ 1,

2 [ 5 [ 6 [ 2.

Therefore 1 = (1, 9, 10, 3)(2, 6, 5). Check for yourself that 1 is indeed
the identity permutation.

Exercise XIV.26. Let and be as given in Exercise XIV.18. Write and

as products of disjoint cycles.
Exercise XIV.27. Which of the following pairs of permutations are equal
elements of S 6 ?

100

XIV. SYMMETRIC GROUPS

(i) (1, 2, 3)(4, 6) and (6, 4)(2, 3, 1)(5).

(ii) (4, 5, 6)(1, 2, 3) and (3, 1, 2)(5, 4, 6).
Exercise XIV.28. Let = (1, 2, 3)(4, 5) and = (1, 2, 3, 4). Write the following in cycle notation (i.e. as a product of disjoint cycles): 1 , 1 , ,
2 .
Lemma XIV.29. Disjoint cycles commute.
P ROOF. Let and be disjoint cycle in S n and write
= (a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a k ),

= (b 1 , b 2 , . . . , b ` ).

Since and are disjoint a i 6= b j for i = 1, . . . , k and j = 1, . . . , `.

We want to show that = . This means that x = x for all
x {1, 2, . . . , n}. We subdivide into three cases:
Case 1: x does not equal any of the a i or b j . Then x = x and x = x.
Therefore
x = x = x = x = x.
Case 2: x = a i for some i = 1, . . . , k. Thus x does not equal any of the b j ,
and so x = x. Hence x = x = a i = a i +1 ; here a k+1 is interpreted as
being a 1 . Lets compute x. This is a i = a i +1 = a i +1 since a i +1 does
not equal any of the b j . Hence x = x.
Case 3: x = b j for some j = 1, . . . , `. This is similar to Case 2.
We conclude that = as required.

P ROOF OF T HEOREM XIV.23. Let be an element of S n . Consider the sequence
1, 1, 2 1, 3 1, . . .
Every term in this infinite sequence is contained in the finite set {1, 2, . . . , n}.
Thus the sequence must contain repetition. Let u 1 be the first term
in the sequence that has already appeared. Thus u 1 = v 1 for some
0 v < u. Apply v to both sides. We obtain uv 1 = 1. Note that
0 < u v u. If u v < u, then uv 1 is in fact the first term in the
sequence that has already appeared, which contradicts our assumption.
Therefore, u v = u and so v = 0. Hence u 1 = 1, and 1, 1, . . . , u1 1 are
distinct.
Let 1 be the cycle of length u

1 = 1, 1, 2 1, . . . , u1 1 .
It is clear that 1 has the same effect as on the elements 1, 1, . . . , u1 1.
Now let a be the first element of the set {1, 2, . . . , n} not appearing in
the list 1, 1, . . . , u1 1. Repeat the above argument with the sequence
a, a, 2 a, 3 a, . . . .
We deduce the existence of a cycle

2 = a, a, . . . , v1 a

as promised

XIV.7. PERMUTATIONS AND TRANSPOSITIONS

101

such that 2 and have the same effect on the elements a, a, . . . , v1 a.

Let us show that 1 and 2 are disjoint. Suppose otherwise. Then i 1 =
j a for some 0 i < u and 0 j < v. Now apply v j to both sides to
obtain k 1 = a where k = i +v j . This contradicts our assumption that a
does not appear in the list 1, 1, . . . , u1 1. Hence the cycles 1 and 2 are
disjoint. Now the product 1 2 has the same effect as on the elements
1, 1, . . . , u1 1, a, a, . . . , v1 a.
We repeat the process, starting with the first element of {1, 2, . . . , n} not
appearing in either cycle 1 , 2 to construct a 3 that is disjoint from both
1 and 2 , etc. As the set {1, 2, . . . , n} is finite, this process must terminate
eventually with some r . The product of disjoint cycles 1 2 . . . r has the
same effect on {1, . . . , n} as . Therefore
= 1 2 r .


Exercise XIV.30. We will shortly meet the Alternating Groups, one of which
is
A 3 = {id, (1, 2, 3), (1, 3, 2)}.
Verify that A 3 is a subgroup of S 3 , and write down its left cosets.
Exercise XIV.31. Verify that H = {id, (1, 2)} is a subgroup of S 3 , and write
down its left cosets.
Exercise XIV.32.
(i) Use Lagranges Theorem to show that S 4 does
not have an element of order 5.
(ii) Let = (a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a m ) be a cycle of length m in S n . Explain why
has order m.
(iii) Now let = 1 2 . . . k where the i are disjoint cycles of lengths
m i in S n . Explain carefully why has order lcm(m 1 , m 2 , . . . , m k ).
(iv) Show that S 4 does not have elements of order 6. Could you have
shown this using Lagranges Theorem?
XIV.7. Permutations and Transpositions
Lemma XIV.33. Every permutation can be written a product of transpositions.
Note the absence of the word disjoint.
P ROOF. We know that every permutation can be written a product of cycles. So it is enough to show that a cycle can be written as a product of
transpositions. Check for yourself that
(XIV.29)

(a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a m ) = (a 1 , a m ) (a 1 , a 3 )(a 1 , a 2 ).

102

XIV. SYMMETRIC GROUPS

Example XIV.34. Equation (XIV.29) gives a recipe for writing any cycle as
a product of transpositions. For example,
(1, 5, 9) = (1, 9)(1, 5).
Note that these transpositions are not disjoint and so they dont have to
commute. Check that
(1, 9)(1, 5) 6= (1, 5)(1, 9).
One thing to be careful about is that decomposition of a permutation as
a product of transpositions is not in any way unique. For example, using
(XIV.29) we have
(1, 2, 3, 4) = (1, 4)(1, 3)(1, 2).
However, you can also check that
(1, 2, 3, 4) = (2, 3)(1, 3)(3, 5)(3, 4)(4, 5).
So we can write (1, 2, 3, 4) as a product of 3 transpositions and as a product of 5 transpositions. Can we write it as a product of 4 transpositions?
Spend no more and no less than five minutes thinking about this.

XIV.8. Even and Odd Permutations

Let n 2 be an integer. Let x 1 , x 2 , . . . , x n be variables, and let P n be the
polynomial
Y
Pn =
(x i x j ).
1i < j n

The polynomial P n is called the n-th alternating polynomial. It will help

us to discover an important subgroup of S n called the alternating group
and denoted by A n . Let us write down the first three alternating polynomials:
P 2 = x1 x2 ,

P 3 = (x 1 x 2 )(x 1 x 3 )(x 2 x 3 ),

P 4 = (x 1 x 2 )(x 1 x 3 )(x 1 x 4 )(x 2 x 3 )(x 2 x 4 )(x 3 x 4 ).

If S n the define
(P n ) =

(x i x j ).

1i < j n

Example XIV.35. Let = (1, 2) S 3 . Then

(P 3 ) = (x 1 x 2 )(x 1 x 3 )(x 2 x 3 )
= (x 2 x 1 )(x 2 x 3 )(x 1 x 3 )
= P 3 .
We obtain the equality in the final step of the calculation by comparing the factors of P 3 with the factors of (P 3 ), and not by expanding!
Note that the first factor of P 3 changed sign and the last two factors are
swapped. So (P 3 ) = P 3 .

XIV.8. EVEN AND ODD PERMUTATIONS

103

Now let = (1, 2, 3) S 3 . Then

(P 3 ) = (x 1 x 2 )(x 1 x 3 )(x 2 x 3 )
= (x 2 x 3 )(x 2 x 1 )(x 3 x 1 )
= P3.
Again we obtain equality by comparing factors. Write down (P 3 ) for the
other four elements S 3 .

Lemma XIV.36. Let S n be a transposition. Then (P n ) = P n .

The proof of the lemma is not hard. But it is very easy to get muddled
in this proof. So before you read on, try out lots of examples and drink
lots of coffee. Sit where no one can see you and try to prove it. If you
manage it, feel free to jump up and down from excitementyou deserve
it.
The examples weve done are quite basic, so lets do a more serious
one.
Example XIV.37. Let = (2, 4) S 5 . We want to check that (P 5 ) = P 5 .
Some factors of P 5 are unaffected. For example, (x 1 x 3 ) = x 1 x 3 =
x 1 x 3 . The ones that arent affected are the ones that dont contain either
of x 2 or x 4 . These are,
x1 x3 ,

x1 x5 ,

x3 x5 .

We will split the other factors of P 5 into four groups 1:

(I)

x1 x2 ,

x1 x4 ,

(II)

x2 x3 ,

x3 x4 ,

(III)

x2 x5 ,

x4 x5 ,

(IV)

x2 x4 .

Lets study what does to each group. Note that

(x 1 x 2 ) = x 1 x 4 ,

(x 1 x 4 ) = x 1 x 2 .

Thus swaps the factors in group (I) whilst keeping their signs the same.
But
(x 2 x 3 ) = x 4 x 3 = (x 3 x 4 ),

(x 3 x 4 ) = x 3 x 2 = (x 2 x 3 ).

Thus swaps the factors in group (II) and changes the sign of each. Moreover,
(x 2 x 5 ) = x 4 x 5 ,
(x 4 x 5 ) = x 2 x 5 .
So swaps the factors in group (III) whilst keeping their signs the same.
Finally,
(x 2 x 4 ) = x 2 x 4 = x 4 x 2 = (x 2 x 4 ).
1The word groups here is used in its English language sense, not in its mathemat-

ical sense.

104

XIV. SYMMETRIC GROUPS

So the one factor in group (IV) simply changes sign. We see that (P 5 ) has
the same factors as P 5 with three sign changes: (P 5 ) = (1)3 P 5 = P 5 .
P ROOF OF L EMMA XIV.36. Let = (`, m). The transposition (`, m) swaps
` and m, and keeps everything else fixed. In particular (`, m) = (m, `).
So we can suppose that ` < m. Any factor x i x j where neither i nor j
is equal to ` nor m, is unaffected by . We pair off the other factors as
follows:

x1 x` ,
x1 xm ,

x 2 x ` ,
x2 xm ,
(I)
.
.
..
..

x `1 x ` , x `1 x m ,

x ` x `+1 , x `+1 x m ,

x ` x `+2 , x `+2 x m ,
(II)
..
..

.
.

x ` x m1 , x m1 x m ,

x ` x m+1 , x m x m+1 ,

x ` x m+2 , x m x m+2 ,
(III)
..
..

.
.

x` xn ,
xm xn ,
n
(IV)
x` xm .
Now swaps each pair in (I), keeping the signs the same; it swaps each
pair in (II) and changes the sign of each; it swaps each pair in (III), keeping the signs the same; it changes the sign of x ` x m . So (P n ) has exactly
the same factors as P n , up to a certain number of sign changes. How
many sign changes? The number of sign changes is:
2(m ` 1) + 1.
The 1 is for changing the sign of x ` x m . There are 2 sign changes coming
from each pair in (II). The number of such pairs is m ` 1. Since the
number of sign changes is odd, we see that (P n ) = P n .

Lemma XIV.38. If S n then (P n ) = P n . More precisely, if is a product of an even number of transpositions then (P n ) = P n and if is a product of an odd number of transpositions then (P n ) = P n .
P ROOF. Recall, by Lemma XIV.33, that we can write every permutation as
a product of transpositions. Every transposition changes the sign of P n .
The lemma follows.

Example XIV.39. We have noted in Example XIV.34 that the way we express a permutation as a product of transpositions is not unique. Indeed

XIV.8. EVEN AND ODD PERMUTATIONS

105

we saw that
(1, 2, 3, 4) = (1, 4)(1, 3)(1, 2),

(1, 2, 3, 4) = (2, 3)(1, 3)(3, 5)(3, 4)(4, 5).

So we can write (1, 2, 3, 4) as a product of 3 transpositions and as a product of 5 transpositions. We asked the question of whether (1, 2, 3, 4) can
be written as a product of 4 transpositions? Write = (1, 2, 3, 4). From the
above lemma, we see that (P n ) = P n . If were able to write as a product of an even number of transpositions then (P n ) = P n . We would then
have P n = P n which is a contradiction. Therefore we cannot write as
a product of 4 transposition.

You should now have no trouble in proving the following theorem.

Theorem XIV.40. Every permutation in S n can be written as a product of
either an even number of transpositions, or an odd number of transpositions but not both.
We shall call a permutation even if we can write it as a product of an
even number of transpositions, and we shall call it odd if we can write it
as a product of an odd number of transpositions.
Example XIV.41. (1, 2, 3, 4) is an odd permutation because we can write it
as the product of 3 transpositions:
(1, 2, 3, 4) = (1, 4)(1, 3)(1, 2).
Indeed, a cycle of length n can be written as product of n 1 transposiBeware! tions by (XIV.29). So a cycle of length n is even if n is odd, and it is odd if
n is even!
The permutation (1, 2, 3)(4, 5) is the product of an even permutation
which is (1, 2, 3) and an odd permutation which is the transposition (4, 5).
Thus (1, 2, 3)(4, 5) is an odd permutation.
What about the identity element id? Note that id(P n ) = P n , so id must
be even. We must be able to write it as a product of an even number of
transpositions. A mathematician would say that the identity element is
the product of zero transpositions, so it is even. If you find that kind of
reasoning disturbing, you have my sympathy. Instead, note that
id = (1, 2)(1, 2),
which does allow us to check that id is indeed even.
We now come to define a very important group. Let n 2. We define
the n-th alternating group to be
A n = { S n : is even}.
As usual, all weve done is specify a subset of S n which weve denoted by
A n and we must indeed show that A n is a group.
Theorem XIV.42. A n is a subgroup of S n .
P ROOF. Weve already seen that the identity element id is even, so id A n .
If , A n then we can write each as an even number of transpositions.

106

XIV. SYMMETRIC GROUPS

Therefore the product can be written as an even number of transpositions (even+even=even). Hence A n .
Finally we must show that the inverse of an even permutation is even.
Suppose is even. We can write
= 1 2 . . . m
where the i are transpositions, and m is even. Now
1 = (1 2 m )1
1
1
= 1
m m1 1

= m m1 1 .
Here you should convince yourself that 1 = for any transposition .
Since m is even, we find that 1 is even and so 1 A n .
Hence A n is a subgroup of S n .

Example XIV.43. Recall that S 2 = {id, (1, 2)}. We see that A 2 = {id} is the
trivial subgroup.

Example XIV.44. Recall that S 3 has 3! = 6 elements:

S 3 = {id, (1, 2), (1, 3), (2, 3), (1, 2, 3), (1, 3, 2)}.
Then
A 3 = {id, (1, 2, 3), (1, 3, 2)}.
Note that S 3 is non-abelian, but you can check that A 3 is abelian.

In the above examples we saw that A n has half the number of elements of S n for n = 2, 3. In fact, this pattern continues.
Theorem XIV.45. Let n 2. Then A n has order
n!
1
|A n | = |S n | = .
2
2
P ROOF. We know by Lagranges Theorem that
|S n | = [S n : A n ]|A n |.
To prove the theorem it is sufficient to show that the index [S n : A n ] = 2.
Fix a transposition (e.g. = (1, 2)). We shall show that the distinct cosets
of A n in S n are A n and A n . It will then follow that the index [S n : A n ] = 2,
completing the proof.
We know that A n is the subset (indeed subgroup) of S n consisting of
all the even permutations. Thus A n consists only of odd permutations.
Does A n contain all the odd permutations? Suppose is odd. Then
is even and is hence in A n . Therefore () is in the coset A n . But
() = 2 = ,
since transpositions have order 2, and so A n .
We have now shown that A n is the set of all odd permutations, and
we know that A n is the set of all even permutations. Are there any other
cosets? If there were any they would have to overlap with either A n or

XIV.8. EVEN AND ODD PERMUTATIONS

107

A n , and we know that cosets are either disjoint or equal (Lemma XII.17).
So there arent any other cosets and the proof is complete.

Exercise XIV.46. Let and be as given in Exercise XIV.18. Write and
as products of transpositions and state if theyre even or odd.
Exercise XIV.47. Write down the elements of A 3 and check that it is cyclic
(and hence abelian). Show that A n is non-abelian for n 4.
Exercise XIV.48. Let f be a polynomial in variables x 1 , x 2 , . . . , x n . Let be
a permutation in S n . We define ( f ) to be the polynomial f (x 1 , x 2 , . . . , x n ).
For example, if f = x 1 + x 22 + x 3 x 4 and = (1, 4)(2, 3) then swaps x 1 and
x 4 , and swaps x 2 and x 3 ; thus ( f ) = x 4 + x 32 + x 2 x 1 . Compute ( f ) for the
following pairs f , :
(i) f = x 12 x 2 x 3 , = (1, 2, 3).
(ii) f = x 1 x 2 + x 3 x 4 , = (1, 3)(2, 4).

Exercise XIV.50. Let and S n . Show that is even if and only if 1

is even. (Hint: It will help to show that if = c 1 c 2 c m as a product of
transpositions, then 1 = c m c m1 . . . c 1 ).
Exercise XIV.51. This exercise concerns the 15-tile puzzle. The puzzle
consists of 15 square tiles (numbered 1, 2, . . . , 15) arranged in a 44 square
with one position blank. The initial arrangement of the tiles is as follows:

10

11

12

13

15

14

You can slide any tile adjacent to the blank into the position of the
blank. So starting from the initial arrangement there are two possible
moves:

craving my daily algebra fix

Exercise XIV.49. Let f be a polynomial in variables x 1 , . . . , x n .

(a) Let H be a subgroup of S n . We say that f is H -invariant if it
satisfies the property that ( f ) = f for all H . We say that f is
symmetric if it is S n -invariant. Find a polynomial in x 1 , x 2 , x 3 , x 4
that is D 4 -invariant but not symmetric.
(b) Define Fix( f ) = { S n : ( f ) = f }. Show that Fix( f ) is a subgroup of S n . Write down Fix( f ) for the following polynomials in
x1 , . . . , x4 :
(i) x 42 + x 1 x 2 x 3 .
(ii) x 1 x 2 + x 3 x 4 .

108

XIV. SYMMETRIC GROUPS

10

11

10

11

12

13

15

14

13

15

12

14

In the 1880sas a marketing ploy to improve the sales of the puzzle

Sam Lloyd (an amateur mathematician) offered $1000 to anyone who can
reach:

10

11

12

13

14

15

Show that this is impossible! You might want to follow these hints and a mathematical scam
tips:
(i) Think of the blank as a tile numbered 16. This way every rearrangement is a permutation on 1, . . . , 16 and so an element of
S 16 .
(ii) Observe that every move is a transposition involving 16.
(iii) Observe that to go from the initial arrangement to the desired
final arrangement, tile 16 must make the same number moves
down as up, and the same number of moves right as left.
Can you use your knowledge of maths to think of other ways of ripping applied maths!
people off? This of course is a purely intellectual exercise. As citizens of
Warwick plc you are fine upright human beings who would not dream
of putting such ideas into practice. But DONT share these ideas with
friends from less scrupulous universities. I dont have a particular two
universities in mind.
Riveted?

CHAPTER XV

Rings
If groups took your breath away, wait till you meet rings.
XV.1. Definition
A ring is a triple (R, +, ), where R is a set and +, are binary operations
on R such that the following properties hold
(i) (closure) for all a, b R, a + b R and a b R;
(ii) (associativity of addition) for all a, b, c R
(a + b) + c = a + (b + c);
(iii) (existence of an additive identity element) there is an element
0 R such that for all a R,
a + 0 = 0 + a = a.
(iv) (existence of additive inverses) for all a R, there an element,
denoted by a, such that
a + (a) = (a) + a = 0;
(v) (commutativity of addition) for all a, b R,
a + b = b + a;
(vi) (associativity of multiplication) for all a, b, c R,
a (b c) = (a b) c;
(vii) (distributivity) for all a, b, c R,
a (b + c) = a b + a c;

(b + c) a = b a + c a;

(viii) (existence of a multiplicative identity) there is an element 1 R

such that 1 6= 0 and for all a R,
1 a = a 1 = a.
Moreover, a ring (R, +, ) is said to be commutative, if it satisfies the following additional property:
(ix) (commutativity of multiplication) for all a, b R,
a b = b a.
109

110

XV. RINGS

Note that the word commutative in the phrase commutative ring refers
to multiplication. Commutativity of addition is part of the definition of
ring. Some textbooks omit property (viii) from the definition of a ring.
Those textbooks call a ring satisfying (viii) a ring with unity. We shall
always assume that our rings satisfy (viii).
Observe, from properties (i)(v), if (R, +, ) is a ring, then (R, +) is an
abelian group.
XV.2. Examples
Example XV.1. You know lots of examples of rings: Z, Q, R, C, R[x], etc.
All these examples are commutative rings.
Example XV.2. Let

M 22 (R) =

a b
: a, b, c, d R .
c d

This is the set of 2 2 matrices with real entries. From the properties of
matrices it is easy to see that M 22 (R) is a ring with the usual addition
and multiplication of matrices. The additive identity is the zero matrix,
and the multiplicative identity is I 2 . The ring M 22 (R) is an example of a
non-commutative ring, as matrix multiplication is non-commutative.
Similarly we define M 22 (C), M 22 (Z), M 22 (Q). These are all noncommutative rings.

Theorem XV.3. Let m be an integer satisfying m 2. Then Z/mZ is a ring.

P ROOF. We really mean that (Z/mZ, +, ) is a commutative ring. Weve already seen that Z/mZ is closed under addition and multiplication, and
that (Z/mZ, +) is an abelian group. I leave you to ponder why the remaining properties (vi)(ix) must be true.

Example XV.4. Youre familiar with the following two binary operations
on R3 : addition and the cross product (also known as the vector product).
Is (R3 , +, ) a ring? No. First the cross product is not associative. For
example,
i (j j) = 0,
(i j) j = i.
We only need one of the properties (i)(viii) to fail for us to conclude that
(R3 , +, ) is not a ring. We know that (vi) fails. It is interesting to note that
(viii) fails too, as we now show. Indeed,
(XV.30)

a b = b a.

Suppose 1 is a vector in R3 that satisfies

a1 = 1a = a
for all a R3 . From (XV.30) we see that a = a for all a R3 . This gives a
contradiction. Therefore (viii) fails too.

XV.3. SUBRINGS

111

Example XV.5. Consider (R[x], +, ), where is composition of polynomials. Is this a ring? No. It is easy to see that all the required properties
hold except for distributivity (the multiplicative identity is the polynomial f (x) = x). Let us give a counterexample to show that distributivity
fails. Let
f (x) = x 2 ,

g (x) = x,

h(x) = x.

Then
f (g + h) = f (2x) = 4x 2 ;

f g + f h = x 2 + x 2 = 2x 2 .

Example XV.6. Lets step back a little and think about R2 . We know that
(R2 , +) is an abelian group. Is there a way of defining multiplication on R2
so that we obtain a ring? There are actually two ways. The first is rather
obvious: we define
(a 1 , a 2 ) (b 1 , b 2 ) = (a 1 b 1 , a 2 b 2 ).
With this definition, you can check that (R2 , +, ) is a ring, where the multiplicative identity is 1 = (1, 1).
The other way is more subtle: we define
(XV.31)

(a 1 , a 2 ) (b 1 , b 2 ) = (a 1 b 1 a 2 b 2 , a 1 b 2 + a 2 b 1 ).

Where does this definition come from? Recall that R2 is represented geometrically by the plane, and C is represented geometrically by the plane.
If were thinking of points in the plane as elements of R2 then we write
them as ordered pairs of real numbers: (a, b). If were thinking of points
in the plane as elements of C then we write them in the form a +i b where
again a, b are real numbers. We multiply in C using the rule
(XV.32)

(a 1 + i a 2 ) (b 1 + i b 2 ) = (a 1 b 1 a 2 b 2 ) + i (a 1 b 2 + a 2 b 1 ).

Notice that definitions (XV.31), (XV.32) are exactly the same at the level of
points on the plane. Weve used the multiplicative structure of C to define
multiplication on R2 . With this definition, (R2 , +, ) is a ring. What is the
multiplicative identity? Its not (1, 1). For example (1, 1) (1, 1) = (0, 2).
Think about the multiplicative identity in C. This is simply 1 = 1 + 0i . So
the multiplicative identity in (R2 , +, ) (with multiplication defined as in
(XV.31)) is (1, 0). Check for yourself that
(a 1 , a 2 ) (1, 0) = (1, 0) (a 1 , a 2 ) = (a 1 , a 2 ).
This example is NOT IMPORTANT. Dont lose any sleep over it.

XV.3. Subrings
Just as we have subgroups, so we have subrings. Im sure youve guessed
the definition.

112

XV. RINGS

Definition. Let (R, +, ) be a ring. Let S be a subset of R and suppose that

(S, +, ) is also a ring. Then we say that S is a subring of R (or more formally
(S, +, ) is a subring of (R, +, )).
For S to be a subring of R, we want S to a ring with respect to the same
two binary operations that makes R a ring.
Example XV.7. Z is a subring of R; Q is a subring of R; Z is a subring of Q;
R is a subring of R[x].

Theorem IX.5 gave a criterion for a subset of a group to be a subgroup.

As youd expect we have a similar criterion for a subset of a ring to be a
subring.
Theorem XV.8. Let R be a ring. A subset S of R is a subring if and only if it
satisfies the following conditions
(a) 0, 1 S (that is S contains the additive and multiplicative identity
elements of R);
(b) if a, b S then a + b S;
(c) if a S then a S;
(d) if a, b S then ab S.
P ROOF. First re-read the proof of Theorem IX.5. Then prove this theorem
on your own. It wont take you long.

Example XV.9. In Example IX.7, we saw that the set of even integers 2Z is
a subgroup of Z. Strictly speaking, (2Z, +) is a subgroup of (Z, +). Now we
know that (Z, +, ) is a ring. Is (2Z, +, ) a subring? From Theorem XV.8 we
see that it isnt because 1 2Z.

Example XV.10. In view of the previous example, lets try to discover if Z

has an subrings. Let S be a subring of Z. We know that 0, 1 S. Also, by
(b) we know that 2 = 1 + 1 S. Repeating the argument, 3 = 2 + 1 S and
so on. By induction we know that 0, 1, 2, . . . are all in S. But by (c), if a S
then a S. So . . . , 3, 2, 1 are also in S. Hence Z is contained in S. But
S is a subset of Z. So they must be equal: S = Z.
Therefore, the only subring of Z is Z itself. By contrast, in Section X.2
we saw that Z has infinitely many subgroups.

Exercise XV.11. Let m be an integer satisfying m 2. Show that the only

subring of Z/mZ is Z/mZ itself.
Remark. The easiest way to show that a set is a ring is to show that it A very important
is subring of a known ring. If you do this, you only have four properties tip!
to check (a),(b),(c),(d). If you dont do this, youll have eight properties to
check (i)(viii). The following two examples will help you appreciate this
principle.
Example XV.12. Let
Z[i ] = {a + bi : a, b Z}.
The set Z[i ] is called the set of Gaussian integers. Show that Z[i ] is a ring.

XV.3. SUBRINGS

113

Answer. We can try checking the eight defining properties of a ring. However, we note that Z[i ] is contained in C. Indeed, it is the set of complex
numbers where the real and imaginary parts are integers. So lets prove
that Z[i ] is a subring of C.
Now 0 = 0+0i , 1 = 1+0i are clearly in Z[i ]. Suppose , Z[i ]. Write
= a1 + a2 i ,

= b1 + b2 i ,

where a 1 , a 2 , b 1 , b 2 are integers. To apply Theorem XV.8 we need to check

that + , and are in Z[i ]. We note that
+ = (a 1 + b 1 ) + (a 2 + b 2 )i ,

= a 1 + (b 1 )i ,

and
= (a 1 a 2 b 1 b 2 ) + (a 1 b 2 + a 2 b 1 )i .
Since we want to show that +, and are in Z[i ], we want to show
that their real and imaginary parts are integers. Now as a 1 , a 2 , b 1 , b 2 are
integers, so are
a1 + b1 ,

a2 + b2 ,

a 1 ,

b 1 ,

a1 a2 b1 b2 ,

a1 b2 + a2 b1 .

Hence + , and are in Z[i ]. By Theorem XV.8, we see that Z[i ] is

subring of C. Since Z[i ] is a subring, it is a ring!

Exercise XV.13. Let S be a subring of Z[i ]. Suppose i S. Show that S =

Z[i ].
Example XV.14. Let
S=

na
o
:
a,
r

Z,
r

0
.
2r

Show that S is a ring.

Answer. We shall follow the same strategy as the previous example. First
think of a ring that contains S. The elements of S are rational numbers
whose denominator is a power of 2; for example
7
15 15
1
7= 0,
,
= 3
2
2
8
2
are elements of S. An obvious choice of a ring that contains S is Q, the
ring of rational numbers. So lets show that S is a subring of Q. Clearly
0 = 0/20 and 1 = 1/20 are in S. Suppose , are elements of S. We can
write
a
b
= r ,
= s,
2
2
where a, b, r , s Z and r , s 0. We want to check that + , and
are in S. Note that
a
ab
= r ,
= r +s .
2
2
Clearly , are in S, since a, a +b, r , r +s are integers and r , r +s 0.
Now for the sum, well assume without loss of generality that r s. Then
+ =

a + 2r s b
.
2r

114

XV. RINGS

Now since a, b, r , s are integers and r s, we have a + 2r s b is also an

integer. Clearly, + is in S. By Theorem XV.8, S is a subring and therefore
a ring.

Exercise XV.15. Let

Z[2i ] = {a + 2bi : a, b Z}.
Show that Z[2i ] is a subring of Z[i ]. Is {2a + 2bi : a, b Z} a subring of
Z[i ]?
Exercise XV.16. Which of the following are subrings of M 22 (R)? If so, are
they commutative?

a b
: a, b, c R .
(i)
0 c

a b
: a, b R .
(ii)
0 0

a b
(iii)
: a, b R .
0 1

a 0
(iv)
: a R, b Z .
0 b

a b
(v)
: a, b R .
b a
(vi) {A M 22 (R) : det(A) = 1}.
XV.4. The Unit Group of a Ring
Recall that we defined R , Q , C be removing from R, Q, C the zero
element; e.g.
R = {a R : a 6= 0}.
We found that R is group with respect to multiplication. In Example V.4
we tried to do the same with Z and failed to obtain a group. Note that R,
Q, C are rings and so is Z. Given a ring, is there a naturally defined subset
that is a group with respect to multiplication? It turns out that the answer
is yes, and that for R, Q and C we obtain R , Q , C as wed expect. To
define this subset, we need the concept of a unit.
Definition. Let R be a ring. An element u is called a unit if there is some
element v in R such that uv = vu = 1. In other words, an element u of R
is a unit if it has a multiplicative inverse that belongs to R.
Example XV.17. In any ring, 0 is a non-unit.

Example XV.18. In R, Q, C, every non-zero element has a multiplicative

inverse. So the units are the non-zero elements.

Example XV.19. What are the units in Z? Suppose u is a unit in Z. Then

there some v Z such that uv = vu = 1. This means that 1/u is an integer.
The only integers u such that 1/u is also an integer are 1. So the units in
Z are 1.

XV.4. THE UNIT GROUP OF A RING

115

Example XV.20. Recall that R[x] is the ring of polynomials with real coefficients. Then x is not a unit, since 1/x is not a polynomial. However, 2 is
a unit, since 1/2 is a polynomial in R[x] with real coefficients:
1 1
= + 0x.
2 2

We can now answer the question posed above.

Definition. Let R be a ring. We define the unit group of R to be the set 1
R = {a R : a is a unit in R}.

(XV.33)

Just because weve called R the unit group of R doesnt get us out of
checking that it is really a group.
Lemma XV.21. Let (R, +, ) be a ring and let R be the subset defined in (XV.33).
Then (R , ) is a group.
P ROOF. We must first show that R is closed under multiplication. Suppose u 1 , u 2 R . Thus u 1 , u 2 are units of R, and so there are v 1 , v 2 R
such that
(XV.34)

u 1 v 1 = v 1 u 1 = 1,

u 2 v 2 = v 2 u 2 = 1.

We want to show that u 1 u 2 is a unit. Note that v 2 v 1 R since R is closed

under multiplication (its a ring after all). Moreover,
(u 1 u 2 )(v 2 v 1 ) = u 1 (u 2 v 2 )v 1
= u1 1 v 1
=1

associativity of multiplication
since u 2 v 2 = 1

since u 1 v 1 = 1.

Similarly (v 2 v 1 )(u 1 u 2 ) = 1. Thus u 1 u 2 is a unit 2 in R, and so u 1 u 2 R .

Weve proved that R is closed under multiplication.
We want to show that multiplication is associative in R . But multiplication is associative in R since R is a ring. Therefore it is associative in
R .
Since 1 1 = 1, 1 is a unit and so 1 R .
Finally we want to show that every element in R has a multiplicative
inverse that belongs to R . Suppose u R . Then uv = vu = 1 for some
v R. Note that this makes v also a unit, and so v R . Thus u has a
1Functorially-inclined mathematicians write R instead of R . I happen to be

functorially-disinclined, but I do use their notation when Im feeling pretentious.

2Start again. We have u , u are units and so satisfy (XV.34) for some v , v in R. We
1
2
1
2
want to show that u 1 u 2 is a unit. What is wrong with the following argument?

offence intended

(u 1 u 2 )(v 1 v 2 ) = (u 1 v 1 )(u 2 v 2 ) = 1 1 = 1.

Similarly (v 1 v 2 )(u 1 u 2 ) = 1. Thus u 1 u 2 is a unit.

Do I distress you by repeatedly exhibiting such offences against mathematical decency? Do you feel that these notes are degenerating into page after page of perversion and blasphemy? I am sorry; I simply want you to join me in condemning these
abominations.

116

XV. RINGS

multiplicative inverse in R . This completes the proof that R is a group.


Example XV.22. Note that R , C , Q have exactly the same meaning as
before.

Example XV.23. We showed that the units of Z are 1. Therefore the unit
group of Z is
Z = {1, 1}.

Example XV.24. Recall that M 22 (R) is the ring of 2 2 matrices with real
entries. It is clear from the definition of a unit, that the units of M 22 (R)
are the invertible matrices. In other words, they are the ones having nonzero determinant. Thus
(M 22 (R)) = GL2 (R).
Similarly,
(M 22 (Q)) = GL2 (Q),

(M 22 (C)) = GL2 (C).

What about the unit group of M22 (Z)?

This is more complicated. For
example, consider the matrix A = 31 11 . The matrix A is invertible, and
1/2 1/2
A 1 = 1/2
3/2 . Although, A is in M 22 (Z), its inverse is not in M 22 (Z),
but it is in M 22 (Q) and M 22 (R). Thus A is a unit in M 22 (Q), and M 22 (R)
but not in M 22 (Z). The problem is clear: when calculating the inverse of
a matrix, we must divide by its determinant, and the result does not have
to be an integer.
Lets go back to the definition of a unit. Suppose A M 22 (Z) is a unit.
Then there is a matrix B M 22 (Z) such that
AB = B A = I 2 .
Taking determinants, are recalling that det(AB ) = det(A) det(B ) we find
that
det(A) det(B ) = 1.
Now det(A) and det(B ) are integers because A and B have integer entries.
Thus
det(A) = det(B ) = 1,
or
det(A) = det(B ) = 1.
Conversely if A M 22 (Z) has determinant 1, then its inverse will have
integer entries and so A is a unit. We deduce that
(M 22 (Z)) = {A M 22 (Z) : det(A) = 1} .
We define the group GL2 (Z) by
GL2 (Z) = {A M 22 (Z) : det(A) = 1} ;
then (M 22 (Z)) = GL2 (Z). In fact, for a commutative ring R we define

GL2 (R) = A M 22 (R) : det(A) R .

XV.5. THE UNIT GROUP OF THE GAUSSIAN INTEGERS

117

You will easily see that this is consistent with the earlier definitions of
GL2 (R), GL2 (C), GL2 (Q) and GL2 (Z), and that moreover, (M 22 (R)) = GL2 (R).
Example XV.25. Let

S=

a b
: a, b, c Z .
0 c

Show that S is a ring under the usual addition and multiplication of matrices. Compute S .
Answer: To show that S is a ring it is enough to show that it is a subring
of M 22 (Z). We leave that as an easy exercise.

Let us compute the unit group. Suppose A = a0 bc is in S. To be unit
it is not enough for this matrix to be invertible, we also want the inverse
to belong to S. So we require the determinant ac to be non-zero and we
want

1 c b
1/a b/ac
1
A =
=
0
1/c
ac 0 a
to belong to S. Thus we want the integers a, b, c to satisfy
1 1
b
, ,
Z.
a c ac
This happens precisely when a = 1 and c = 1. Thus

1 b

S =
:bZ .
0 1
ac 6= 0,

Exercise XV.26. In Example XV.14, we showed that

na
o
S = r : a, r Z, r 0
2
is a ring. Find its unit group.
XV.5. The Unit Group of the Gaussian Integers
The Gaussian integers Z[i ] resemble the usual integers Z in many
ways. For example, you know that every non-zero integer can be written
r
r
as 1 p 11 . . . p nn where the p i are distinct primes, and this representation
is unique (up to reordering the primes). This is the Unique Factorization Theorem. The Gaussian integers have their own Unique Factorization Theorem, which we dont have time to cover, but you can look fora profound example ward to doing this in Algebra II. For now, we want to determine the unit
group of Z[i ]. The most elegant way of doing this is via the norm map.
We define the norm map N : Z[i ] Z by
N (a + bi ) = a 2 + b 2 ,

a, b Z.

The norm map is multiplicative:

Lemma XV.27. Let , Z[i ]. Then N () = N ()N ().

118

XV. RINGS

P ROOF. and are complex numbers, and you can see that N () = ||2 .
From the properties of the absolute value you know that || = || ||.
The lemma follows.

Theorem XV.28. The unit group of Z[i ] is {1, 1, i , i }.
In other words, (Z[i ]) = U4 , the group of fourth-roots of unity.
P ROOF. We want the units of Z[i ]. Let be a unit. Then there is some
Z[i ] such that 1 = 1. Applying the norm map, and recalling that it
is multiplicative, we see that
N ()N () = N () = N (1) = 1.
Now N () and N () are in Z (go back to the definition of the norm map
to see this), and they multiply to give 1. So
N () = N () = 1,

or

N () = N () = 1.

Write = a + bi where a, b are in Z. Then a 2 + b 2 = N () = 1. Of course

1 is impossible, so a 2 + b 2 = 1. But a, b are integers. So (a, b) = (1, 0) or
(0, 1). Hence = a + bi = 1 or i . Clearly 1, i are units. So the unit
group is
Z[i ] = {1, 1, i , i }.

Exercise XV.29. In Exercise XV.15 you met the ring Z[2i ]. Find its unit
group. (Hint: Show first that any unit in Z[2i ] is a unit in Z[i ].)
p
p
p
Exercise XV.30. Let
p Z[ 2] = {a + b 2 : a, b Z}. Show that Z[ 2] is a
ring
p and that 1 + 2 is unit. What is its order as an element of the group
Z[ 2] ?
Exercise XV.31. Let = e 2i /3 (this is a cube root of unity). Check that
= 2 . Let Z[] = {a + b : a, b Z}.
(i) Show that 2 Z[] (Hint: the sum of the cube roots of unity is
. . . ).
(ii) Show that Z[] is a ring.
(iii) Show that 1, and 2 are units in Z[].
(iv) (Harder) Show that Z[] = {1, , 2 }.
(v) Show that this group is cyclic.

1We could have written = = 1. But Z[i ] is a commutative ring, so writing

= 1 is enough.

Algebra: a legal high.

Remark. Compare the above proof to our determination of the unit group
of M 22 (Z) in Example XV.24. I hope you agree that the similarities are
striking!

CHAPTER XVI

Fields
A field (F, +, ) is a commutative ring such that every non-zero element
is a unit. Thus a commutative ring F is a field if and only if its unit group
is
F = {a F : a 6= 0}.
Example XVI.1. R, C, Q are fields.

Example XVI.2. Z is not a field, since for example 2 Z is non-zero but

not a unit.

Example XVI.3. R[x] is not a field, since for example x R[x] is non-zero
but not a unit.

Example XVI.4. Show that

Q[i ] = {a + bi : a, b Q}
is a field.
Answer: First we have to show that Q[i ] is a commutative ring. For this
it is enough to show that Q[i ] is a subring of C. It is clearly a subset of C
that contains 0 and 1. Suppose , Q[i ]. We want to show that + ,
, are all in Q[i ]. Write
= a + bi ,

= c + di

where a, b, c, d Q. Then
+ = (a + c) + (b + d )i .
Since Q is closed under addition, a + c and b + d Q. So + Q[i ].
Similarly, check for yourself that and are in Q[i ]. Thus Q[i ] is a
subring of C and so a ring 1.
Finally we have to show that every non-zero element of Q[i ] is a unit.
Suppose is a non-zero element of Q[i ]. We can write = a +bi where a,
b Q, and not both zero. We want to show that existence of some Q[i ]
such that = = 1. In other words, we want to show that 1/ is in
Q[i ]. But we know how to compute 1/. Recall that to divide complex
1We couldve made the proof more tedious by writing

r u
k m
+ i,
= + i,
s v
` n
where r , s, u, v, k, `, m, n are integers and s, v, `, n are non-zero. This wouldve worked,
but why do it? Get used to thinking of rational numbers as numbers in their own right!
=

119

120

XVI. FIELDS

numbers we multiply the numerator and denominator by the conjugate

of the denominator:
1
1
=
a + bi
1
a bi
=

a + bi a bi
a bi
= 2
a + b2
a
b
= 2
2
i.
2
a +b
a + b2
As a, b are rationals, so are a/(a 2 + b 2 ) and b/(a 2 + b 2 ). So 1/ is in Q[i ].
Therefore Q[i ] is a field.

p
p
p
Exercise XVI.5. Let Q[ 2] = {a + b 2 : a, b Q}. Show that Q[ 2] is a
field.
Exercise XVI.6. Let
a b

F = b
a : a, b R .
(a) Show that F is a field (under the usual addition and multiplication of matrices). (Hint: Begin by showing that F is a subring of
M 22 (R). You need to also show that F is commutative and that
every non-zero element has
in F .)
aanbinverse

=
a
+bi
. Show that is a bijec(b) Let : F C be given by b
a
tion that satisfies (A + B ) = (A) + (B ) and (AB ) = (A)(B ).
(c) Show that
a b

F 0 = b
a : a, b C
is not a field.

CHAPTER XVII

Congruences Revisited
We saw that there are two binary operations defined on Z/mZ, addition and multiplication. These make (Z/mZ, +, ) a commutative ring,
and (Z/mZ, +) a cyclic group of order m. We want to know about the unit
group of Z/mZ.
XVII.1. Units in Z/mZ
Example XVII.1. Find the unit groups of Z/mZ for m = 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Answer: You dont have be very clever here! Just look at the multiplication
table for Z/6Z in Example VII.3 and youll see that

(Z/6Z) = 1, 5 .
In the same way youll find that

(Z/2Z) = 1 ,

(Z/4Z) = 1, 3 ,

(Z/3Z) = 1, 2 ,

(Z/5Z) = 1, 2, 3, 4 .

In particular, Z/2Z, Z/3Z and Z/5Z are fields and Z/4Z, Z/6Z are not
fields. Can you make a general guess as to which Z/mZ are fields and
which arent? Can you prove your guess?

Theorem XVII.2. Let a Z/mZ. Then a is a unit in Z/mZ if and only if

gcd(a, m) = 1. Thus

(Z/mZ) = a : 0 a m 1 and gcd(a, m) = 1 .

P ROOF. Suppose a is unit in Z/mZ. Then there is some b in Z/mZ so that
ab 1 (mod m). Thus, there is some k Z such that ab 1 = km. Write
g = gcd(a, m). Then g | a and g | m. So g | (ab + km) = 1. But this means
that g = 1.
Conversely, suppose gcd(a, m) = 1. By Euclids Algorithm, we know
that we can write 1 = ba + cm for some integers b, c Z. Thus ab 1
(mod m). Hence a is a unit.

Exercise XVII.3. Redo Example XVII.1 using Theorem XVII.2.
Example XVII.4. By Theorem XVII.2, we know that 19 is invertible in Z/256Z.
But the statement of the theorem does not tell us how to find the inverse.
It would take us a very long to run through the elements u Z/256Z and
crucial point check to see if 19u 1 (mod 256). However, the proof of the theorem
does give us a recipe for finding the inverse. We know by factoring that
121

122

XVII. CONGRUENCES REVISITED

gcd(19, 256) = 1, but lets use Euclids Algorithm

combination of 19 and 256:
256 = 13 19 + 9

to write 1 as a linear

19 = 2 9 + 1.
Thus
1 = 19 2 9 = 19 2 (256 13 19) = (1 2 13) 19 2 256,
so
1 = 27 19 2 256.
Hence 27 19 1 (mod 256), so 27 is the inverse of 19 in Z/256Z.

XVII.2. Fermats Little Theorem

Through the computations youve done so far, youve probably conjectured the following.
Theorem XVII.5. Let p be a prime. Then Z/pZ is a field. Therefore,
(Z/pZ) = {1, 2, . . . , p 1}.
P ROOF. We already know that Z/mZ is a commutative ring for any integer
m 2. Now to show that Z/pZ is a field, we must show that any nonzero a Z/pZ is invertible. But if a Z/pZ is non-zero, then a is one of
1, 2, . . . , p 1. Clearly a is not divisible by p. Since p is prime, gcd(a, p) = 1.
Hence by Theorem XVII.2, a is invertible in Z/pZ. This shows that Z/pZ
is a field.

Exercise XVII.6. Prove the converse of Theorem XVII.5: if Z/mZ is a field
then m is prime.
Theorem XVII.7. (Fermats Little Theorem) Let p be a prime and a an integer such that p - a. Then
(XVII.35)

a p1 1 (mod p).

P ROOF. We know that a b (mod p) where b is one of 0, 1, 2, . . . , p 1.

Now as p - a, we see that b 6= 0. By Theorem XVII.5, b is in the unit group
of Z/pZ which is
(Z/pZ) = {1, 2, . . . , p 1}.
The order of the group (Z/pZ) is clearly p 1. By Corollary VIII.13 (the
corollary to Lagranges Theorem),
b
Thus b

p1

p1

= 1.

1 (mod p). Since a b (mod p), we obtain (XVII.35)

1It is easy to get muddled in the substitutions involved in Euclids Algorithm. One

way to reduce the muddle is to somehow distinguish the numbers you started with, here
256 and 19, and the remainders from the quotients. I did the distinguishing by writing
the numbers we started with and the remainders in boldtype. In your calculations, you
can underline them.

XVII.3. EULERS THEOREM

123

Heres a fun application of Fermats Little Theorem.

Example XVII.8. Compute 21000 (mod 13).
Answer: Since 13 is prime and 13 - 2, we know by Fermats Little Theorem
that 212 1 (mod 13). Now by the Division Algorithm,
1000 = 83 12 + 4.
Therefore,
21000 = 28312+4 = (212 )83 24 183 16 3 (mod 13).

XVII.3. Eulers Theorem

Definition. Let m be an integer. we denote the order of the group (Z/mZ)
by (m). The function is called Eulers -function.
Example XVII.9. We know that if p is a prime, then (Z/pZ) = {1, 2, . . . , p 1},
and so (p) = p 1.

Example XVII.10. We know that

(Z/6Z) = {1, 5},
and so (6) = 2.

Example XVII.11. Let n 1. Then (Z/2n Z) consists of a with a in the

range 0 a 2n 1 that are coprime to 2n . These are the odd integers a
in the range 0 a 2n 1. Thus
(Z/2n Z) = {1, 3, . . . , 2n 1}.
Hence (2n ) = 2n1 .

Theorem XVII.12. (Eulers Theorem) Let m be an integer satisfying m 2.

Let a be an integer such that gcd(a, m) = 1. Then
a (m) 1 (mod m).
P ROOF. This has almost the same proof as Fermats Little Theorem. Ill
leave the necessary modifications as an easy exercise.

Youre probably wondering if there is a formula for (m), and in fact
there is.
Proposition XVII.13. Write
r

m = p 11 p kk
where p 1 , . . . , p k are distinct primes and r 1 , . . . , r k are positive integers. Then
r

r 1

(m) = (p 11 p 11

r 1

) (p kk p kk

).

The proof of Proposition XVII.13 is not difficult, but it is a little long

and we shall skip it.
Exercise XVII.14. Use Eulers Theorem to compute 21000 (mod 63).

124

XVII. CONGRUENCES REVISITED

Exercise XVII.15. It is known that (Z/mZ) is cyclic if m = 2, 4, p a or 2p a

where p is an odd prime. For all other m 2, the unit group (Z/mZ) is
not cyclic. For more on this, do Number Theory in term 3. For now, check
that (Z/7Z) is cyclic, but (Z/8Z) is not cyclic.
Exercise XVII.16. Use Lagranges Theorem to show that (m) is even for
m 3.

Vale Dicere
With tear-filled eyes I say goodbye, and begin to suffer the heart-rending
pangs of separation . . .
XVII.4.

Exercise XVII.17. Write a 5000 word essay on how abstract algebra has
changed your outlook on life, detailing the insights you have gained into
the great challenges facing/menacing humanity 1.
Exercise XVII.18. Veneration of abstract algebra is at the root of contemporary mathematical decline. Discuss.

1Heres a good way to start your essay: Unbeknownst to me, I misspent the first 18

years of my life wallowing in a cesspool of intellectual stagnation, until week six of term
1 when the Abstract Algebra lectures started . . . .

a sincere outpouring
of grief

APPENDIX A

2012 Introduction to Abstract Algebra Paper

Youre an overt masochist. Nice
treatment will confuse and
destroy you.
John Kennedy Toole,
Confederacy of Dunces

This is a 1 hour paper. Answer two questions only. If you have answered more than two questions, you will only receive credit for your best
two answers.
Question 1
(1) Let and be the following permutations:
= (1, 2, 5)(3, 4),

= (1, 2, 3)(4, 5).

Determine and 1 writing your answers as products of disjoint cycles.

(2) Consider a square with vertices labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 in anticlockwise
order, and let O be its centre. Let 2 be the element of D 4 that
represents anticlockwise rotation about the origin through 180 .
Write 2 as an element of S 4 in cycle notation (no explanation is
required).
(3) Write down the cyclic subgroupgenerated
by 5/7 in R/Z.

a b
(4) You may assume that GL2 (R) =
: a, b, c, d R, ad bc 6= 0
c d
is a group with respect to matrix multiplication. Let

1 r

H=
: r R, s R .
0 s
(a) Show that H is a subgroup of GL2 (R).
(b) Show that H is non-abelian by giving a non-commuting pair
of elements.
Question 2
(1) Let (R, +, ) be a ring.
(a) What does it mean for a R to be a unit?
(b) Define R .
(c) Show that (R , ) is a group.
125

126

A. 2012 INTRODUCTION TO ABSTRACT ALGEBRA PAPER

(2) Let

p
p
Z[ 2] = {a + b 2 : a, b Z}.
p
(a) Show that Z[ p
2] is a ring.
2 is a unit, and that it has infinite order in
(b) Show
that
1
+
p
Z[ 2] .
p
(c) Show that Z[ 2] is not a field.

Question 3
In this question, you may assume that every permutation is either
odd or even, but cannot be both. You may not use Lagranges Theorem.
(1) Write down the distinct left cosets of the subgroup 8Z in the
group 2Z (no explanation necessary). What is the index [2Z :
8Z]?
(2) Let G be a finite group and H a subgroup. Show that |g H | = |H |
for any g in G.
(3) Let n 2 be an integer. Show that |A n | = 21 |S n |.
(4) Give a counterexample to show that the following statement is
false: if , S n have orders r , s respectively, then has order
dividing lcm(r, s).

APPENDIX B

The Forgotten Joys of Analytic Irresponsibility

Some of my colleagues have innocently suggested that I teach Analysis I instead of Introduction to Abstract Algebra. In an attempt to kill off
these suggestions, I will give a hint of how analysis would look like if I
taught it. I revel in the analysis of the bad old days, before the upside
down As and back-to-front Es. That kind of analysis would be regarded
by my colleagues as mathematical pornography. Needless to say the material in this appendix is merely for the mortification of fellow Warwick
academics. Students must stop reading at once or theyll do irreparable
damage to their souls.
B.1. The Mathematical Equivalent of an X-Rated DVD
The examples I give are due to Leonhard Euler (17071783), the greatest mathematician andby todays standardsmathematical pornographer of his age. Euler defines

x n
x
e = lim 1 +
n
n
and wants to deduce the well-known power series expansion for e x . So
he introduces infinite numbers, and reasons that if i is an infinite number
then obviously
i
= 1,
i

i (i 1)
= 1,
i2

i (i 1)(i 2)
= 1, . . . .
i3

Thus

x n
e x = lim 1 +
n
n

x i
= 1+
i infinite
i
x i (i 1) x 2
= 1+i +
+
using the binomial theorem
i
2! i 2
x2
= 1+x +
+
2!
Next Euler wants to derive the power series expansion for log(1 + t ). To
do this he defines the infinitesimal = 1/i . This infinitesimal is so small
that
(B.36)

2 = 3 = = 0.
127

128

B. THE FORGOTTEN JOYS OF ANALYTIC IRRESPONSIBILITY

Now to get the power series expansion for log(1 + t ), write x = 1 + t , and
y = log x. Thus

y i
x = ey = 1+
.
i
Hence
y
x = x 1/i = 1 + = 1 + y.
i
Rearranging we get

1
1
(B.37)
log(1 + t ) = log x = y = (x 1) = 1 + (1 + t ) .

Now by the Binomial Theorem

( 1) 2 ( 1)( 2) 3 ( 1)( 2)( 3) 4
(1 + t ) = 1 + t +
t +
t +
t +
2!
3!
4!
However, by (B.36) we can eliminate all higher powers of . Thus
2 2! 3 3! 4
t +
t +
t +
(1 + t ) = 1 + t +
2!
3!
4!

= 1 + t t 2 + t 3 t 4 +
2
3
4
Substituting into (B.37) we obtain

log(1 + t ) = t t 2 + t 3 t 4 +

2
3
4
t2 t3 t4
= t + +
2
3
4
B.2. Nothing to see heremove along please
R
Here
is
an
beautiful
example
I
saw
on
mathoverflow.net
.
Let

=
Rx
0 . We want to solve the integral equation
Z
f f = 1.
Factoring out the f we have

Z
1
f = 1.
Hence

Z 1

f = 1
1

Z
= 1+ +
+
+ 1
Z x
Z xZ x
Z xZ
= 1+
1+
1+
0

= 1+x +
= ex.

x2 x3
+
+
2! 3!

geometric series
xZ x
0

1+