Basic properties of groups.

In order to work seriously with groups, the

first thing we need to do is to expand our knowledge base beyond the
three factors which we have at this stage.
Lemma. Basic properties of groups. Let G , be a group.

1. Uniqueness of identity. There is only one identity element in G .
2. Uniqueness of inverses. Each element of G has only one inverse.
1
3. Inverse of an inverse. For each a G we have ( a1 ) =a .
4. Inverse of a product. For all a , b G we have ( ab )1=b1a1 .
5. Cancellation. Let a , b , c G . If ab=ac then b=c , and if ba=ca
then b=c .
Proof. We prove the first and leave the others as exercises. Suppose that
G has identity elements e and f . Then e=ef because f is an
identity, f because e is an identity. So there is only one identity, and
this completes the proof.

Consider a piece of cardboard having a square hole, the corners of the

hole being labelled 1, 2, 3, 4 in anticlockwise order, and a square which
fits exactly into the hole. If we remove the square from the hole, in how
many ways can it be replaced?
We can describe a removal and replacement of the square by means
of a function , where ( k ) is the location after the move of the
vertex of the square which was in location k before the move. For
example, a rotation through a right angle anticlockwise is given by
( 1 )=2 , ( 2 )=3 , ( 3 )=4 , ( 4 )=1 , often written as = (1 2 3 4
2 3 4 1 ) .
Similarly, a reflection about the diagonal joining vertices 1 and 3 is given
by = ( 1 2 3 4
1 4 3 2 ) . The natural operation with functions of this type is to
perform one move followd by another: we write for the move we get
by performing on the result of . Note carefully the order of
operations, it may seem strange but the reason will soon become clear.
For example, we have = ( 1 2 3 4
2 3 4 1 ) and = ( 1 2 3 4
4 3 2 1 ) and (which

should be obvious) p = (4 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4 ) . In fact, a little thought will show that
the operation we are describing is just composition of functions (this is
why we denote followed by by and not ); and that the
set of all possible moves of the square is G= { e , , 2 , 3 , , , 2 , 3 } ;
and that G is a group under composition. It can be regarded as a group
of bijections (not the group of all bijections, however) on { 1,2,3,4 } and is
called the group of symmetries of the square or the dihedral group D 8 .
If we go back to our original situation and add another rule by saying that
we are not allowed to turn the square over, then the allowable moves are
just { e , , 2 , 3 } , which forms the group of rotations of the square.
Assuming that we have convinced ourselves that composition is a binary
operation on G , the element must be one of the eight elements
listed above. Which one?
Other geometric objects have symmetry groups too. The symmetries of a
regular n -gon can be treated in the same way as above, and we get the
dihedral group D 2 n . A circle has infinitely many symmetries; we can
write its symmetry group as { 0 <2 } { 0 < } , where is an
anticlockwise rotation through an angle about the centre of the circle,
and is a reflection about the diameter which makes an angle
with the horizontal. Exercise. Express in terms of 0 and a
rotation.

Let S= {1,2,3,4 } and let G be the set of all bijections f : S S . Then

G is a group under composition of functions; the reasons for this are
essentially the same as in example 5. (In fact, the set of bijections on any
set will form a group.) Observe that the bijections of S include the
symmetries of the square (example 9), which in turn include the rotations
of the square. This leads into our next topic.

Definition. Let G , be a group, and let S be a non-empty subset of

G . If S , is a group, then we say that S is a subgroup of G .

Lemma. Let G , be a group and let S be a non-empty subset of

G . Then S is a subgroup of G if and only if the following conditions
hold.
1. Closure under . For all a , b S we have ab S .
2. S contains inverses. For all a S we have a1 S .
Proof.
Comment. If S is a non-empty finite subset of G , then closure alone
will guarantee that S is a subgroup of G .

For any non-negative integer m , write for the set of all (integer)
mZ
multiples of m . Then m Z is a subgroup of Z ,+ . Conversely, every

subgroup of Z is equal to m Z for some m . If m1m2 , then m2 Z
is a subgroup of m1 Z .

The set C of non-zero complex numbers is a group under

multiplication. For any positive integer m , the set of all complex m th
roots of 1 is a subgroup of C .

For any positive integer n , the set of all invertible real n n matrices
forms a group under matrix multiplication. It is often denoted GL ( n , R )
and is called the general linear group of degree n over R . It has
many important subgroups, including the special linear group SL ( n , R ) of
n n real matrices with determinant 1, the orthogonal group O ( n ) of
n n orthogonal matrices, the special orthogonal group
SO ( n ) =SL ( n ) O ( n ) of n n orthogonal matrices with determinant 1.
Returning to example4, lets consider in particular U 5= {1,2,3,4 } and
U 10= {1,3,7,9 } . Remember that these are groups under the operations of
multiplication modulo 5 and modulo 10 respectively. Instead of actually
doing the multiplication, w could simply write out all the results in tables.
If we take the group table for U 5 and relabel the elements 1, 2, 3, 4 as
1, 3, 7, 9 respectively we obtain precisely the table for U 10 . We say that
these two groups are isomorphic: the concept is similar to isomorphism of
graphs, which some of you have met in MATH1081. The idea is that in
many situations, the actual identity of group elements is unimportant and
the only thing that matters is how they relate to each other. From this
point of view we can regard these groups as being the same.

Consider the group table for Z 4 , recalling that in this case the operation
will be addition module 4. If we write the elements in the obvious order,
the table does not look quite like those above, but the order in which we
list the elements is not important, and if we change the order then we see
that once again we have a relabelling of the same structure. So, what is a
relabelling? In effect, it is a function, and more specifically a bijection: to
show that Z 4 and U 10 are isomorphic we may rely on the bijection
from Z 4 to U 10 given by ( 0 )=1 , (1 ) =3 , (2 )=9 and
(3 )=7 . The fact that the tables turn out to be the same means that if
we take a true statement such as 1=2+3 and relabel it to get 3=9 7 ,
then the latter statement is also true. That is (2+3 )=(2) ( 3 ) . This
prompts the following definition.

Definition. Let G and H be groups with operations and

respectively. A homomorphism from G to H is a function :G H
with the property that ( ab )= ( a ) ( b ) for all elements a , b G . An
isomorphism is a bijective homomorphism. The groups G and H are
said to be isomorphic, written G H , if there exists an isomorphism
between them. The kernel and image of a homomorphism :G H are
the sets ker = { a G ( a )=f } and = { ( a )a G } , where f is the
identity element of H .
Lemma. Properties of homomorphisms.