Homework 7

2011-10-09
All problems from Abstract Algebra, Herstein

Problem #1 (#3, p.73)

Problem statement
Let G be any group and A(G) the set of all 1-1 mappings of G, as a set, onto itself. Dene La : G G by La (x) = xa1 . Prove that: (a) La = A(G). (b) La Lb = Lab . (c) The mapping : G A(G) dened by (a) = La is a monomorphism of G into A(G).

Solution
(a) A(G), as the set of all 1-1 mappings of G onto itself, can be represented as the set of all operations on an element x G such that the result is also in G. Since G is a group, we know that this set can be represented as the set of all group multiplications yx | x G, y G for a given element x. This is because any x element can be xed as the rst parameter, while the y elements are taken over every element of G. We have then that yx G, due to Gs closure under group multiplication. Furthermore, any element e G has an inverse element e1 G, since G is a group. This means that we can consider any element in G as the inverse of its inverse: e = (e1 )1 . This, when plugged in for our variable x G above, gives us that x G, y G, yx1 G. This is exactly our given mapping La above, with the labels rearranged. This shows that La is a mapping from G G, as required. In order to show why this set contains every such possible mapping, we will assume that there is a mapping Ma (x) : G G such that Ma (x) La . This mapping, as a mapping from G to G, must / take the form of a group multiplication: Ma (x) = x a, x G. However, since G is a group, we have again that a = (a1 )1 , or, if we let m = a1 , that a = m1 , and so our mapping can be rewritten as Ma (x) = x m1 m G. However, this is exactly the same mapping as our above La (x), showing that every mapping in A(G) can indeed be written as a multiplication between some element x G and another elements inverse a1 G, and thus that La = A(G).