MAT301 :: Assignment 1 :: Solutions

1. (a) Find all the symmetries of the gure and construct the corresponding Cayley table:

(b) Is this group of symmetries abelian? Is it cyclic? Justify your answer.

Solution: (a) There are four counterclockwise rotations R
0
, R
/2
, R

and R
3/2
. Any reection
yields

which is not congruent to the original gure therefore this gure does not have any symmetries
that are reections. The Cayley table is
R
0
R
/2
R

R
3/2
R
0
R
0
R
/2
R

R
3/2
R
/2
R
/2
R

R
3/2
R
0
R

R
3/2
R
0
R
/2
R
3/2
R
3/2
R
0
R
/2
R

(b) The Cayley table is symmetric about the diagonal (from the top left entry to the bottom
right entry) which means that R R

= R

R for all symmetries R and R

therefore this
group of symmetries is abelian. The Cayley table also shows that this group is cyclic and is
generated by R
/2
as well as R
3/2
.
2. (a) Construct the Cayley table for U(9).
(b) Compute the order of each element of U(9). Present your solution in a table.
(c) Is U(9) cyclic? If so, which elements are generators?
Solution: (a) The Cayley table for U(9) = {k Z
9
: gcd(9, k) = 1} = {1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8} is
1 2 4 5 7 8
1 1 2 4 5 7 8
2 2 4 8 1 5 7
4 4 8 7 2 1 5
5 5 1 2 7 8 4
7 7 5 1 8 4 2
8 8 7 5 4 2 1
(b) The order of each k U(9) is given in the following table
k |k|
1 1
2 6
4 3
5 6
7 3
8 2
(c) The group U(9) is cyclic and its generators are 2 and 5.
3. Let G = {x R : x = 1/2} and dene x y = x + y 2xy.
(a) Show that (G, ) is a group.
(b) Find an element of order 2 in G.
Solution: (a) First of all, if x +y 2xy = 1/2 then 2x(1 2y) = 1 2y. Therefore, if y = 1/2
then x = 1/2 and vice versa. This shows that if x, y G then x y G and is indeed a
binary operation on G.
For any x, y, z G, we compute
(xy)z = (x+y2xy)z = x+y2xy+z2(x+y2xy)z = x+y+z2(xy+xz+yz)+4xyz
x(yz) = x(y+z2yz) = x+y+z2yz2x(y+z2yz) = x+y+z2(xy+xz+yz)+4xyz
therefore is associative.
The equation x y = x gives x + y 2xy = x and y(1 2x) = 0. Similarly, y x = x yields
y(1 2x) = 0. Therefore x 0 = 0 x = x for all x G and so 0 G is an identity.
Finally, the equation x y = 0 yields x + y 2xy = 0 and then, since x = 1/2, we have
y = x/(2x 1). Therefore every x G has an inverse x
1
= x/(2x 1).
(b) The equation x x = 0 produces 2x(1 x) = 0. The identity 0 G has order 1 therefore
1 G is the only element of order 2.
4. Show that the given subset is a subgroup of GL(2, R):
(a) The orthogonal matrices: O(2, R) =
_
A GL(2, R) : AA
T
= I
_
(b) The upper triangular matrices: B =
__
a b
0 d
_
: a, b, d R and ad = 0
_
Solution: (a) The identity I satises I = I
T
so I O(2, R) and O(2, R) is not empty.
Let A, B O(2, R). Then (AB)(AB)
T
= ABB
T
A
T
= AA
T
= I since AA
T
= I and
BB
T
= I. Therefore AB O(2, R).
Let A O(2, R). Multiply each side of the equation AA
T
= I on the left by A
1
to get
A
T
= A
1
and then take the transpose A = (A
1
)
T
. Multiply each side of this equation on
the left by A
1
to get I = A
1
(A
1
)
T
. We conclude A
1
O(2, R).
By the subgroup test, O(2, R) is a subgroup of GL(2, R).
(b) The identity is clearly of the prescribed form and so B is not empty.
Let A
1
, A
2
B and compute
A
1
A
2
=
_
a
1
b
1
0 d
1
__
a
2
b
2
0 d
2
_
=
_
a
1
a
2
a
1
b
2
+ b
1
d
2
0 d
1
d
2
_
.
Therefore A
1
A
2
B.
Let A B and compute
A
1
=
_
a b
0 d
_
1
=
_
1/a b/ad
0 1/d
_
.
Therefore A
1
B.
By the subgroup test, B is a subgroup of GL(2, R).
5. Let G be an abelian group. Show that the subset H = {g G : |g| < } of elements of nite
order is a subgroup of G.
Solution: The identity e has order 1 therefore e H and H is not empty.
Let h
1
, h
2
H and let |h
1
| = n
1
and |h
2
| = n
2
. Since G is abelian we compute
1
(h
1
h
2
)
n1n2
= (h
1
h
2
) (h
1
h
2
)
. .
n1n2
= h
1
h
1
. .
n1n2
h
2
h
2
. .
n1n2
= (h
n1
1
)
n2
(h
n2
2
)
n1
= e
n2
e
n1
= e .
This shows that the order of h
1
h
2
divides n
1
n
2
. In particular, |h
1
h
2
| is nite and h
1
h
2
H.
Let h H and let |h| = n. Multiply the equation h
n
= e by h
1
repeatedly to get
h
nk
= (h
1
)
k
. Therefore |h
1
| = n since (h
1
)
k
= h
nk
= e for any 0 < k < n. In
particular, |h
1
| is nite and h
1
H.
By the subgroup test, H is a subgroup of G.
1
Added Feb. 9: Since this is the main point of the proof, we should elaborate. Since G is abelian we have
h
1
h
2
= h
2
h
1
therefore (h
1
h
2
)
2
= (h
1
h
2
)(h
1
h
2
) = h
1
(h
2
h
1
)h
2
= h
1
(h
1
h
2
)h
2
= h
2
1
h
2
2
. Then, if (h
1
h
2
)
k
= h
k
1
h
k
2
we
have (h
1
h
2
)
k+1
= h
1
(h
2
h
1
)
k
h
2
= h
1
(h
1
h
2
)
k
h
2
= h
1
h
k
1
h
k
2
h
2
= h
k+1
1
h
k+1
2
. By induction, we have (h
1
h
2
)
n
= h
n
1
h
n
2
for all n 1.