…

…
 Group Tables (or a Cayley table).
 We list the elements out and multiply “row by column."

Example 2.1.17. Let's look at ℤ3 , for example.

(Of course we have to remember that “times" really means “plus" in this example.)
 If we have a group of order one,
 the lone element must be the identity 𝑒, and 𝑒 ∗ 𝑒 = 𝑒, so
the group table must be:
 Suppose we have a group of order two. (What do you think are the
elements?)

 The group contains the identity 𝑒 and some other element 𝑎 with
𝑎 ≠ 𝑒.

 Then 𝑒 ∗ 𝑎 = 𝑎 ∗ 𝑒 = 𝑎, and

 Since 𝑎 must have an inverse (and the only option is 𝑎), we must
have 𝑎 ∗ 𝑎 = 𝑒. Therefore, the group table must look like:
 Suppose we have a group of order three. What do you think are the elements?)

 The three distinct elements are the identity 𝒆, and two other elements 𝒂 and 𝒃.
(Can you write the Cayley Table?)

 The first row and first column are easy to fill in, since 𝑒 is the identity. We are then
left to determine 𝑎 ∗ 𝑎, 𝑎 ∗ 𝑏, 𝑏 ∗ 𝑎, and 𝑏 ∗ 𝑏.
 The first row and first column are easy to fill in, since 𝑒 is the identity. We are then left
to determine 𝑎 ∗ 𝑎, 𝑎 ∗ 𝑏, 𝑏 ∗ 𝑎, and 𝑏 ∗ 𝑏.
 We claim first that it is impossible to have 𝑎 ∗ 𝑎 = 𝑒. (Why?)
 If 𝑎 ∗ 𝑎 = 𝑒, then 𝑏 ∗ 𝑏 = 𝑒 as well, since 𝑏 must have an inverse.
 The reason for this is that if 𝑎 = 𝑏 −1 , so 𝑎 ∗ 𝑏 = 𝑒, then
, which can't be the case. (Why)

 Therefore, 𝑏 ∗ 𝑏 = 𝑒. But now we must have either 𝑎 ∗ 𝑏 = 𝑎 𝑜𝑟 𝑎 ∗ 𝑏 = 𝑏. In the

first case,

𝑏 = 𝑒 ∗ 𝑏 = 𝑎 ∗ 𝑎 ∗ 𝑏 = 𝑎 ∗ 𝑎 ∗ 𝑏 = 𝑎 ∗ 𝑎 = 𝑒, which can't happen either.

  Similarly, 𝑎 ∗ 𝑏 6 = 𝑏. The hypothesis that got us into all this trouble was that a a
= e, so we can't have 𝑎 = 𝑎−1 . Also, 𝑎 ∗ 𝑎 ≠ 𝑎; if it were, then
which is not true.

 Therefore, we must have 𝑎 ∗ 𝑎 = 𝑏 instead.

 Since a must have an inverse (and it must be 𝑏),

𝑎 ∗ 𝑏 = 𝑏 ∗ 𝑎 = 𝑒:
 Finally, 𝑏 ∗ 𝑏 = 𝑎, since
 (b)
* *

* *
Remarks on Notation
 We will often supress the operation ∗. When working with arbitrary
group we simply write
𝑎𝑏 = 𝑎 ∗ 𝑏

 But, if we are dealing with specific example such as the integer under
addition, we still write the operation to make things clear.
 We also have a short way of denoting a product of an element 𝑎 with itself.
We’ll write

𝑎2 = 𝑎 ∗ 𝑎

𝑎𝑛 = 𝑎 ∗ 𝑎 ∗ ⋯ ∗ 𝑎
𝑛 times

𝑎−𝑛 = 𝑎−1 𝑛

 We should note also that if we are dealing with the group ℤ, 𝑎𝑛 means

𝑎𝑛 = 𝑎 + 𝑎 + ⋯ + 𝑎 = 𝑛𝑎
𝑛 times
 The Symmetric and Dihedral Groups
(examples of finite non-abelian groups)

 The symmetric group is one of the most important examples of a

finite group, It will arise as a special case of the set 𝑆𝑥 of
bijections from a set 𝑋 back to itself.

 Before we can proceed, we need some preliminaries on

functions.
Definition. Let 𝑋 and 𝑌 be nonempty sets. Recall that a function 𝑓 ∶
𝑋 → 𝑌 is, at least informally, a rule which assigns to each element
𝑥 ∈ 𝑋 a 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑞𝑢𝑒 element 𝑓(𝑥) ∈Y:

𝑥 ↦𝑓 𝑥 .

Definition 2.2.1. A function 𝑓 ∶ 𝑋 → 𝑌 is one-to-one or injective if ∀

𝑥1 , 𝑥2 ∈ 𝑋 ,
𝑥1 ≠ 𝑥2 implies 𝑓(𝑥1 ) ≠ 𝑓(𝑥2 ),
or 𝐸𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦,
𝑓 𝑥1 = 𝑓 𝑥2 implies 𝑥1 = 𝑥2 .
Examples:
 2. Is 𝑓 𝑥 = 𝑥 2 an injective where 𝑓: ℝ → ℝ?

Answer: No, 𝑓 𝑥 = 𝑥 2 is not injective where 𝑓: ℝ → ℝ since

𝑓 −1 = 𝑓 1 = 1.
3. Is f (x) = x³ a one-to-one function where 𝑓: ℝ → ℝ ?
 An intuitive way of describing surjectivity is to say that every
element of 𝑌 is “ℎ𝑖𝑡" by 𝑓.

To determine if a function is onto, you need to know information

about both set X and set Y.
EXAMPLES:
1: Is f (x) = 3x - 4 is an onto function where 𝑓: ℝ → ℝ ?
2. Is g (x) = x² - 2 an onto function where g:ℝ → ℝ ?
Proof. 1.
• Suppose that 𝑓 and 𝑔 are one-to-one, and suppose that 𝑥1 , 𝑥2 ∈ 𝑋,
with 𝑔 ∘ 𝑓(𝑥1 ) = 𝑔 ∘ 𝑓(𝑥2 ).

• This means that

𝑔 𝑓 𝑥1 = 𝑔 𝑓 𝑥2 .

• Since 𝑔 is one-to-one, 𝑓(𝑥1 ) = 𝑓(𝑥2 ).

• Note that 𝑓 is also one-to-one, so 𝑥1 = 𝑥2 . Thus 𝑔 ∘ 𝑓 is one-to-one.

For number 2.
• Suppose 𝑓 and 𝑔 are both onto, and let 𝑧 ∈ 𝑍. We need to produce
an 𝑥 ∈ 𝑋 such that 𝑔 ∘ 𝑓(𝑥) = 𝑧, 𝑖. 𝑒. , 𝑔(𝑓(𝑥)) = 𝑧.
• Since 𝑔 is onto, there exists a y ∈ Y such that 𝑔(𝑦) = 𝑧.
• Also, 𝑓 is onto, so there exists an 𝑥 ∈ 𝑋 such that 𝑓(𝑥) = 𝑦.
• Putting this together, we get
𝑔∘𝑓 𝑥 = 𝑔 𝑓 𝑥 = 𝑔 𝑦 = 𝑧,
• so 𝑔 ∘ 𝑓 is onto.
For number 3.
• The third statement follows from the first two.
• If 𝑓 and 𝑔 are bijective, then they are both one-to-one and onto.
• But then 𝑔 ∘ 𝑓 is one-to-one by (1),
• and 𝑔 ∘ 𝑓 is onto by (2),
• so 𝑔 ∘ 𝑓 is bijective.
 Theorem.

Proof.
• Proposition 2.2.6(3 ) tells us that 𝑆𝑥 is closed under composition of functions. In
other words, composition defines a binary operation on 𝑺𝒙 .
• Next, we need to show that if 𝑓, 𝑔, ℎ ∈ 𝑆𝑥 , then (𝑓 ∘ 𝑔) ∘ ℎ = 𝑓 ∘ (𝑔 ∘ ℎ).
• To do this, we need to show that their values at any element 𝑥𝜖𝑋 are equal.
• For any 𝑥 ∈ 𝑆, we have
(𝑓 ∘ 𝑔) ∘ ℎ(𝑥) = (𝑓 ∘ 𝑔)(ℎ(𝑥)) = 𝑓(𝑔(ℎ(𝑥)))
and
𝑓 ∘ (𝑔 ∘ ℎ)(𝑥) = 𝑓((𝑔 ∘ ℎ)(𝑥)) = 𝑓(𝑔(ℎ(𝑥))):
• In other words,(𝑓 ∘ 𝑔) ∘ ℎ(𝑥) = 𝑓 ∘ (𝑔 ∘ ℎ)(𝑥) for all 𝑥 2 𝑆, so (𝑓 ∘ 𝑔) ∘ ℎ = 𝑓 ∘ (𝑔 ∘ ℎ).
• Recall that any set 𝑋 has a special bijection from 𝑋 𝑡𝑜 𝑋, namely the identity function
𝑖𝑑𝑋 :
𝑖𝑑𝑋 (𝑥) = 𝑥 for all 𝑥 ∈ 𝑋.

• Note that for any 𝑓 ∈ 𝑆𝑥 , we have

𝑓 ∘ 𝑖𝑑𝑋 (𝑥) = 𝑓(𝑖𝑑𝑋 (𝑥)) = 𝑓(𝑥)
and
𝑖𝑑𝑋 ∘ 𝑓(𝑥) = 𝑖𝑑𝑋 ∘ (𝑓(𝑥)) = 𝑓(𝑥) for all 𝑥 ∈ 𝑋.
• Thus, 𝑖𝑑𝑋 ∘ 𝑓 = 𝑓 ∘ 𝑖𝑑𝑋 = 𝑓 for all 𝑓 ∈ 𝑆𝑋 , so 𝑖𝑑𝑋 serves as an identity for 𝑆𝑋 under
composition.
• More specifically, if 𝑓 ∈ 𝑆𝑋 and 𝑦 ∈ 𝑋, there is an 𝑥 ∈ 𝑋 such that 𝑓(𝑥) = 𝑦 (since 𝑓 is onto).
• But 𝑓 is also one-to-one, so this 𝑥 is unique. Therefore, we can define 𝑓 −1 𝑦 = 𝑥. You can
then check that

and

• so 𝑓 −1 really is an inverse for 𝑓 under composition.

Notes:

 If 𝑋 is an infinite set, then 𝑆𝑥 is fairly hard to understand.

 Things are much more tractable (and interesting) when 𝑋 is finite.
 For example, suppose then that 𝑋 is finite, say with 𝑛 elements. It doesn't really
matter what 𝑋 is; it only matters that 𝑋 has 𝑛 elements. That is, we can label the
elements of 𝑋 to be whatever we want (say, numbers, people, flavors of ice
cream, etc.), so we could simply assume that 𝑋 is the set
𝑋 = 1,2, … , 𝑛 .
In order to define a permutation 𝑓 of 1, … , 𝑛 we need to determine where to
send each integer. There are 𝑛 choices for σ(1), and there are 𝑛 − 1 choices
for σ(2). There are 𝑛 − 2 choices for σ(3), and so on, until we reach σ(𝑛), for
which we only have one choice. In other words, we have observed that the total
number of permutations of 1, … , 𝑛 is
𝑛 𝑛 − 1 𝑛 − 2 … 2 ⋅ 1 = 𝑛!.
Note:
• We'll often write an element of 𝑆𝑛 using two-line notation:
Note:
• Multiplication works in this notation. Multiplication is really just composition
of functions:
Now, we'll display the group table for 𝑆3 . The elements of 𝑆3 are as follows:
The labelling of the elements may look odd at this point, but we will see a good reason for it quite
soon.