MAT 444 Test 1

Instructor: Hl`ne Barcelo ee

February 14, 2004

Name:

You can take up to

2 hours for completing this exam.

Close book, notes and calculator. Do not use your own scratch paper. Write each solution in the space provided, not on scratch paper. If you need more room, write on the back of the page. If you still need more room, ask for scratch paper. Show your reasoning on all problems; do not simply write an answer. Your solutions must be complete and organized, otherwise points may be deducted. Do all 6 problems. There are a total of 80 points. For those fortunate enough to nish early, there is a bonus problem. The bonus problem does not count toward the exam grade, but a record will be kept of those who solve it and can inuence the course grade in borderline cases.

1. (10 points) True-False. Give a brief reason (no detailed proofs) for each answer. (a) If x = x1 in a group, then x = e (the identity). Solution: False In Z2 we have (using additive notation) 1 + 1 = 0, but 1 = 0. Note: it is not quite sucient to give the reason that x = x1 only implies that x2 = e. You must produce a specic counterexample. Conceivably x2 = e could imply x = e in any group.

(b) The group Z8 has exactly two generators. Solution: False The generators are 1, 3, 5 and 7 the numbers in Z8 relatively prime to 8.

(c) Every subgroup of Z except {0} is isomorphic to Z. Solution: True The subgroups of Z are nZ. If n = 0 then nZ is an innite cyclic group with generator n, and hence isomorphic to Z.

(d) If G and G are isomorphic groups, then every subgroup of G is isomorphic to some subgroup of G . Solution: True Having a subgroup isomorphic to a given group K is a structural property and hence preserved by isomorphism. More precisely, if H G and : G G is an isomorphism, then [H] is a subgroup of G isomorphic to H.

2. (a) (8 points) Let G be a nite group of odd order. Show that every element a G is the square of some element b G. Solution: If G has odd order, then every a G has odd order (since the order of a divides the order of G). Say a2n+1 = e. Let b = an+1 . Then b2 = a2n+2 = a2n+1 a = ea = a.

(b) (2 points) Give an example of a nite group G of even order and an element a G that is not the square of any element b G. Solution: In Z2 , the element 1 is not of the form 2a since 0 + 0 = 1 + 1 = 0.

3. Let G be a group and let H be a subgroup of G. (a) (5 points) Prove that the only left coset of H in G that is a subgroup of G is H itself. Solution: If xH is a subgroup of G then we have 1 xH which gives x1 x1 xH = H and hence x H, so that xH = H.

(b) (10 points) Prove that the assignement : xH Hx1 describes a well-dened map from the set of left cosets of H in G to the set of right cosets of H. Show also that is a bijection. Solution: That is a well-dened mapping follows from the observation that

xH = yH y 1 x H Hy 1 x = H Hy 1 = Hx1 . It is clear that is a bijection since every element x G has a unique inverse.

(c) (5 points) Does the assignement : xH Hx describes a well-dened map from the set of left cosets of H to the set of right cosets of H? If so, is a bijection? Solution: on the other hand is not a mapping. To see this, take for example G = GL(2, R) and a b | a, b, c R, ac = 0 . 0 c

H= We have that

1 0 H= 1 1

1 1 H, 1 2

which is immediate from the observation that if A= then A1 B = However, H 1 0 1 1 =H 1 1 , 1 2 1 1 0 1 H. 1 0 ,B = 1 1 1 1 1 2

since equality here would give the contradiction BA1 = 0 1 1 2 H.

4. Let G be a group. Prove that (a) (3 points) If H is a subgroup of G then HH = H. Solution: If H is a subgroup of G then clearly HH H; and, since every subgroup contains the identity element, we have H = 1H HH.

(b) (7 points) If X is a nite subset of G with XX = X then X is a subgroup of G. Solution: Given x X we have xX XX = X. Since y xy is injective (by the cancellation law) we deduce that |xX| = |X| and hence, since X is nite, that xX = X. Consequently, x = xe for some e X. The cancellation law gives e = 1, and so we have 1 X. We now observe from 1 xX that 1 = xy for some y X, which gives x1 = y X. It now follows from the fact that XX X that X is a subgroup of G.

(c) (5 points) Show that (b) fails for innite subsets X. Solution: Let G be the additive group of integers and X be the set of non-negative integers, then (b) fails.

5. Let G be a group. Given a subgroup H of G, dene HG =

gG

g 1 Hg.

(a) (5 points) Prove that HG is a normal subgroup of G. Solution: Since g 1 Hg is a subgroup of G for every g G we have that HG = 1 1 gG g Hg is a subgroup of G. Let x HG . Then x g Hg for every g G and so, for every y G, we have y 1 xy y 1 g 1 Hgy = (gy)1 Hgy which shows that y 1 xy HG . Thus HG is a normal subgroup of G.

(b) (3 points) If x G is it possible that A = {g 1 xg|g G} is a subgroup of G? Solution: If A = {g 1 xg|g G} is a subgroup of G then it must contain 1 and so g 1 xg = 1 for some g G, which implies that x = 1. Thus we see that A is a subgroup of G if and only if A = 1, in which case it must be normal.

(c) (2 points) Can A (in part b above) be a normal subgroup? If so, can you nd necessary and sucient condition(s) for A to be normal? Solution: See part (b) above

6. Let Dn be the group, with generators a and b such that a2 = bn = 1 and relation aba = b1 . Then the elements of Dn are {1, b, b2 , . . . , bn1 , a, ab, ab2 , . . . , abn1 } . (a) (8 points) Find the congugacy classes of Dn when n is even. Solution: First notice that sine b1 (abi )b = b1 abi+1 = abbi+1 = abi+2 then (abi ) is conjugate to = abi+2 for every i. Also since abi a = bi we see that bi is conjugate to bi . Suppose n is even. Then the conjugacy classes are {1}, {a, ab2 , . . . , abn2 }, {ab, ab3 , . . . , abn1 }, {b 2 n }, {bi , bi } where 1 i 1 (n 2). 2
1

(b) (7 points) Find the congugacy classes of Dn when n is odd. Solution: Suppose n is odd. Then the conjugacy classes are {1}, {a, ab, . . . , abn1 }, {bi , bi } where 1 i 1 (n 1). 2

7. (Super Bonus.) Let f : G H be a group homomorphism. Suppose that A is a normal subgroup of G and that the restriction of f to A, denoted by fA , is an isomorphism onto H. (a) Prove that G A Kerf . Solution: The fact that G A Kerf follows from the following observation: i. A and Kerf are normal subgroups of G. ii. If g G then f (g) H so there exists a A with f (a) = f (g). Then g = a(a1 g) where a A and a1 g Kerf. iii. If g AKerf then fA (g) = f (g) = 1 whence, since fA : A H is an isomorphism, g = 1.

(b) Is the above result (in part a)) true without the condition that A be normal? Solution: The result is not true if A is not normal in G. For example, consider the mapping f : S3 C2 = {1, a} where (a2 = 1) given by 1 if x = 1; f (x) = a if x has order 2; 1 if x has order 3.

(1)

It is readily seen that f is a homomorphism with Kerf =< (123) > C3 . The subgroup A = {(1), (12)} of S3 is not normal in S3 , and the restriction of f to A is an isomorphism onto C2 . However, S3 is not isomorphic to C2 C3 .

(c) Let C be the multiplicative group of complex numbers, P the multiplicative subgroup of positive real numbers, and U = {z C : |z| = 1} the subgroup of complex numbers of norm 1. Using part a) above prove that C P U . Solution: Dene f : C P by f (z) = |z|. It is easily seen that this homomorphism satisfy the conditions above and thus C P U .