SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

INSTITUTE OF MODERN SCIENCE

TOPIC – SYLOW GROUP

(ABSTRACT ALGEBRA)
NAME – SOHOM MAJUMDER
ROLL NO. – 26499118002
DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED
MATHEMATICS

SUBMITTED TO
Prof Ashish Acharya
Prof Sumali Roy
 CONTENTS
• Defining Group and it’s properties
• Order of a group and order of it’s elements
• Sylow group lemma
• Defining sylow group and it’s meaning
• Theorem 1
• Cauchy’s theorem
• Sylow p-subgroup and conjugate groups
• Theorem 2
• Theorem 3
• Cyclic , simple,normal groups of order pq
• References
 Defining Group
A group is a set G and a binary operation ⋅  such that
1`) For all x,y∈G,  x⋅y∈G  (closure)
2) There exists an identity element 1∈G with x⋅1=1⋅x=1 for
all x∈G (identity)
3) For all x,y,z∈G we have (xy)z=x(yz) (associativity)
4) For all x∈G there exists an element   with 
(inverse)
If we only have closure and associativity, then we
call G a semigroup. If we have closure, associativity and
an identity element, we call G a monoid.
If xy=yx for some x,y∈G then we say x,y commute (or
are commutative, or permutable). If xy=yx for
all x,y∈G then we say G is abelian (or commutative).
 Order of a Group and element
The order of a group G  is the cardinality (i.e., size, or number of
elements) of G as a set. it is denoted as |G|
• Example – consider U(10) i.e it is the set of all elements positive
integers less than 10 and relatively prime to 10. U(10) is a group under
multiplication modulo 10
• Therefore U(10) = {1,3,7,9} under multiplication modulo 10
has order 4
U(15) = (1,2,4,7,8,11,13,14} under multiplication
modulo 15 has order 8
The order of an element g in a group G is the smallest positive integer n
such that (In addtive notation gn = 0). The order of an element
is denoted by |g|
• Example – consider element &, then we compute the sequence

So order of the element 7 is 4 i.e |7| =4.

Similarly |11| =2, |13| = 4, |4| =8
 Sylow Groups

• lemma - Let A be an abelian group. If p is a prime factor

of |A| then A contains at least one element of order p
Explanation – Let the order of the group A be 4 i.e |A| = 4
under multiplication modulo 10
so A ={1,3,7,9}
4 =2*2 i.e prime factor of 4 is 2
therefore A has at least one element whose order is 2
i.e for example 9 ,

Thus A contains at least one element of order p i.e here A contains

9 which has order 2
If |A| = 8 under multiplication modulo 15 then A contains element 11
Which has order 2 (prime factor of 8 is 2)
 Definition of Sylow group and it’s
meaning
• If the order of a group G is divisible by   but by
no higher power of p for some prime p then any
subgroup of G of order    is called a Sylow
group corresponding to p.
• Example- the elements of group A of order 8 under multiplication modulo 15
are {1,2,4,7,8,11,13,14}
so |A| = 8 and 8 is divisible by ,where 2 is the prime factor of
8,but 8 is not divisible by any higher power of 2 other than 3,then by
definition
any subgroup of A of order is called Sylow group corresponding
to p. Here the subset {1,2,4,7,8,11,13,14} is the required
subgroup of A which is a sylow group.
 Theorem 1
• Let G be a finite group and let p be a prime.
If divides |G| , then G has at least one
subgroup of order .

• Example 1-
The theorem is immediate if |G| = 2 since the order 2 is divisible by
prime 2 and given any multiplication or addition modulo the element
1 is always present and
• Example 2-
say we have a group of order then by Sylow’s 1 st theorem
G must have at least one subgroup of each of the following orders :
2,4,8,3,9,5,25,125,625,7. But it doesn’t tell anything about possible
existence of order 6,10,15,30 or any other divisor of |G| that has 2 or
more distinct prime factors.
 Cauchy’s Theorem
• Let G be a group. If p is a prime factor of |
G| then G contains at least one element of
order p
• Explanation-
Let the order of the group G i.e the cardinality of the group under
multiplication modulo 7 is 6 i.e |G|=6
so A ={1,2,3,4,5,6} [since the elements are less than 7
and are relatively prime to 7 so the order is 6]
6 = 2 * 3 so 2 and 3 are the prime factor of |G|.
so under multiplication modulo 7 (existence of one element
of order 3)
under multiplication modulo 7 (existence of one element
of order 2)
 Sylow p-Subgroups and conjugate groups
• Sylow p-Subgroup – Let G be a finite group and
let p be a prime. If divides |G| and
does not divide |G| , then any subgroup
G of order is called a sylow p-subgroup of G
• Example – any subgroup of order 8 is a sylow 2-subgroup of G. Since
divides |G| = 8 but does not divide |G| = 8 ,then |G|= 8 is of order
is the Sylow 2-subgroup of G. similarly, any subgroup of order 625 is Sylow 5-
subgroup of G etc.

• Conjugate Subgroups – let H and K be

subgroups of a group G. We say H and K
are conjugate in G if there is an element g
in G such that H =
(it’s just a definition and nothing to explain and from
definition it is trivial)
 Theorem - 2
• If H is a subgroup of a finite group G and |
H| is a power of a prime p, then H is
contained in some sylow p-subgroup of G.
• Explanation- Let G = (1,2,4,7,8,11,13,14} under multiplication
modulo 15 has order 8 i.e |G| = 8,let H be a subgroup of G then let
H = {1,7}. We can see that order of H i.e|H| = 2 which is a power of a
prime p,let’s say p=2 i.e |H| = 2 is the power of prime p = 2. then H
is contained in Sylow 2-subgroup of G.
• NOTE – we cannot take the prime p = 3 since this will
contradict the definition of sylow 2-subgroup since 3 does
not divide order of G i.e 8. Only 2 and it’s power up to 3
divides |G| = 8.
 Theorem – 3
• Let G be a finite group of order n and
let p be a prime such that p∣n. If n=
where k≥1 and p∤m then:
a) ≡1(mod p), i.e., p∣( −1).
b)  | m
• Example – Let G be a group of order 120 and we wish to find
out the number of Sylow 5-subgroups of G has. Let be the no. of Sylow
5-subgroups of G. By Sylow’s 3rd theorem we have, here m= 24
= 1 (mod 5) and | 24
Since | 24 we must have which belongs to {1,2,3,4,6,8,12,24}.
Since 24 is divided only by the numbers in the given set. Of this set the
only number congruent to 1 modulo 5 are 1 and 6. So G has either 1 Sylow
5-subgroup or 6 Sylow 5-subgroups.
 Cyclic ,normal and simple groups of
order pq
•  If p and q are distinct primes
with p<q, then every group G of
order pq has a single subgroup of
order q and this subgroup is normal
in G. Hence, G cannot be simple.
Furthermore, if q≢1(mod p), then G is cyclic.
• Example - Every group of order 15 is cyclic. This is true because 15=5⋅3
and 5≢1(mod3)
• A Sylow group is unique if and only if it is a normal subgroup.
• Any group G of order pq for primes  p,q satisfying p≠1(mod
q) and q≠1(mod p) is abelian.
 References
• Contemporary Abstract algebra – Pg 412-
415
• Stanford university lecture notes
• Topics in Algebra - I.N Herstein Pg 91
Thank
you