Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/paper-2/8/solution

The order of a finite group is its number of elements. Lagrange's theorem states that for a subgroup ,
so divides . In particular the order of a group element divides , because it is the order of its generated cyclic subgroup.
For , if some element has order four it generates the whole group, which is therefore the cyclic group . Otherwise every nonidentity element has order two. Choose two distinct ones and put . Cancellation shows , so is the remaining element. Since ,
The other products follow: , , and . Thus the second possibility is the Klein four-group. The two groups are not isomorphic because only has an element of order four. This proves the order-four case of the classification of groups of order p squared.
A group homomorphism obeys . It maps identity to identity and inverses to inverses. Its group kernel contains and is closed under , so the subgroup test makes it a subgroup. For and ,
Thus ; applying the same argument to gives equality. Hence is a normal subgroup.
Define by . If , then , giving , so this is well-defined. Coset multiplication shows it is a group homomorphism. Its kernel is just the identity coset, since means . It is therefore injective, and the assumed surjectivity of makes it surjective as well. This proves the first isomorphism theorem here:
In the quaternion group, the element commutes with each of , because an element commutes with its square. It then commutes with their negatives too, and with . The set is a subgroup because , and it is central, hence a normal subgroup.
The four quotient cosets are . They square to , and . Reversed products have the same coset: for example , while , so . The same calculation gives and . After signs are identified, these are precisely the products in the Klein four-group. Define
This preserves all products, is surjective, and has kernel exactly . The first isomorphism theorem therefore gives
This is the quaternion group modulo its centre: the reverse-product relations also show that none of is central, so .

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