Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/paper-2/9/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 2 9 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Assume (I). Existence of a decomposition is part of the hypothesis. If are two decompositions, multiply on the left by and on the right by to obtainThe left side belongs to and the right side to , since they are subgroups. Their common value belongs to , so and . This proves uniqueness, hence (II).
Conversely, assume (II). Existence immediately gives . If , thenare two allowed factorizations, because the identity is in each subgroup. Uniqueness makes their first components equal, so . Thus and (I) follows.
Therefore (I) and (II) are equivalent. This is an exact factorization of a group. For finite groups it gives , but it does not by itself identify with a direct product of groups; multiplication between the two factors can be noncommutative.
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