Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ia Paper 3 5D ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
An example is the unitriangular group of degree three over F3, consisting ofThis is an upper unitriangular group of order . Direct matrix multiplication givesThe formula gives closure, identity , and inverse ; associativity follows from matrix multiplication. The two elements and do not commute: their products have respectively and .
Every element has the form with . Since the finite field has characteristic three, the binomial expansion givesHence every nonidentity element has order exactly three. This is a nonabelian finite group with exponent of a finite group equal to three.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 3 1G Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
An Euler pseudoprime is an odd composite number with satisfying , where the right side is the Jacobi symbol. A weaker convention requires only ; it is distinguished below. A strong pseudoprime, with and odd, satisfies or for some .
By the Chinese remainder theorem for unit groups, the unit group modulo is . Modulo , . Thus the only possible sign in is positive. Modulo , writing for a primitive root, the condition is , equivalently . Consequently has multiplicative order dividing in each factor. Its square is either or in each factor, but these signs must agree: modulo , the Legendre symbol is for square and for square , and the same is true modulo . The Euler pseudoprime condition additionally requires the product of those Legendre symbols to be . HenceEach sign has two roots modulo each prime, hence four roots modulo . There are eight pseudoprime bases modulo under the Jacobi symbol convention. Under the weaker sign-only convention there are instead sixteen pseudoprime bases, since the two signs of the squares need not agree; the stated equivalence therefore specifically uses the Jacobi symbol convention.
For the strong pseudoprime condition, . Since the unit group has exponent of a finite group , the only possibilities are or . The six pseudoprime bases are . For example , while has but . Thus the strong-pseudoprime pseudoprime bases are not a subgroup.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 3 18I a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let be a finite subgroup of and let be its exponent of a finite group. A finite abelian group contains an element whose order is its exponent: combine elements of maximal prime-power order across the primary components. Hence .
Every satisfies , so all elements are roots in the field of the nonzero polynomial . The Lagrange root bound over a field gives . Therefore , and the element of order generates . This proves that a finite subgroup of a field multiplicative group is cyclic.