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The Möbius group consists of all Möbius transformations of the Riemann sphere ${\mathbb{C}}_{\infty }=\mathbb{C}\cup \{\infty \}$, with operation function composition. A nonzero-determinant matrix $M=\left(\begin{array}{cc}a& b\\ c& d\end{array}\right)$ represents the map $z\mapsto (az+b)/(cz+d)$. If $c\ne 0$, its pole $-d/c$ maps to $\infty$ and $\infty$ maps to $a/c$; if $c=0$, the map is affine and fixes $\infty$. Nonzero scalar multiples of $M$ represent the same transformation.

Define $\varphi (M)$ by this action for $M\in S{L}_2(\mathbb{C})$. Substitution of fractional-linear expressions shows $\varphi (MN)=\varphi (M)\circ \varphi (N)$, so $\varphi$ is a group homomorphism. Any invertible matrix can be rescaled into the special linear group: choose $\lambda \in {\mathbb{C}}^{\times }$ with ${\lambda }^2\det M=1$, which is possible because every nonzero complex number has a square root. This does not change the transformation, proving surjectivity. A transformation represented by $M$ is the identity only if fixing $0$, $\infty$ and $1$ forces $b=c=0$ and $a=d$. The determinant-one condition then gives $a^2=1$. ThusFor the fixed-point claim, a nonidentity Möbius transformation has at least one fixed point of a Möbius transformation: when $c\ne 0$ the finite fixed points solve a quadratic, and when $c=0$ infinity is fixed. A quadratic shows there can be no more than two distinct fixed points unless the transformation is the identity. Suppose there is exactly one. Conjugate it to infinity by a Möbius transformation. The resulting map has form $z\mapsto az+b$, since it fixes infinity. If $a\ne 1$ it also has the finite fixed point $b/(1-a)$, a contradiction. Hence it is $z\mapsto z+b$ with $b\ne 0$. Its $m$th power is $z\mapsto z+mb$, never the identity for $m>0$. Conjugation preserves order, so a nonidentity finite-order Möbius transformation has exactly two fixed points.

Now let $K$ be a finite abelian subgroup of the Möbius group. First suppose it contains an element $g$ of order greater than two. Conjugate the two fixed points of $g$ to $0$ and $\infty$, so $g(z)=\zeta z$, with $\zeta$ a root of unity of order greater than two. Every element $h$ commuting with $g$ permutes its fixed-point set, because $g(h(p))=h(g(p))=h(p)$. A Möbius transformation preserving each of $0,\infty$ is $h(z)=az$; one exchanging them is $h(z)=a/z$. In the second case $hg(z)=a/(\zeta z)$ and $gh(z)=\zeta a/z$, so commuting would force ${\zeta }^2=1$, impossible. Thus all elements of $K$ are scalings. A finite subgroup of a field multiplicative group is cyclic; here one can see this directly by choosing the least common multiple $m$ of all element orders and observing that the scalars lie among the $m$th roots of unity, a cyclic group. Hence $K$ is cyclic.

Otherwise every nonidentity element of $K$ has order two. If $K$ is nontrivial, choose $g$ and conjugate it to $z\mapsto -z$. The action of $K$ on $\{0,\infty \}$ has image of order at most two. Its kernel consists of scalings $z\mapsto az$, and the order-two condition forces $a^2=1$, so the kernel has at most two elements. Hence $|K|\le 4$. Orders one and two give cyclic groups; order four with all nonidentity elements involutions gives $C_2\times C_2$, generated by any two distinct nonidentity elements. Both possibilities occur: scalings by roots of unity give every finite cyclic group, and $\{z,-z,1/z,-1/z\}$ gives the Klein four group. The classification is

Write the Möbius transformation asA finite fixed point of a Möbius transformation satisfiesIf three distinct points of the Riemann sphere are fixed, this quadratic is identically zero, with the usual interpretation when one point is infinity. Hence $c=b=0$ and $d=a$, so $f(z)=z$. A nonidentity transformation's fixed-point equation is a nonzero polynomial of degree at most two on the sphere, and therefore it has one repeated fixed point or two distinct fixed points.