Heisenberg group over a prime field ($U{T}_3({\mathbb{F}}_p)$)

Upper-unitriangular three-by-three matrices over the prime finite field form the finite analogue of the real Heisenberg group. In coordinates their multiplication is $(a,b,c)(a^{\prime },b^{\prime },c^{\prime })=(a+a^{\prime },b+b^{\prime },c+c^{\prime }+a{b}^{\prime })$. The order is $p^3$, and $(a,b,c{)}^k=(ka,kb,kc+\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{k}{2}\right)ab)$. For odd $p$, every nonidentity element has order $p$, but the group is nonabelian. For $p=2$ the exponent statement changes, so odd characteristic is essential for the nonisomorphic Gassmann equivalent regular subgroups construction.

Use the coordinate conventionIn this convention the Heisenberg group over a prime field has the productThe subset $H=\{A(t,b,t):t,b\in {\mathbb{F}}_p\}$ is an Abelian subgroup of order $p^2$: the middle coordinate in a product is $b+b^{\prime }+t{t}^{\prime }$, which is symmetric in the factors. Also $A(t,b,t{)}^{-1}=A(-t,t^2-b,-t)$ lies in $H$. The map $A(a,b,c)\mapsto a-c$ is a surjective group homomorphism to the additive group of ${\mathbb{F}}_p$, with kernel of a group homomorphism $H$. Hence $H$ is a normal subgroup of subgroup index $p$, and its left cosets are exactly the level sets of $a-c$.

For odd $p$, an explicit group isomorphism from $H$ to the additive group ${\mathbb{F}}_p^2$ isThe term $t{t}^{\prime }$ in matrix multiplication cancels the cross term in $(t+t^{\prime }{)}^2/2$. Thus $H$ is an elementary abelian group, isomorphic to $C_p\times C_p$.