Infinite cyclic group 2026-09-24
An infinite cyclic group is generated by an element of infinite order and is isomorphic to the additive group of integers.
We can use reduction instead of expanding a very large rational addition formula. Modulo , both and reduce to , which generates the three-element reduced group. The reduction homomorphism therefore gives
The rational point is not any of the three torsion points just found, so it has infinite order. In particular : otherwise multiplication by three would give .
If had integral coordinates, its affine integral representative would reduce to an affine point modulo , not to the point at infinity. This contradicts its reduction to . Thus
Indeed, it is not even integral at . This is a reduction certificate for a nonintegral elliptic point, with the crucial nonidentity condition verified by the torsion calculation.
Introduce . The presentation may be written as the HNN extension
of the Baumslag-Solitar group , with stable letter identifying the infinite cyclic subgroups and . Britton's lemma embeds the base group in the HNN extension. In particular, has infinite order, so is infinite. It is also nonabelian because .