Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2001 Paper 2 8 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Cosets and Lagrange. A left coset is . The left cosets of a subgroup partition a group, each with elements. Lagrange's theorem states for a finite group, so every subgroup order divides the group order.
The 64-element group. Work in the commutative ring , which has zero divisors. Denote the displayed lower triangular matrix by , where are its three entries below the diagonal. Direct matrix multiplication givesAll arithmetic is modulo four, so the set is closed. Associativity comes from matrix multiplication, the identity element is , andThe formula works in either multiplication order and requires no division. Hence these matrices form a group of order . This is the lower triangular version of the Heisenberg group over a commutative ring.
The abelian subgroup. If , write . ThenThe identity is and the inverse is , proving an abelian subgroup. Its two independent entries give and , in accordance with Lagrange's theorem. This is the abelian plane subgroup of the Heisenberg group modulo four.
More explicitly, is a surjective group homomorphism to the additive group of , with kernel . The four left cosets are exactly the four sets with fixed , ; representatives are . Thus is also a normal subgroup.
Matrices squaring to the identity. The product formula givesThe first and third coordinates vanish only when . Then modulo four, so the middle coordinate vanishes exactly when . Therefore the complete set isIt is a subgroup: multiplying two such elements keeps all three entries even, and their cross term vanishes modulo four, so the product simply adds the three even coordinates. The identity is included and each element is its own inverse. In fact is isomorphic to the direct product of groups . The seven nonidentity elements are involutions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2002 Paper 2 8 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Cosets and counting. A left coset of a subgroup in a group is . The left cosets partition and each has elements. Lagrange's theorem states that for a finite group, ; in particular, the subgroup order divides the group order.
The matrix group. Work throughout in the finite field , so every nonzero entry has a multiplicative inverse. Denote a matrix by , with . Ordinary matrix multiplication, interpreted using modular arithmetic, givesIts diagonal entries remain nonzero, proving closure. Associativity is inherited from matrix multiplication, is the identity element, andThis lies in the same set and multiplication checks the inverse in either order. Thus these matrices form a group. There are four choices each for and and five for , giving .
The subgroup. Write . ThenIt contains the identity , is closed, and has inverse . Interchanging the two factors leaves the product unchanged because multiplication in is commutative. Therefore is an abelian subgroup, withEquivalently is isomorphic to by , which also explains its abelian property. Its order divides , verifying Lagrange's theorem.
There are five distinct left cosets. Representatives can be taken as , : indeedEvery matrix lies in exactly the coset specified by this unique .
Elements whose square is the identity. Squaring givesThus and . For equal signs, in , so . For opposite signs, and all five values work. The complete set is thereforeIt contains elements, including the identity; the other eleven are involutions. Since does not divide , Lagrange's theorem proves that this set is not a subgroup.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2003 Paper 2 8 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
A group is a nonempty set with a closed binary operation that is associative, has an identity element, and gives every element an inverse element. A subgroup is a subset that is itself a group under the inherited operation. The left coset of represented by is ; right cosets are defined analogously. Left cosets partition a finite group, and is a bijection from to . Therefore , proving Lagrange's theorem and the required divisibility.
For the given matrices, put and . Since , the generators commute; , , and the generated elements areThey are distinct, and , with exponents reduced modulo four and two. The Cayley table isThe table proves closure and identifies as the identity. The inverse element of is , and associativity follows from matrix multiplication. Thus this is the direct product of cyclic groups of orders four and two, an abelian group of order eight.
Its subgroups are exactlyTo see the list is complete, Lagrange's theorem leaves orders one, two, four and eight. There are exactly three elements of order two, giving the three order-two subgroups. An order-four subgroup containing an element of order four must be one of the two cyclic groups displayed; without such an element it must be the four-element set of elements whose squares are . This is the enumeration in subgroups of C4 times C2.
Let be a quarter-turn and a reflection of the square. The dihedral group is generated by with and , and its elements are . Two generators are minimal because this group is not cyclic. Its subgroups of order two are and for . Its subgroups of order four are , and .
A group homomorphism obeys for all elements; a group isomorphism is a bijective group homomorphism. Take the rotation subgroup and defineThe quaternion element has order four, so the map is well defined modulo four, preserves products and is injective onto . Surjectivity onto all eight quaternion elements is not required of a homomorphism.
A cyclic group is generated by the powers of one element. The final claim needs the usual qualification no nontrivial proper subgroup, and : the trivial subgroup is proper in every nontrivial group, even one of prime order. With that interpretation, if has prime order , Lagrange's theorem permits only subgroup orders one and . Conversely, if its order is composite, choose a divisor with . The subgroup has order , strictly between one and . This proves the assertion described by groups with no proper nontrivial subgroups.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2005 Paper 2 8 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
A left coset is . The cosets partition a finite group into equally sized sets of elements, so Lagrange's theorem gives ; in particular subgroup order divides group order.
The table proves closure, is the identity and every element is its own inverse. Associativity is inherited from matrix multiplication, so this is the Klein four-group.
Finally, if every nonidentity element has order two, every element satisfies , including the identity. Then . Thus a group of exponent two is abelian.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2005 Paper 2 9 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
A group homomorphism preserves multiplication, . A group isomorphism is a bijective homomorphism. An isomorphism from a group to itself is a group automorphism.
The automorphism group contains the identity map. Composition is associative, and if are automorphisms, ; composition is also bijective. For and , , proving the inverse bijection is a homomorphism. These facts establish all group axioms.
A finite cyclic group is with of order . The map is well defined modulo , bijective onto the roots of unity, and preserves multiplication. It identifies with the multiplicative group of th roots of unity.
For prime , Lagrange's theorem leaves only subgroup orders one and : there is no nontrivial proper subgroup. The trivial subgroup is nevertheless proper when , so that qualification is necessary in the printed claim. The characterization of groups with no proper nontrivial subgroups makes the distinction explicit.
For composite , choose a prime divisor and take , of orders and . They are distinct proper subgroups, with nontrivial. If the question intended two nontrivial proper subgroups, that demand is not always possible: a cyclic group of order has only the one of order . The subgroups and quotients of a cyclic group are controlled by its divisors. The order-one group is a separate trivial case, with no proper subgroups.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2006 Paper 2 8 i Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
In a group of order six, element orders divide six. If there were no element of order three or six, every nonidentity element would have order two, making the group abelian by the preceding argument. Choose and . Then is a subgroup of order four: its elements are distinct, it is closed because commute and square to , and each element is its own inverse. This contradicts Lagrange's theorem, since four does not divide six. Hence an element of order three or six exists.
A group has a closed binary operation, associativity, an identity, and an inverse for each element. For a finite group, Lagrange's theorem states for each subgroup , so divides .
The order of a group element is the least positive with , or infinity if none exists. In a finite group the powers form the cyclic subgroup of that order; Lagrange's theorem proves . If is prime and , its order must be . Thus generates the whole group, proving .
If every nonidentity element has order two, every element is its own inverse. Then . This proves that a group of exponent two is abelian.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2007 Paper 2 8 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Lagrange's theorem states that the group order of a finite group divides the group order; more precisely .
If every element squares to the identity element, every element is its own inverse element, and . Thus a group of exponent two is abelian. For distinct nonidentity , the four elements are distinct: for example would imply , and would imply . Products remain in this set because commute and square to one. Thus they form a Klein four-group subgroup of order four.
Now let with odd prime number . By Lagrange's theorem, every element order is one of . If an element has order , its square has order . If no element had order , all nonidentity elements would therefore have order two. There are at least two distinct such elements, producing a subgroup of order four. This contradicts . Hence there is an element of order .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2008 Paper 2 8 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
If , then for both cosets equal . For , neither coset intersects : an intersection would imply . Both have elements, because multiplication by is a bijection. They therefore both equal , proving in this case too. This establishes that an index-two subgroup is normal.
For Lagrange's theorem, left cosets partition . Indeed if , then by multiplying by elements of ; otherwise the cosets are disjoint. Every coset has elements, so if there are cosets,The group order of thus divides the group order of . Normality is not needed for this divisibility statement.
For a subgroup of a finite group , distinct left cosets are disjoint and partition . Each coset has exactly elements because is a bijection. Counting the partition proves Lagrange's theorem:A cyclic group is generated by a single element. In a group of order four, an element of order four generates the whole group, giving . Otherwise all three nonidentity elements have order two. Choose two of them ; cancellation makes the third. Since , . The remaining products then give the Klein four-group. This proves that there are precisely two groups of order four up to isomorphism, distinguished by whether an element of order four exists.
For the square, take to be counterclockwise rotation by and reflection in the horizontal axis. They satisfy and . The dihedral group here is of order eight, with elements . Both generators are necessary: one generator would give a cyclic, hence abelian, group, while and do not commute. In the following Cayley table, the row acts after the column; the formula , with exponents reduced modulo four and two, computes every entry.The largest cyclic subgroup is , of order four. Every reflection has order two and there is no element of order eight. The other subgroups of order four areBoth are Klein four-groups, generated by the commuting involutions and one reflection. For completeness, any order-four subgroup containing or equals . Otherwise it contains a reflection ; the product of two distinct reflections is a nonidentity rotation, which must be if odd powers of are excluded. This forces the subgroup to be , giving exactly the two displayed choices. It is the square case of the classification of subgroups of a dihedral group.
The order of a finite group is its number of elements. Lagrange's theorem states that for a subgroup ,so divides . In particular the order of a group element divides , because it is the order of its generated cyclic subgroup.
For , if some element has order four it generates the whole group, which is therefore the cyclic group . Otherwise every nonidentity element has order two. Choose two distinct ones and put . Cancellation shows , so is the remaining element. Since ,The other products follow: , , and . Thus the second possibility is the Klein four-group. The two groups are not isomorphic because only has an element of order four. This proves the order-four case of the classification of groups of order p squared.
A group homomorphism obeys . It maps identity to identity and inverses to inverses. Its group kernel contains and is closed under , so the subgroup test makes it a subgroup. For and ,Thus ; applying the same argument to gives equality. Hence is a normal subgroup.
Define by . If , then , giving , so this is well-defined. Coset multiplication shows it is a group homomorphism. Its kernel is just the identity coset, since means . It is therefore injective, and the assumed surjectivity of makes it surjective as well. This proves the first isomorphism theorem here:
In the quaternion group, the element commutes with each of , because an element commutes with its square. It then commutes with their negatives too, and with . The set is a subgroup because , and it is central, hence a normal subgroup.
The four quotient cosets are . They square to , and . Reversed products have the same coset: for example , while , so . The same calculation gives and . After signs are identified, these are precisely the products in the Klein four-group. DefineThis preserves all products, is surjective, and has kernel exactly . The first isomorphism theorem therefore givesThis is the quaternion group modulo its centre: the reverse-product relations also show that none of is central, so .
The group order of a finite group is its number of elements, . The order of a group element is the least positive integer with . Such an exists in a finite group because two powers must coincide, and cancellation then gives a positive power equal to the identity element.
For the direct product of groups, the componentwise operation is closed because each factor is closed. Associativity holds in each coordinate:The identity element is , and the inverse element of is . Thus all group axioms hold. For finite factors, the multiplication principle gives
For , write , , , , with . Its Cayley table, with the row element multiplying the column element, isThis is the Klein four-group: every nonidentity element has order two.
In the cyclic group , the set is closed because , and both elements have inverses in the set. It is therefore a proper subgroup of order two. By Lagrange's theorem, a proper subgroup has order one or two. An order-two subgroup must be generated by an element of order two. Neither nor has order two, whereas does. HenceThe PDF's claim needs “nontrivial”: is the only nontrivial proper subgroup, but is also a proper subgroup under the usual definition.
A group isomorphism preserves element orders: if and only if , using the homomorphism property and injectivity. Since has elements of order four and the Klein four-group does not,
The group order is the number of elements of the finite group. A normal subgroup satisfies for every , equivalently its left and right cosets agree.
For the square, let be counterclockwise rotation by , and reflection in the horizontal axis. The dihedral group isThe first four elements rotate by degrees. The other four are Euclidean reflections in the horizontal axis, the line , the vertical axis and the line , respectively, for a square centred at the origin with sides parallel to the axes.
The eight nontrivial proper subgroups areTo check completeness, Lagrange's theorem allows proper orders one, two and four. The order-two subgroups are generated by the five involutions displayed. An order-four subgroup containing or is the rotation subgroup. Otherwise it must contain reflections; their product is a rotation, which must be , so its reflections differ by that half-turn, giving the two listed Klein subgroups. The trivial subgroup is an additional proper subgroup. Thus the PDF's count of eight uses “proper” to exclude the trivial subgroup; with the usual inclusive definition there are nine proper subgroups.
A normal subgroup of order two is central: conjugation fixes its identity and must also fix its only other member. The half-turn commutes with every square symmetry, whereas the reflection subgroups are exchanged by conjugation. Hence the unique order-two normal subgroup isFor the general polygon, write with and . A rotation commutes with exactly when , or . A reflection cannot commute with when , becauseTherefore the center of a group here is for odd , and for even . The order-two normal subgroups correspond exactly to nonidentity central involutions, provingThis agrees with the involutions in an even dihedral group and uses the convention throughout.
The order of a group element is the least positive integer such that , or infinity if there is no such integer. In a finite group such a exists, because two powers among must coincide.
The powers are distinct: a repetition with exponents differing by less than would contradict its minimality. Division of any exponent by shows that these are all the elements of the cyclic subgroup . Thus . Applying Lagrange's theorem givesIn particular the identity has order one, and every nonidentity element has order greater than one. The divisibility assertion here concerns finite group order.
Since , Lagrange's theorem permits proper subgroup orders only . The complete list isTo show completeness, an order-two subgroup must be generated by its unique nonidentity element, necessarily one of the five reflections. An order-five subgroup is cyclic, since its order is prime; its generator cannot be a reflection, and every nonidentity rotation generates the same rotation subgroup. There is only one order-one subgroup.
Thus there are seven proper subgroups when the trivial subgroup is included, or six nontrivial proper subgroups. These are the prime-sided case of the classification of subgroups of a dihedral group.
For a subgroup of a finite group , Lagrange's theorem statesHere is the number of distinct left cosets. Every coset has members, and the cosets partition , proving the identity. In particular the order of a subgroup divides the order of the group. Divisibility is generally necessary, not sufficient, for a subgroup of a given order to exist.
The left coset isEvery belongs to , because , so the cosets cover . If and intersect, choose in the intersection. Then , so for some . Thus .
Hence two left cosets are either identical or disjoint, and the distinct left cosets form a partition of a set whose union is . Finiteness is unnecessary for this partition argument. In the finite case each coset has members, since multiplication by is a bijection, giving Lagrange's theorem.
The kernel is a normal subgroup, so it contains the identity class and is a union of the classes listed in part (c). Its candidate orders are therefore , , and . Lagrange's theorem excludes four, since it does not divide six. The remaining possibilities areAll three are normal: the first and last trivially, while is the kernel of the map giving the sign of a permutation, or the index-two subgroup generated by a 3-cycle.
Because is onto, the first isomorphism theorem gives . Explicitly, the map is well defined, multiplicative and surjective; equality of its values means , so it is also injective. ThusEach is realized by the identity map, the sign map and the trivial map, respectively. This completes the classification of normal subgroups and quotients of the symmetric group on three letters.