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, gives
Its diagonal entries remain nonzero, proving closure. Associativity is inherited from matrix multiplication, is the identity element, and
This 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 . Then
It 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, with
Equivalently 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 , : indeed
Every matrix lies in exactly the coset specified by this unique .
Elements whose square is the identity. Squaring gives
Thus and . For equal signs, in , so . For opposite signs, and all five values work. The complete set is therefore
It 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.
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 are
They are distinct, and , with exponents reduced modulo four and two. The Cayley table is
The 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 exactly
To 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.
For example choose . A complete set of cosets is . Since is Abelian, the left and right cosets coincide.
A group homomorphism satisfies ; a bijective one is a group isomorphism. Its kernel of a group homomorphism is . It is a subgroup, and for , ,
Thus , and applying the same argument to gives equality. Therefore is a normal subgroup.
Write . Direct matrix multiplication gives , and . Consequently these matrices form the integer shear group, a subgroup of . It is an infinite cyclic group, generated by , since and no nonzero integer power is the identity.
The map is a bijective group homomorphism from the additive group of integers, proving the required group isomorphism. There are proper subgroups: for example omits . In fact every subgroup is for an integer , by the classification of subgroups of an infinite cyclic group; gives the trivial subgroup and the whole group.
A group homomorphism satisfies for all . Its group kernel is
For the matrices, put , and . Since , and , direct matrix multiplication gives
These verify the listed matrices and the defining relations, with . To check every product explicitly through a single calculation, write elements in the unique form , with and . The relations give
The displayed matrices obey , so their product has exactly the same form:
All exponents are reduced modulo two or three respectively. Thus this verifies all 36 products, and is a two-dimensional complex group representation. It is given to be an irreducible representation.
For a one-dimensional complex group representation , let and , which are nonzero complex numbers. The relations require
Since scalar multiplication commutes and , the last relation gives , hence . Then . The choice is the trivial representation; the unique nontrivial choice is the sign representation:
Its group kernel is
A faithful representation is injective and has trivial kernel. Here the kernel has three elements, so is not faithful.
Both one-dimensional representations are irreducible representations, and they are inequivalent to each other and to the given two-dimensional one. The sum of squares of irreducible representation dimensions gives
These exhaust all complex irreducible representations. Their number equals the number of conjugacy classes, so there are three conjugacy classes. Explicitly they are
The last two sets consist of the 3-cycles and transpositions respectively.
Denote a matrix by , with the upper-right entry. Direct matrix multiplication gives
This proves closure. Associativity is inherited from matrix multiplication. The identity is , and the inverse is
Both products with this matrix are the identity. Thus these real matrices form the Heisenberg group, in the coordinate convention with central coordinate .
Let . Its multiplication adds , its identity is and its inverse negates , so it is a subgroup. Moreover
Thus every element of is central, and . Therefore is a normal subgroup. In fact it is the full center of a group, as described by the center quotient of the real Heisenberg group.
The four displayed matrices fail closure: for example is not one of them. Thus they do not form a group by themselves.
Let and . The enlarged set is the single-qubit Pauli group
There are 16 distinct matrices: are linearly independent, so two different ones cannot be scalar multiples, and the four phases are distinct for each nonzero matrix.
The Pauli matrices satisfy
Here is the Kronecker delta and the Levi-Civita symbol. Thus any product of two Pauli matrices is another Pauli matrix or the identity times a phase in . Multiplying by the two original phases preserves membership in , proving closure of all 16 matrices.
Associativity is inherited from matrix multiplication, the identity is , and
This proves every group axiom. The resulting group is non-Abelian, since reversing changes its sign.
Put . Direct matrix multiplication gives
for every real . Since commutes with all matrices and , the remaining relations also hold:
All matrices are invertible, and the relations reproduce the multiplication table of the Klein four-group. Therefore
A representation need not be an orthogonal representation; imposing orthogonality on the displayed matrices would be an extra condition.
The characters are their traces, independent of :
In terms of part (b), , so the representation is reducible. For an explicit change of basis, take
Then and , while remains . These are the equivalent sheared representations of the Klein four-group; the parameter changes the basis, not the two irreducible constituents.
Direct matrix multiplication gives and hence . It follows that
and . These six matrices are distinct; consequently no smaller positive power is the identity element. Thus
Products add exponents modulo six and . This verifies the cyclic group structure explicitly.
Observe that , and . Thus , while , and . The multiplication table, with the left factor labeling the row, is
It proves closure of the set. Associativity is inherited from matrix multiplication, is the identity element, and every element is its own inverse element. Therefore this set is a group. The table is symmetric, so it is an Abelian group; its three nonidentity elements have order two, identifying it as the Klein four-group .
Write with in entry , in entry and in entry , and perform all arithmetic in the finite field . Direct multiplication gives
Thus the set is closed. Associativity comes from matrix multiplication. The identity element is , and solving the product formula for it gives
Both orders of multiplication with this inverse give the identity. Hence these matrices form a finite group, an instance of the Heisenberg group over a prime field. Each coordinate has five independent possibilities, with distinct triples giving distinct matrices, so
The explicit coordinate convention matters because the central coordinate is here; other descriptions of the Heisenberg group over a prime field may place the central coordinate last.
Write . Direct matrix multiplication gives
Since , the product is again in . Associativity is inherited from matrix multiplication, the identity element is , and
lies in . These verify all group axioms. This is the Affine group of the complex line, acting by .
For the diagonal subset, , it contains , and . Thus is a subgroup. Finally,
so is a surjective group homomorphism.
Direct matrix multiplication gives
For example, the diagonal entries of are , and its off-diagonal entries vanish. Associativity now reduces every positive integer power to its integer parity:
These are the standard Pauli matrices, each a Hermitian matrix and an involution.
Write for the displayed matrix. The hyperbolic addition identities give
Thus matrix multiplication is closed in . It is associative because ordinary matrix multiplication is associative. The identity is , and gives the inverse . Hence .
Moreover, is an injective homomorphism from the additive real numbers, since determines . Therefore ; in particular it is abelian. These matrices are the connected boost subgroup relevant to the component quotient of the real Lorentz group in two dimensions.
The explicit matrices are
Direct matrix multiplication gives
The reverse products have the opposite signs: , , . Since is the identity matrix and ,
These are the usual quaternion multiplication relations in the complex matrix representation of quaternions.
The products in (a), together with and , give closure of the eight-element set. Associativity is inherited from matrix multiplication, is the identity element, and the inverses from (a), with , remain in the set. Thus the group axioms hold. This is the quaternion group .
In the element order specified in the question, the multiplication table is
Interpreting “character of the group” as the character of a representation specified by these matrices, take the trace of each matrix:
A character belongs to a representation; the underlying abstract group can have other characters.
Write a matrix in the set as . The zero matrix has no multiplicative inverse matrix, so is not a group. Its determinant is
which vanishes only at that zero matrix. It is therefore the only element that needs to be removed.
For closure, direct matrix multiplication gives
The product of nonzero determinants is nonzero, so two nonzero elements never multiply to zero. The identity matrix is , associativity is inherited from matrix multiplication, and
Thus . It is the multiplicative group of nonzero quaternions in the complex matrix representation of quaternions.
For a real square matrix, a QR factorization writes with an orthogonal matrix, , and an upper triangular matrix. If is invertible, so is , and
Compute and use back substitution; no matrix inverse needs to be formed.
Apply the Gram-Schmidt process to the columns . The first column has Euclidean norm two, giving and . For the second column,
For the third column,
This residual already has Euclidean norm one. Set and . Thus
The columns of are orthonormal, and matrix multiplication verifies .
Using precisely this QR factorization, transform the right-hand side:
Back substitution in gives
Therefore
The two columns are orthogonal, with lengths one and two; equivalently . Ordering the singular values decreasingly requires swapping the right coordinate directions. One full singular value decomposition is
Both and are orthogonal matrices, and direct matrix multiplication gives . Hence
Since , an A-conjugate direction must satisfy . One nonzero choice is
Direct matrix multiplication gives , and . All nonzero scalar multiples of this vector also qualify.