Lagrange's theorem states that, for a finite group and a subgroup ,
To prove it, define an equivalence relation by when . Its classes are the left cosets , which therefore partition . Left multiplication by gives a bijection , so every coset has elements. Counting this partition gives the formula; in particular divides . Applying the theorem to the cyclic subgroup generated by an element shows that its order of a group element divides .
Write the given order-two normal subgroup as . Conjugation must preserve and cannot send its nonidentity element to the identity, so for all . Thus is in the center of a group: a normal subgroup of order two is central.
Choose . By Lagrange's theorem, its order of a group element is , or . It cannot have order two: since is central, the four distinct elements would form a subgroup of order four, whereas does not divide for odd . If has order , it already generates . Otherwise has order , commutes with , and implies . Hence both and divide , so has order . In either case
For a group action of a finite group on a set and a point , the orbit-stabilizer theorem is
where is the stabilizer subgroup. The map is well defined because elements of the same coset act identically on . If , then , so their cosets agree; every orbit point has the form , giving surjectivity. This is a bijection. Lagrange's theorem, for any subgroup , yields the counting formula.
Apply the conjugation action of the finite p-group to its nontrivial normal subgroup . Normality ensures the action stays inside . The singleton orbits of a group action are exactly the elements of . Every larger orbit of a group action has size a positive power of , by the orbit-stabilizer theorem and Lagrange's theorem. Therefore
Since is nontrivial, its order is divisible by . The intersection contains the identity and has cardinality a positive multiple of , so it contains a nonidentity element. This proves the central intersection property of normal subgroups of finite p-groups.
For the proper subgroup , let act by left multiplication on the left cosets . A coset is fixed by every exactly when . Both groups have the same finite size, so this inclusion is equality; the fixed cosets are precisely those with . Hence their number is . All non-singleton orbits of a group action have size divisible by , so
Since is proper, is a positive power of greater than one. The fixed-coset count is nonzero, because itself is fixed, and is divisible by . Therefore the normalizer strictly contains :
This is the normalizer condition for finite p-groups. The proof also covers , whose action fixes all cosets.
Since , the number of Sylow subgroups for divides and is modulo , hence is or . In the first case the unique subgroup is a nontrivial proper normal subgroup.
In the second case the subgroups of order have pairwise trivial intersection: two such subgroups sharing a nonidentity element would both be generated by it. They account for nonidentity elements of order . Exactly elements, including the identity, remain. Every Sylow subgroup for has order , and all its elements lie among these remaining elements, by Lagrange's theorem. It must therefore be precisely that set. The Sylow subgroup for is unique and hence normal. In either case is not a simple group.
A permutation representation is a group homomorphism , equivalently a group action on a set . The left regular action takes and . Each such map is a bijection, and . If is the identity, evaluating at the identity element gives . Thus the representation is faithful. Numbering the elements of identifies with the symmetric group , proving Cayley theorem:
For a nonabelian simple group, compose this faithful representation with the sign of a permutation homomorphism . Its kernel is a normal subgroup of , hence either trivial or all of . A trivial kernel would embed in a group of order two, contradicting noncommutativity. Therefore every represented element is even, and the same representation embeds in the alternating group .
Finally let act on the two cosets of its normal subgroup . An even permutation fixes both cosets, whereas an odd permutation exchanges them. This gives with kernel ; explicitly, send even permutations to the identity and odd permutations to .
A smooth vector field on a smooth manifold is a smooth section of the tangent bundle: it assigns to each , smoothly in local coordinates. In a coordinate chart it has the form , with smooth coefficients . Equivalently, it acts on smooth functions as a derivation, .
For a Lie group , write for Left translation on a Lie group. A left-invariant vector field satisfies
Thus it is determined by its value at the identity. Given the printed , first translate it to the identity:
The unique left-invariant vector field with value at is
The smoothness of multiplication makes this a smooth vector field, the chain rule proves left invariance, and setting gives .
We prove the completeness of left-invariant vector fields: this left-invariant vector field is a complete vector field. The Picard-Lindelof theorem, applied in a local chart, gives a unique local integral curve of a vector field through . For every , the curve is an integral curve of a vector field through , because
Crucially, the same interval works for every initial point.
Let be the maximal integral curve of a vector field through , with maximal interval . If , choose with . The curve
exists on and agrees with on the overlap by uniqueness of the local ordinary differential equation. It extends past , a contradiction. The same argument at a finite excludes that possibility. Thus , and uniqueness on overlapping intervals gives uniqueness on all of .
After establishing completeness, uniqueness also gives the one-parameter subgroup law for the global curve through :
Both sides, as curves in , are integral curves of a vector field through at . Defining the Exponential map of a Lie group by , the answer is
The identity component is an open normal subgroup, and every open identity neighbourhood generates it. Let be the connected component of . The product of connected spaces is connected, so the image of under multiplication is connected and contains . It is therefore contained in . Inversion has the same property. Thus is a subgroup.
A smooth manifold is locally connected. In particular, a coordinate neighbourhood of can be chosen homeomorphic to an open ball, so there is a connected open neighbourhood of contained in . Its translates , , are open and lie in , and cover . Therefore the identity component of a Lie group is open in . Conjugation by any is a homeomorphism fixing , so it maps into itself; conjugation by gives the reverse inclusion. Hence is a normal subgroup.
If is an open neighbourhood of in , let , allowing inverses in the meaning of generated subgroup. For each , is open and lies in , so is open in . Every other left coset of is also open. Thus is both open and closed in the connected space . It is nonempty, so .
A quadratic form on is a function for a symmetric bilinear form . Equivalently, and the polarization
is a bilinear map. In coordinates there is a unique real symmetric matrix with . No assumption of nondegeneracy or positive definiteness is needed.
An element stabilizes when for every . By the polarization identity, this is equivalent to preserving , or in coordinates to
This is a closed Matrix Lie group. The Lie algebra of a quadratic-form stabilizer is
To prove necessity, differentiate along any smooth curve in with , . The derivative at zero is .
To prove sufficiency, suppose and consider the matrix exponential . Then
Its value at zero is , so for every real . This curve has derivative at zero, proving the claimed tangent space description even for a degenerate quadratic form.
Equivalently, the condition is for all . For a nondegenerate quadratic form it is the corresponding Special orthogonal Lie algebra. To see the degenerate case explicitly, choose a basis with
Writing , the condition becomes
while are arbitrary. Thus the nullspace of the quadratic form is invariant, but arbitrary infinitesimal maps into it are allowed. When , the formula correctly gives and .
Normalize the discrete valuation on by , set , and write for its valuation ring. For a finite Galois extension of local fields, define and, for integers ,
Equivalently, is the kernel of the action on . These are the lower ramification numbering of the ramification groups. In particular, is the inertia group, the kernel of the action on the residue field, and is the wild inertia group. They form a decreasing sequence of normal subgroups, eventually trivial.
For a real index , extend by . Define the Herbrand function by
It is continuous, strictly increasing and piecewise linear; denote its inverse by . The upper ramification numbering is
The definition includes the placement of the groups at break endpoints: the group at a break is the group before the drop. Lower numbering is compatible with subgroups; upper numbering is the one compatible with quotients. In a totally ramified extension, the uniformizer criterion for lower ramification groups permits testing the defining valuation inequality on one uniformizer instead of on every integral element.
A subgroup of a group is a normal subgroup when for every , equivalently . The quotient group has the left cosets as elements, with , identity and inverse . Normality makes this multiplication independent of representatives.
The first isomorphism theorem for groups says that for a group homomorphism , its kernel of a group homomorphism is normal and
The image is taken with the induced group operation; surjectivity onto all of is not required.
For the given upper triangular matrices, take diagonal entries:
The target is a direct product of groups, with multiplication of nonzero real numbers in each coordinate. Indeed the product of two such matrices has diagonal , proving the group homomorphism property. Any pair of nonzero diagonal entries is attained by a diagonal matrix, so is surjective. Its kernel of a group homomorphism consists precisely of the matrices with , namely . Hence
with coordinatewise multiplication, not addition on .
With rightmost-first composition, a permutation cycle satisfies
Tracing each verifies the equality, and every other letter is fixed. Thus every cycle is a product of transpositions; decomposing a permutation into disjoint permutation cycles proves that every element of is such a product. The identity is the empty product.
To establish that parity is well defined, use the permutation matrix defined by . Its determinant is , and . A transposition swaps two columns of the identity matrix and has determinant . Therefore if is expressed as a product of transpositions,
The left side depends only on , so any two decompositions have the same parity. Define
Multiplicativity of the determinant makes this the sign homomorphism. Its kernel of a group homomorphism is the alternating group
It is a normal subgroup consisting of the even permutations. For the sign map is surjective because a transposition has sign , so . For both groups are trivial.
A finite nonabelian simple group cannot be a p-group: a nontrivial finite p-group has nontrivial centre of a group, since its class equation makes every noncentral conjugacy class size divisible by , and hence makes the centre size a positive multiple of . That centre is a normal subgroup, so must be the whole group if is a simple group, making it abelian; an abelian simple group has prime order. Therefore every Sylow subgroup here is nontrivial and proper. It cannot be normal, so .
To obtain a simple group embedding from Sylow conjugation, the conjugation action on Sylow subgroups gives a group homomorphism . This group action is transitive by the Sylow theorems and is nontrivial since . Its kernel of a group homomorphism is a normal subgroup, so the defining property of a simple group makes the kernel of a group homomorphism trivial: is an embedding. Now compose with the sign of a permutation . A nontrivial composite would again be injective because is a simple group, embedding in a group of order two, impossible for a nonabelian group. Thus lies in the alternating group . By Lagrange's theorem,
The argument only invokes the factorial formula once ; the impossible case itself is also excluded by the embedding.
For order , the Sylow theorems give and , hence or . If , the Sylow subgroup of order is a nontrivial proper normal subgroup. If were simple in the other case, it would be nonabelian (a finite abelian simple group has prime order), and the preceding result would force , impossible. Thus every group of order 48 is not simple.
An example with no normal Sylow subgroup for is
In , is a dihedral group of order : conjugation by inverts . Thus has order and is a Sylow subgroup of . The only transpositions in are and ; conjugating by gives . Therefore and are not normal. By conjugacy, no other Sylow subgroup for is normal either.
On the normal subgroup , the first diagonal entry is the linear character . Its image has order at most three, although , so its kernel of a group homomorphism has order at least three. The second entry is the inverse character and has the same kernel of a group homomorphism. Thus
Elements of the other coset have off-diagonal image and cannot be the identity. If , the kernel of a group homomorphism has order exactly three; otherwise it is all of .
When both roots equal one, only acts nontrivially and its eigenlines spanned by and are invariant, so the representation is reducible. Otherwise one of has two distinct eigenvalues. Any invariant line would be one of its coordinate eigenlines, but interchanges these two lines. Hence no invariant line exists, and
The kernel is a normal subgroup of index , so the corresponding connected covering space is regular with six sheets labeled by . Write , and use right multiplication for path lifting. Above the real projective plane, right multiplication by pairs the labels, giving three copies of its two-sheeted covering space . Each sphere has two marked antipodal points corresponding to its pair , . Above the circle, right multiplication by gives two cycles of length three. Attach their six marked points to the identically labeled points of these three spheres.
Figure 1.
The six-sheeted cover: three spheres joined by two lifted circles
.
The upper circle follows ; the lower follows . The point paired with is , explaining the reversed lower labeling in the figure. On each summand these are genuine covering maps, and the attachment matches the six lifts of the wedge point. A small neighborhood of that point lifts to six disjoint copies of its neighborhood in the wedge. This verifies the covering space locally, and the action of is transitive, so it is connected. Its stabilizer is , identifying this kernel cover of a real projective plane wedged with a circle.
Multiplicativity of the determinant gives and , so is a linear character. Its finite image is a cyclic group of roots of unity. If it contains , its order is and the character of a representation maps onto . The kernel of a group homomorphism is the preimage of its identity, so is a normal subgroup of index . The subgroup itself need not have index .
By Cauchy theorem for groups, a group of order has an involution . In the regular representation, left multiplication by is a permutation consisting of disjoint transpositions, so its determinant is when is odd. The preceding argument gives a normal subgroup of index two.
For a nonabelian simple group of order below , Burnside's theorem requires at least three distinct prime factors. An odd order with three factors is at least . An even order with exactly one factor of has a normal subgroup of index . Thus its order must be divisible by and by at least two odd primes. Below the only possibility is , since the next is . Hence .
For a normal subgroup , the quotient group is the set of cosets with multiplication . If and , normality moves the intervening elements of past , proving that the product is independent of representatives.
If has finite order , then , so divides . For finite , the greatest element order in is therefore no greater than that in .
Every kernel is normal because whenever . Conversely, if is normal, the quotient map has kernel . Thus exactly when it is the kernel of a group homomorphism.
A group is metacyclic when it has a cyclic normal subgroup with cyclic quotient. A dihedral group has its cyclic rotation subgroup normal and quotient , so every dihedral group is metacyclic.
Up to isomorphism the groups of order eight are
All except are metacyclic: use a cyclic subgroup of order four in the three noncyclic examples that have one. In , every cyclic subgroup has order at most two and its quotient is not cyclic. The normal subgroups of are ; none gives the required cyclic subgroup and quotient, so is not metacyclic. Finally, are metacyclic, while and are not, by their normal-subgroup structures. Hence
A nonabelian simple group is a perfect group, so every one-dimensional group representation, a homomorphism to the abelian group , is trivial. Thus a nontrivial irreducible Brauer character cannot have degree .
Suppose instead that its representation has dimension , working over a splitting extension if necessary. Its determinant is a one-dimensional representation and is therefore trivial. Its kernel is a normal subgroup, and the representation is nontrivial, so simplicity makes it faithful. Consequently embeds in .
We use the Feit–Thompson theorem: every finite group of odd order is solvable. Therefore this nonabelian simple group has even order, and Cauchy's theorem for finite groups supplies an involution . In odd characteristic, its representing matrix satisfies and is diagonalizable with eigenvalues in . Since , it is or . Faithfulness excludes , so acts as the scalar matrix . It commutes with the whole image; faithfulness then makes central in , contradicting nonabelian simplicity. Hence .
The odd order theorem is the deep standard group-theoretic input in this proof; its use is explicit rather than hidden in an unsupported assertion that has an involution.
Suppose first that and are normal subgroups. For and , the commutator
lies in , because , and in , because . Since , , so and commute.
Conversely, suppose every element of commutes with every element of . Write an arbitrary as . For ,
so . The symmetric calculation proves .