The Sylow theorems also give and . Of , only is congruent to one modulo five. Thus is a normal subgroup of as well.
By Lagrange's theorem, , since its group order divides both and . For and , the group commutator lies in by the normal subgroup property of , and in by the normal subgroup property of . It is therefore the identity element, so all elements of commute with all elements of . This is the fact that normal subgroups of coprime order commute.
The subgroup consequently has elements: the expression is unique because . Since and have prime orders, they are cyclic groups. Write and . The product of commuting elements of coprime order has order , so generates . Finally, is a normal subgroup because both its factors are normal subgroups; equivalently, it has subgroup index two. Therefore
The Sylow theorems give and . Among the divisors , only satisfies the modular congruence. HenceUniqueness and the conjugacy assertion of the Sylow theorems make a normal subgroup.
Write with . The Sylow theorems give and . Since , necessarily . Its unique Sylow subgroup is a normal subgroup and has prime order , soA Sylow subgroup has trivial intersection with , and , so . ThusThe semidirect product action is a group homomorphism . If the action is trivial, by the Chinese remainder theorem; if it is nontrivial, . In particular has both a cyclic normal subgroup and a cyclic quotient, making it a metacyclic group and hence a solvable group.
The Abelian group criterion for a product of two prime squares applies because and . Here its Sylow theorems proof is especially short:The candidates for are , of which only has the required remainder. The candidates for are , again leaving only . Thus both Sylow subgroups are normal subgroups. Their group commutators lie in , and , so . Both factors are abelian groups of prime-square order by (a).
The Fundamental theorem of finitely generated abelian groups gives preciselyThese four groups are pairwise nonisomorphic: their characteristic Sylow subgroups differ in whether they contain an element of order or . The first is also the cyclic group .
Suppose were a normal subgroup of index and put . The supplied reduction map and part (c) show that is generated by the images of . Their orders divide and , respectively, because and . By Lagrange's theorem, their orders also divide . Since , both and equal one. Thus , forcing to be trivial and , a contradiction. No such normal subgroup exists for .
The normal closure is the smallest normal subgroup of containing , equivalently the intersection of all normal subgroups containing . Any such normal subgroup contains every and hence every finite product of these elements. Thus .
Include the empty product so that , in particular when . Products of elements of are obtained by concatenating their factor lists. Inversion reverses the list and replaces by , so is closed under inverses. For any ,Therefore is a normal subgroup and it contains . Minimality of the normal closure gives the reverse inclusion, provingThe notation in a finite-product description is understood to allow the empty product; otherwise the empty generating subset would require a separate identity convention.
In a group presentation, is a set of formal generators and is a subset of the free group , consisting of relators which are required to become the identity. The presented group isThe universal property of a group presentation says that a function extends to a group homomorphism from the presented group precisely when every relator evaluates to in : first extend freely to , then factor through the quotient because its kernel contains the normal closure of .
A rotation by and a reflection of a regular -gon satisfyThe last identity holds because reflection reverses the sense of rotation, and it implies . Hence all defining relators vanish, giving a homomorphism with and .
To prove it is an isomorphism without presupposing the order of the presented group, use . Move every occurrence of to the left, cancel pairs by , and reduce exponents modulo . Every element has one of the formsThus . For the usual regular polygon with , the rotations are distinct and the reflections are distinct; no rotation is a reflection, since their planar orientation behavior differs. The supplied description says these exhaust , so , and every one lies in the image of . Surjectivity and the order bound force and trivial kernel. Thus is an isomorphism.
For the requested Cayley graph, use right multiplication by the generators. The edges are the two directed 3-cyclesThe edges are the undirected pairsThese pairs use . Thus the underlying graph is a triangular prism, with the two rotation cycles oriented oppositely when reflection pairs are drawn as radial edges.
The Cayley graph of the dihedral group of order six
. Blue arrows are right multiplication by sigma. Orange undirected edges are right multiplication by the involution tau. Details. Past exam of the topology and groups course of the University of Oxford 2023 2 a iii Solution 2026-10-25
The universal property of a pushout of groups says: for every group and group homomorphisms satisfying , there is exactly one group homomorphism such thatTo prove existence, the universal property of a free product supplies a unique group homomorphism with . Every defining relator of maps toSince is a normal subgroup, it contains the entire normal closure . The universal property of a quotient group therefore gives a group homomorphism through which factors. Its restrictions are the required .
For uniqueness, and together generate : their preimages already generate the free product. Consequently a group homomorphism out of is determined by its restrictions to these two subgroups. Any two candidates for therefore coincide.
This also proves that the pushout of groups is unique up to a unique compatible group isomorphism. Given another such object , apply the universal property in both directions. Both composites restrict to the original maps from , so uniqueness makes them the respective identity maps.
Past exam of the topology and groups course of the University of Oxford 2023 2 a i Solution 2026-10-25
A group presentation of consists of a set of symbols and a subset of relators, together with a group isomorphismHere is the free group on , and is the normal closure of . The images of form a generating set of a group; the relators prescribe which words become the identity element.
For the canonical presentation of a group, use one symbol for every group element . The universal property of a free group gives a surjective group homomorphismLet , namely all words whose evaluation in is the identity element. ThenIndeed is already a normal subgroup, so its normal closure is itself, and the first isomorphism theorem identifies the resulting quotient group with . This is the course's canonical presentation of a group.
An equivalent, smaller collection of relators is for all . These encode the multiplication table. They imply and , so every word reduces to the single symbol recording its product. This proves directly that they normally generate , although the canonical collection above consists of every word in that group homomorphism kernel.
Powerfully embedded subgroup 2026-10-14
A normal subgroup is powerfully embedded in a finite p-group or pro-p group if for odd , or for ; use closed generated subgroups in the pro-p group case. The condition implies that is a powerful p-group. For odd , both and remain powerfully embedded.
p-residual of a finite group Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-31
The p-residual is the smallest normal subgroup with p-group quotient, equivalently the subgroup generated by all elements of order prime to . It is characteristic and satisfies : an extension of two finite p-groups is a p-group. A finite group has a normal p-complement exactly when its p-residual has order prime to .
Prime convex lattice subgroup 2026-10-14
A proper convex lattice subgroup is prime when and imply or . Equivalently the ordered right cosets of form a totally ordered set. Prime refers to this order property, and does not require a normal subgroup or prime index.
Product of a subgroup with a normal subgroup 2026-10-31
If is a subgroup and a normal subgroup of a group , their product set is a subgroup. Normality gives and . Together with the identity element this proves the subgroup test. For finite subgroups, : the pairs representing one product differ exactly by multiplying the first factor by an element of and its second factor by its inverse.
Pro-p completion 2026-10-14
The inverse limit of the quotients of an abstract group by its normal subgroups of finite -power index. Maps to pro-p groups factor uniquely through the canonical dense image in this completion. Unlike profinite completion, only finite p-groups are used.
Prüfer rank bound for extensions 2026-10-14
For a normal subgroup with Prüfer rank and quotient of rank , let . Choose at most elements generating the image of . Write with . The finitely generated subgroup needs at most generators, so needs at most . The full intersection need not be finitely generated.
Quaternion group modulo its centre 2026-10-18
In the quaternion group, commutes with each generator because any element commutes with its powers. Hence is central and is a normal subgroup. The reverse products satisfy , , , so none of is central. Therefore .
The four cosets are . Each nonidentity coset squares to , and . Thus the quotient group is the Klein four-group. Explicitly, mapping to its identity and mapping to its three different nonidentity elements is a surjective group homomorphism with group kernel . The first isomorphism theorem gives the title result.
Quotient group Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For a group and a normal subgroup , the quotient group is the set of cosets , with operationIts identity element is the coset , and the inverse element of is . A quotient group treats all elements within one coset as the same input while retaining a consistent operation on the classes. The normal subgroup condition is what makes this operation independent of which representatives are chosen. [ref]
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-703-modern-algebra-spring-2013/ecdbd211f736b3ac92379dea05b34491_MIT18_703S13_pra_l_9.pdf. McKernan, MIT 18.703, Theorem 9.1: quotient-group construction
.Take the additive group and . Since is an abelian group, is a normal subgroup. There are three elements in the quotient group:Adding two copies of gives ; adding and gives . Hence the quotient group has the addition table of . It does not select one representative and discard the others: its elements are the entire cosets.
Identifying residues differing by three turns a six-element cyclic group into a three-element quotient group
. Details. This is useful whenever distinctions within a normal subgroup should be ignored. For example, the sign of a permutation retains only even or odd parity of a permutation in . Its group kernel is the alternating group , and the quotient group has two elements. The first isomorphism theorem explains why a group homomorphism's image is a quotient group of its domain.
Quotient map of groups Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-31
The quotient map of groups sends each group element to its coset modulo a normal subgroup. It is a surjective group homomorphism, with group kernel exactly . In the additive six-element example, it sends to , to , and to . The quotient map of groups records the identification that produces the new group.
Rank of a profinite group 2026-10-14
The rank of a profinite group is , where runs through closed subgroups and is the least number of topological generators. If an open subgroup has rank , its normal core is open and has rank at most . Every closed has a normal subgroup generated by at most elements, while has order at most . A finite group of order at most is generated by at most elements, since each necessary new generator at least doubles the generated subgroup. Lifting generators yields . Thus finite rank is preserved in both directions under passage to an open subgroup.
Regular group action 2026-10-14
A transitive group action is regular if every point stabilizer is trivial. Equivalently each ordered pair of points is connected by exactly one group element. Identifying one point with the identity identifies the action with left multiplication on the group. A regular normal subgroup inside a larger primitive group can supply translations or nonabelian left multiplication; the whole primitive group usually has a nontrivial stabilizer acting by automorphisms of this regular subgroup.
Right conjugation reverses composition 2026-10-31
For a normal subgroup of , each is a group automorphism of . Its inverse is , but the dependence on is a group antihomomorphism under ordinary function composition, because . The assignment instead is a group homomorphism to the automorphism group. Equivalently the first convention is a right group action, while the second is a left group action.

