Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2015 / Paper 2 / 8 / c

Perform the product and inverse formulas from part (b) in the commutative ring $\mathbb{Z}/4\mathbb{Z}$. They involve only addition, multiplication and negatives, so closure and inverses remain valid; no division by a nonunit is needed. Associativity again comes from matrix multiplication, and $A(0,0,0)$ remains the identity. The Heisenberg group over a commutative ring therefore hasThese are residues modulo four, not arithmetic in the finite field of four elements.

For the additional subgroup task, write an element of $H$ as $A(t,y,t)$. Its product and inverse areBoth remain in $H$, and the product is unchanged on exchanging the factors because $ts=st$. The identity is included, so $H$ is an Abelian subgroup. There are four independent choices each for $t,y$, givingThus there are four distinct left cosets. Explicitly the surjective group homomorphism $A(x,y,z)\mapsto x-z(\mathrm{mod}4)$ has kernel $H$; the four cosets are the level sets of that difference, with representatives $A(d,0,0)$, $d=0,1,2,3$. This is the Abelian plane subgroup of the Heisenberg group modulo four.