Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2024 / Paper 2 / 10

A group homomorphism preserves multiplication:It automatically sends the identity element to the identity and sends inverse elements to inverses. A group isomorphism is a bijective group homomorphism. For finite groups this requires equal group orders, and, once those orders agree, either injectivity or surjectivity of the group homomorphism is sufficient. Equal orders alone do not suffice.

Here $a^2=-I$, $a^3=-a$ and $a^4=I$, so $K$ is a cyclic group of order four. Its multiplication table isWrite the specified image of $a$ as $A$. Direct matrix multiplication givesA group representation is a group homomorphism to a general linear group, so the images of all powers of $a$ are forced:All four images are invertible. Defining $\Phi (a^j)=A^j$ is well-defined modulo four because $A^4=I_2$, and $A^{j+\ell }=A^j{A}^{\ell }$ verifies every product in the table. These observations prove both existence and uniqueness of this representation with the prescribed image.

Distinguish the quaternion group generators $\mathbf{i},\mathbf{j},\mathbf{k}$ from the complex scalar $i$. Denote their proposed image matrices byDirect multiplication givesFor example $AB=\mathrm{diag}(i,-i)=C$ and $ABC=C^2=-I_2$. Sending $I$ to $I_2$ and each negative quaternion element to the negative of its positive image now reproduces every quaternion product. The matrices all have determinant one and are invertible, so this is a group representation in $GL(2,\mathbb{C})$.

The eight matrices $\pm I_2,\pm A,\pm B,\pm C$ are distinct. Therefore the group homomorphism is injective, and the representation is faithful; equivalently its kernel is $\{I\}$.

The character of a representation is the trace of its representing matrix. ConsequentlyThese are constant on the five conjugacy classes $\{I\}$, $\{-I\}$, $\{\pm \mathbf{i}\}$, $\{\pm \mathbf{j}\}$, $\{\pm \mathbf{k}\}$.

The complete list of subgroups isTo see completeness, Lagrange's theorem allows only orders $1,2,4,8$. The only element of order two is $-I$, which fixes the order-two subgroup. Every noncentral element has order four and generates the corresponding listed cyclic subgroup. Any order-four subgroup contains such an element, because there are only two central elements; it must equal the cyclic subgroup generated by that element. This accounts for all possibilities.