Past exam of the short options course of the University of Oxford / 2023 / 2 / c

After the reduction in part (b), multiply by $S$. The new bottom-left entry is $r$, whose absolute value is strictly smaller than the previous $|c|$:Repeated Euclidean division must terminate because the nonnegative integers $|c|$ decrease strictly until zero. Thus a word $W$ in $S,T$ and their inverses gives a matrix with bottom-left entry zero. Its determinant is one, so the diagonal entries are equal and are either both $1$ or both $-1$:Since $S^2=-I$, this final matrix belongs to $⟨S,T⟩$. So does $W^{-1}$, proving

The identity $T=S^{-1}(ST)$ shows that $S,ST$ generate the same group. Direct multiplication givesConsequently their images $\bar{S},\overline{ST}$ in the quotient group $PSL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ satisfy ${\bar{S}}^2=1$ and ${\overline{ST}}^3=1$. The universal property of a group presentation gives a group homomorphism taking $u\mapsto \bar{S}$, $v\mapsto \overline{ST}$ from the stated presentation. It is surjective because these images generate the target. Injectivity is not needed here.