Groups: Example Sheet 2 of 4: S.J.Wadsley@dpmms - Cam.ac - Uk - 1 - October 2017
Groups: Example Sheet 2 of 4: S.J.Wadsley@dpmms - Cam.ac - Uk - 1 - October 2017
Groups: Example Sheet 2 of 4: S.J.Wadsley@dpmms - Cam.ac - Uk - 1 - October 2017
1. Show that if a group G contains an element of order six, and an element of order ten,
then G has order at least 30.
2. Show that the set {1, 3, 5, 7} forms a group under multiplication modulo 8. Is it isomor-
phic to C2 × C2 or C4 .
3. How many subgroups does the quaternion group Q8 have? What about the dihedral
group D8 ?
4. Let H be a subgroup of a group G. Show that there is a (natural) bijection between the
set of left cosets of H in G and the set of right cosets of H in G.
5. What is the order of the Möbius map f (z) = iz? What are its fixed points? If h is
another Möbius map what can you say about the order and the fixed points of hf h−1 ?
Construct a Möbius map of order 4 that fixes 1 and −1.
6. Show that R × R2 → R2 ; (t, (x, y)) 7→ (et x, e−t y) defines an action of (R, +) on R2 .
What are the orbits and stabilisers of this action? There is a differential equation that
is satisfied by each of the orbits. What is it?
7. Suppose that G acts on X and that y = g · x for some x, y ∈ X and g ∈ G. Show that
StabG (y) = gStabG (x)g −1 .
8. Suppose that Q is a quadrilateral in R2 . Show that its group of symmetries G(Q) has
order at most 8. For which n is there a G(Q) of order n? *Which groups can arise as a
G(Q) (up to isomorphism)?
9. Let G be a finite group and let X be the set of all its subgroups. Show that (g, H) 7→
gHg −1 defines an action of G on X. Show that for H ∈ X, |OrbG (H)| ≤ |G/H|. Deduce
that if H 6= G then G is not the union of all conjugates of H.
10. Show that D2n has one conjugacy class of reflections if n is odd and two conjugacy
classes of reflections if n is even.
11. Let G be the group of all symmetries of a cube. Show that G acts on the 4 lines
joining diagonally opposite pairs of vertices. Show that if l is one of these lines then
StabG (l) ∼
= D6 × C2 .
12. Show that every group of order 10 is cyclic or dihedral. Suppose that p is any odd prime.
*Can you extend your proof to groups of order 2p?
13. Let G be a finite abelian group acting faithfully on a set X. Show that if the action is
transitive then |G| = |X|.
14. Let p be a prime. By considering the conjugation action show that every group of order
p2 is abelian. Deduce that there are precisely two groups of order p2 up to isomorphism.