Section 4

SUBGROUPS
 “We shall always use the
multiplicative notation here the
notation may or may not be
commutative.”
Algebraist as a rule do not use special symbol
* to denote a binary operation different from
the usual addition and multiplication. They
stick with the conventional additive and
multiplicative notation and even call the
operation addition or multiplication is
denoted by juxtaposition without a dot, if no
confusion results. Thus in place of the
notation , we shall be using either
to be read “the sum of and “ or to be
read by “the product of and “.
There is a sort of unwritten agreement that
the symbol + should only be used to designate
commutative operations. Algebraist feel very
comfortable when they see .
For this reason, we shall always use the
multiplicative notation where the operation
may or may not be commutative.
Algebraist frequently use the symbol 0 to
denote an additive identity element and the
symbol 1 to denote a multiplicative element,
even though they may not be actually
denoting the integer 0 and 1. Of course, if
they are also talking about numbers at the
same time, to avoid confusion, symbols such
as and are used as identity elements.
 1 a b

1 1 a b

a a b 1

b b 1 a
It is customary to denote the inverse of an
element in a group in multiplicative
notation by in additive notation.

Let be a positive integer. If is an element

of a group , written multiplicatively, we
denote the product for factors by
. We let be the identity element , and
denote the product for
factors by .
It is easy to see that the usual law of exponent hold:
for

In additive notation, we denote

for summands by . We denote

for summands by , and let be the identity

element. Be careful: In the notion , the number
, is in , not in .
Question:
Why is it sometimes preferable to use
multiplicative notation even when the group
is abelian?
 ORDER OF A GROUP
Definition:
- If is a group, then the order of ,
denoted by , is the number of elements in
 SUBSET AND SUBGROUPS
Definition:
- If a subset of a group is closed under
the binary operation and if with the
induced operation from is itself a group,
then is a subgroup of . We shall let
or denote that is a
subgroup of .
Example
is a subgroup of .
Example
is not a subgroup of .
 PROPER, IMPROPER, TRIVIAL AND
NONTRIVIAL SUBGROUP
Definition
- If is a group, then the subgroup
consisting of itself is the improper subgroup
of . All other subgroups are proper
subgroups. We shall let or
denote that is a proper subgroup
of . The subgroup is the trivial subgroup
of . All other groups are nontrivial.
Example
Let be the additive group of all -
component row vectors with real number
entries. The subset consisting of all these
vectors having 0 as entry in the first
component is a subgroup of .
Example
Is under multiplication a subgroup of
under multiplication?
Example
There are two different types of group
structures of order 4. We describe them by
their group tables. The group V is the Klein 4-
group, and the notation comes from the
German word “Vier” for four. The group , is
isomorphic to the group of
fourth roots of unity under multiplication.
:

+ 0 1 2 3
0 0 1 2 3
1 1 2 3 0
2 2 3 0 1
3 3 0 1 2
V:

e a b c
e e a b c
a a e c b
b b c e a
c c b a e
Example
What is the only nontrivial proper subgroup of
?
Example
The nontrivial proper subgroups of V are
and .

Verify.
Example
Draw a subgroup diagram for . Do the
same for V.
Theorem
A subset of a group if and only if
1. Is closed under the binary operation .
2. The identity element ℯ of is in .
3. For all it is true that also.
Proof:
Example
Let be the group of all real-valued function
with domain ℝ under addition. The subset of
consisting of those functions that are
differentiable is a subgroup of .