Training Camp for IMC Abstract Algebra

20 May 2013 Group Theory

Some basic groups that might be useful: Symmetric Groups (Sn ) : The group whose all elements are the bijctive function from {1, 2, . . . , n} to {1, 2, . . . , n}. This group has order n!. Some useful facts: All elements of Sn can be written in the concatenation of the cyclic form ( a1 a2 . . . am ), which means that a1 is being mapped to a2 , a2 is being mapped to a3 , . . . , and am is being mapped to a1 . ( a1 a2 . . . am )1 = ( ( a1 )( a2 ) . . . ( am )) with an arbitrary element of Sn . Alternating group ( An ): The group of even permutations of a nite ! set of order n. This group is a normal subgroup of Sn with order n 2. Dihedral group ( D2n ) : The group of symmetries of a regular polygon of n vertices, generated by rotations and reections. This group has order 2n and is a subgroup of Sn . It is important to understand the general structure of those groups, i.e. the generators of the groups, the group actions on a certain set etc. Exercise 1 Prove that (1 2) and (1 2 . . . n) generates Sn . 1

Some theorems that might be useful: Let G be a nite group and H be a subgroup of G. Then the order of H divides the order of G. Orbit-Stabilizer Theorem : Let G be a group that acts on nite set X . Let Ox be the orbit of x X and Gx be the stabilizer of x by G. Then the following formula holds:

|Ox | . | Gx | = | G |
Orbit-Counting Theorem : Let G be a nite group that acts on a set X . For each g in G let X g denote the set of elements of X xed by G. Let | XG | denote the number of orbits, then the following formula holds: 1 | XG | = | X G |. | G | g G Sylow Theorem (short version) : Let G be a nite group with p a prime number and n a natural number such that pn | | G |. Then there is a subgroup P of G with | P| = pn . Exercise 2 Let G be a group of order 49 acting on set X = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}. Prove that the group action is either trivial ( g.x = x for all g in G and for all x in X ) or transitive ( G.y = X for some y in X ).

Ring Theory
One important and subtle property that is often missed is the commutative property of the inverse of a matrix. Let A and B be two square matrices of the same size. Then the following holds: AB = I BA = I . Exercise 3 Suppose that A and B are square matrices of the same size such that A + B + AB = 0. Prove that AB = BA.

This property also holds for nite ring with identity, Let R be a nite ring with identity and let a, b R, then the following holds: ab = 1 ba = 1. Note that this property does not hold for general ring. Exercise 4 Give an example of a ring R with identity, with two elements a and b in the ring R such that ab = 1 but ba = 1.

Polynomial Ring
It often happens that we are asked to deal with irreducibility of polynomial over rings of integers . In that case, this theorem may help: Gausss Lemma If P is an irreducible polymial with integer coefcients over the rings of integers, then P is an irreducible polynomial over the rings of rationals. Some types of questions may deal with integer-valued polynomials (i.e. the polynomial that takes integer values for integer input). In those kind of situations, the binomial polynomial will be useful. The binomial polynomial ( x k ) with x as a variable and k a non-negative integer is dened as follows: x k

x ( x 1)( x 2) . . . ( x k + 1) k!

Some interesting properties of binomial polynomial: (x k ) is an integer-valued polynomial with degree k. (x k ) takes the value of 1 when x = k and 0 when x = 0, 1, 2, . . . , k 1. A polynomial P is an integer-valued polynomial of degree k if and x k only if P is of the form i =0 ai ( i ) with ai is in N for i = 0, 1, . . . , k. Exercise 5 Let P be a polynomial of degree n such that P( x ) in an integer for x = 0, 1, . . . , n. Prove that P is an integer-valued polynomial.

Number Theory
Some important theorems that might be useful: Eulers Theorem Let n be a positive integer and p1 , . . . , pm be the prime factors of n. Dene Eulers Totient function (n) as m 1 n i =1 (1 pi ). Then for an arbitrary positive integer a = 0, the following holds: a(n) 1 mod n Wilsons Theorem Let p be a prime number, Then ( p 1)! 1 mod p. Exercise 6 Prove that for all prime p with p 1 mod 4, there is a natural number x such that x2 + 1 is divisible by p. Chinese Remainder Theorem Let m1 , m2 , . . . mk be pairwise coprime positive integers greater than 1. Then for any integers a1 , a2 , . . . ak , the system of congruences x a1 mod m1 , x a2 mod m2 , . . . , x ak mod mk

has solutions, and any two such solutions are congruent modulo m1 m2 . . . m k . Stirling Formula lim
n

n! 2 n
n n e

=1.

Bertrands Postulate For any integer n > 3, there always exists at least one prime number p with n < p < 2n. Exercise 7 Prove that all integers n > 6 can be written as distinct sums of primes.

Exercise
Exercise 8 Prove that R is an innite-dimensional vector space over Q. Exercise 9 Let [ x ] denotes the biggest natural number the is smaller or equal to x. Let p, q be two coprime numbers, then the following holds: p 2p ( q 1) p ( p 1)(q 1) + +...+ = . q q q 2 Exercise 10 Let a, b be two integers and suppose that n is a positive integer for which the set Z \ { ax n + byn | x, y Z} is nite. Prove that n = 1. Exercise 11 Denote by Sn the group of permutations of the sequence (1, 2, . . . , n). Suppose that G is a subgroup of Sn , such that for every G \ {e} there exists a unique k {1, 2, . . . , n} for which (k) = k. (Here e is the unit element in the group Sn .) Show that this k is the same for all G \ {e}. Exercise 12 Given an integer n > 1, let Sn be the group of permutations of the numbers 1, 2, . . . , n. Two players, A and B, play the following game. Taking turns, they select elements (one element at a time) from the group Sn . It is forbidden to select an element that has already been selected. The game ends when the selected elements generate the whole group Sn . The player who made the last move loses the game. The rst move is made by A. Which player has a winning strategy? Exercise 13 Let A, B and C be real square matrices of the same size, and suppose that A is invertible. Prove that if ( A B)C = BA1 , then C ( A B ) = A 1 B .

Exercise 14 Let x and y be elements in a ring with identity. Prove that if 1 xy is invertible, then so is 1 yx. Exercise 15 Let p be a prime number and F p be the eld of residues modulo p. Let W be the smallest set of polynomials with coefcients in F p such that The polynomials x + 1 and x p2 + x p3 + + x2 + 2x + 1 are in W , and for any polynomials h1 ( x ) and h2 ( x ) in W the polynomial r ( x ), which is the remainder of h1 (h2 ( x )) modulo x p x, is also in W . How many polynomials are there in W ? Exercise 16 Let f ( x ) be a polynomial with real coefcients of degree n. f (k) f (m) Suppose that km is an integer for all integers 0 = k < m = n. Prove that a b divides f ( a) f (b) for all pairs of distinct integers a and b.