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Mid-Year Examinations 2015: MATH240-15S1 Analysis and Groups

This document contains instructions for a two hour exam on analysis and groups consisting of five questions spread over four pages. Students are allowed one side of an A4 sheet of handwritten notes and calculators are not permitted. The exam covers topics on cyclic groups, subgroups, group isomorphisms, cosets, and applications of Lagrange's theorem.

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Jas Ke
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106 views4 pages

Mid-Year Examinations 2015: MATH240-15S1 Analysis and Groups

This document contains instructions for a two hour exam on analysis and groups consisting of five questions spread over four pages. Students are allowed one side of an A4 sheet of handwritten notes and calculators are not permitted. The exam covers topics on cyclic groups, subgroups, group isomorphisms, cosets, and applications of Lagrange's theorem.

Uploaded by

Jas Ke
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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University of Canterbury

Mid-Year Examinations 2015

Prescription Number(s): MATH240-15S1

Paper Title: Analysis and Groups

Time allowed: TWO HOURS

Number of Pages: FOUR

Read these instructions carefully.

• Calculators, books, or printed notes are NOT permitted (handwritten notes on one
side of an A4 page is permitted).

• There are five questions. Answer any FOUR questions.

• All questions are of equal marks.


2 MATH240-15S1
3 MATH240-15S1

1. (a) Let G be a cyclic group order 20, generated by x (i.e. G =< x >).
(i) How many elements of G are generators of this group?
(ii) What is the order of the element x6 in this group?
(iii) How many subgroups does G have?
(iv) Are all of these subgroups cyclic?
(b) Consider the group U (12) (the positive integers less than 12 that are relatively
prime to 12, under the group operation of multiplication modulo 12).
(i) List the elements of this group.
(ii) What is the order of each element?
(iii) Is this group cyclic? Is it Abelian? Justify your answer.
(c) For a group G, the centralizer of an element a ∈ G is the subset

Ca = {g ∈ G : ga = ag}.

Prove that Ca is a subgroup of G.

2. (a) Consider the group D4 of all (rotational and reflectional) symmetries of a


square.
(i) Describe a pair of reflections that generates D4 .
(ii) When does a pair of reflections x, y commute? Describe the subgroup of
D4 that x and y generate.
(iii) Describe all the subgroups of D4 and draw its subgroup lattice.
(b) Suppose that G is an Abelian group.
(i) If x ∈ G has order p and y ∈ G has order q, where p and q are relatively
prime integers greater than 1, show that xy has order pq.
(ii) By using part (i) explain why if G has subgroups of order 2 and order 3,
then G must have a subgroup of order 6.

TURNOVER
4 MATH240-15S1

3. Consider the following three cycles a = (123), b = (45), c = (67), as elements of the
symmetric group S7 .

(a) List the elements of the subgroup H =< a > of S7 generated by a.


(b) Do the elements a, b, c commute? Briefly justify your answer.
(c) Let H be the smallest subgroup of S7 that contains a, b, c. List the 12 elements
of H (e.g. a2 b etc).
(d) Is H Abelian? Briefly justify your answer.
(e) Is H a subgroup of A7 (the alternating group)? Briefly justify your answer.
(f) Show that for every two elements α ∈ S7 , and β ∈ A7 the permutation α−1 βα
is an even permutation.

4. For groups G and H, suppose that a function φ : G → H preserves the two group
operations (i.e. φ(gg 0 ) = φ(g)φ(g 0 ) for all g, g 0 ∈ G). Let N = {g ∈ G : φ(g) = 1H },
the set of elements of G that are mapped to the identity element of H by φ.

(a) Show that φ(1G ) = 1H and that N is a subgroup of G.


(b) Show that, for every x ∈ G and n ∈ N , we must have x−1 nx ∈ N .
(c) What additional condition on φ is required for it to be an isomorphism from
G to H?
(d) For the dihedral group Dn (n even), and R = R180 ∈ Dn (a rotation by 180
degrees) show that φ : Dn → Dn defined by φ(g) = R180 gR180 (for all g ∈ Dn ),
is an automorphism of Dn .

5. (a) Let H be a subgroup of a group G. Show that if two cosets aH and bH have
at least one element in common then aH = bH.
(b) Suppose that a group G of order 15 has a subgroup H whose order lies between
4 and 14. Using Lagrange’s theorem, how many cosets does H have in G? If
K is another subgroup of G, of order 3, what is order of the subgroup K ∩ H?
(c) Use Lagrange’s theorem to prove that any finite group G of order p3 has an
element of order p.
(d) State the Orbit-Stabilizer theorem, and explain why this implies that the group
G of rotational symmetries of a cube has order 24.

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