In mathematics, especially in the area of algebra studying the theory of abelian groups, an essential subgroup is a subgroup that determines much of the structure of its containing group. The concept was generalized to essential submodules.
A subgroup of a (typically abelian) group is said to be essential if whenever H is a non-trivial subgroup of G, the intersection of S and H is non-trivial: here "non-trivial" means "containing an element other than the identity".
In mathematics, an abelian group, also called a commutative group, is a group in which the result of applying the group operation to two group elements does not depend on the order in which they are written. That is, the group operation is commutative. With addition as an operation, the integers and the real numbers form abelian groups, and the concept of an abelian group may be viewed as a generalization of these examples. Abelian groups are named after early 19th century mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
In abstract algebra, the center of a group, G, is the set of elements that commute with every element of G. It is denoted Z(G), from German Zentrum, meaning center. In set-builder notation,
In mathematics, more specifically in abstract algebra, the commutator subgroup or derived subgroup of a group is the subgroup generated by all the commutators of the group.
In mathematics, specifically group theory, given a prime number p, a p-group is a group in which the order of every element is a power of p. That is, for each element g of a p-group G, there exists a nonnegative integer n such that the product of pn copies of g, and not fewer, is equal to the identity element. The orders of different elements may be different powers of p.
In mathematics, a simple group is a nontrivial group whose only normal subgroups are the trivial group and the group itself. A group that is not simple can be broken into two smaller groups, namely a nontrivial normal subgroup and the corresponding quotient group. This process can be repeated, and for finite groups one eventually arrives at uniquely determined simple groups, by the Jordan–Hölder theorem.
In mathematics, specifically in group theory, the concept of a semidirect product is a generalization of a direct product. There are two closely related concepts of semidirect product:
In mathematics, more specifically in the field of group theory, a solvable group or soluble group is a group that can be constructed from abelian groups using extensions. Equivalently, a solvable group is a group whose derived series terminates in the trivial subgroup.
In mathematics, specifically group theory, a nilpotent groupG is a group that has an upper central series that terminates with G. Equivalently, its central series is of finite length or its lower central series terminates with {1}.
In mathematics, specifically group theory, the index of a subgroup H in a group G is the number of left cosets of H in G, or equivalently, the number of right cosets of H in G. The index is denoted or or . Because G is the disjoint union of the left cosets and because each left coset has the same size as H, the index is related to the orders of the two groups by the formula
In mathematics, a free abelian group is an abelian group with a basis. Being an abelian group means that it is a set with an addition operation that is associative, commutative, and invertible. A basis, also called an integral basis, is a subset such that every element of the group can be uniquely expressed as an integer combination of finitely many basis elements. For instance the two-dimensional integer lattice forms a free abelian group, with coordinatewise addition as its operation, and with the two points (1,0) and (0,1) as its basis. Free abelian groups have properties which make them similar to vector spaces, and may equivalently be called free-modules, the free modules over the integers. Lattice theory studies free abelian subgroups of real vector spaces. In algebraic topology, free abelian groups are used to define chain groups, and in algebraic geometry they are used to define divisors.
In mathematics, especially in the field of group theory, a divisible group is an abelian group in which every element can, in some sense, be divided by positive integers, or more accurately, every element is an nth multiple for each positive integer n. Divisible groups are important in understanding the structure of abelian groups, especially because they are the injective abelian groups.
In mathematics, particularly in group theory, the Frattini subgroup of a group G is the intersection of all maximal subgroups of G. For the case that G has no maximal subgroups, for example the trivial group {e} or a Prüfer group, it is defined by . It is analogous to the Jacobson radical in the theory of rings, and intuitively can be thought of as the subgroup of "small elements". It is named after Giovanni Frattini, who defined the concept in a paper published in 1885.
In mathematics, more specifically in group theory, a group is said to be perfect if it equals its own commutator subgroup, or equivalently, if the group has no non-trivial abelian quotients. In symbols, a perfect group is one such that G(1) = G, or equivalently one such that Gab = {1}.
In mathematics, a Frobenius group is a transitive permutation group on a finite set, such that no non-trivial element fixes more than one point and some non-trivial element fixes a point. They are named after F. G. Frobenius.
In mathematics, specifically group theory, Cauchy's theorem states that if G is a finite group and p is a prime number dividing the order of G, then G contains an element of order p. That is, there is x in G such that p is the smallest positive integer with xp = e, where e is the identity element of G. It is named after Augustin-Louis Cauchy, who discovered it in 1845.
In mathematics, the term socle has several related meanings.
The Schur–Zassenhaus theorem is a theorem in group theory which states that if is a finite group, and is a normal subgroup whose order is coprime to the order of the quotient group , then is a semidirect product of and . An alternative statement of the theorem is that any normal Hall subgroup of a finite group has a complement in . Moreover if either or is solvable then the Schur–Zassenhaus theorem also states that all complements of in are conjugate. The assumption that either or is solvable can be dropped as it is always satisfied, but all known proofs of this require the use of the much harder Feit–Thompson theorem.
In mathematics, specifically in abstract algebra, a torsion-free abelian group is an abelian group which has no non-trivial torsion elements; that is, a group in which the group operation is commutative and the identity element is the only element with finite order.
In the mathematical subject of group theory, the rank of a groupG, denoted rank(G), can refer to the smallest cardinality of a generating set for G, that is
In mathematics, the Krull–Schmidt theorem states that a group subjected to certain finiteness conditions on chains of subgroups, can be uniquely written as a finite direct product of indecomposable subgroups.