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Concept
Quaternion group
Summary
In group theory, the quaternion group Q8 (sometimes just denoted by Q) is a non-abelian group of order eight, isomorphic to the eight-element subset
of the quaternions under multiplication. It is given by the group presentation
where e is the identity element and commutes with the other elements of the group.
Another presentation of Q8 is
The quaternion group Q8 has the same order as the dihedral group D4, but a different structure, as shown by their Cayley and cycle graphs:
In the diagrams for D4, the group elements are marked with their action on a letter F in the defining representation R2. The same cannot be done for Q8, since it has no faithful representation in R2 or R3. D4 can be realized as a subset of the split-quaternions in the same way that Q8 can be viewed as a subset of the quaternions.
The Cayley table (multiplication table) for Q8 is given by:
The elements i, j, and k all have order four in Q8 and any two of them generate the entire group. Another presentation of Q8 based in only two elements to skip this redundancy is:
One may take, for instance, and .
The quaternion group has the unusual property of being Hamiltonian: Q8 is non-abelian, but every subgroup is normal. Every Hamiltonian group contains a copy of Q8.
The quaternion group Q8 and the dihedral group D4 are the two smallest examples of a nilpotent non-abelian group.
The center and the commutator subgroup of Q8 is the subgroup . The inner automorphism group of Q8 is given by the group modulo its center, i.e. the factor group which is isomorphic to the Klein four-group V. The full automorphism group of Q8 is isomorphic to S4, the symmetric group on four letters (see Matrix representations below), and the outer automorphism group of Q8 is thus S4/V, which is isomorphic to S3.
The quaternion group Q8 has five conjugacy classes, and so five irreducible representations over the complex numbers, with dimensions 1, 1, 1, 1, 2:
Trivial representation.
Sign representations with i, j, k-kernel: Q8 has three maximal normal subgroups: the cyclic subgroups generated by i, j, and k respectively.
Official source
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