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Concept
Subgroup
Summary
In group theory, a branch of mathematics, given a group G under a binary operation ∗, a subset H of G is called a subgroup of G if H also forms a group under the operation ∗. More precisely, H is a subgroup of G if the restriction of ∗ to H × H is a group operation on H. This is often denoted H ≤ G, read as "H is a subgroup of G".
The trivial subgroup of any group is the subgroup {e} consisting of just the identity element.
A proper subgroup of a group G is a subgroup H which is a proper subset of G (that is, H ≠ G). This is often represented notationally by H < G, read as "H is a proper subgroup of G". Some authors also exclude the trivial group from being proper (that is, H ≠ {e}).
If H is a subgroup of G, then G is sometimes called an overgroup of H.
The same definitions apply more generally when G is an arbitrary semigroup, but this article will only deal with subgroups of groups.
Suppose that G is a group, and H is a subset of G. For now, assume that the group operation of G is written multiplicatively, denoted by juxtaposition.
Then H is a subgroup of G if and only if H is nonempty and closed under products and inverses. Closed under products means that for every a and b in H, the product ab is in H. Closed under inverses means that for every a in H, the inverse a−1 is in H. These two conditions can be combined into one, that for every a and b in H, the element ab−1 is in H, but it is more natural and usually just as easy to test the two closure conditions separately.
When H is finite, the test can be simplified: H is a subgroup if and only if it is nonempty and closed under products. These conditions alone imply that every element a of H generates a finite cyclic subgroup of H, say of order n, and then the inverse of a is an−1.
If the group operation is instead denoted by addition, then closed under products should be replaced by closed under addition, which is the condition that for every a and b in H, the sum a+b is in H, and closed under inverses should be edited to say that for every a in H, the inverse −a is in H.
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