Group actionIn mathematics, a group action on a space is a group homomorphism of a given group into the group of transformations of the space. Similarly, a group action on a mathematical structure is a group homomorphism of a group into the automorphism group of the structure. It is said that the group acts on the space or structure. If a group acts on a structure, it will usually also act on objects built from that structure. For example, the group of Euclidean isometries acts on Euclidean space and also on the figures drawn in it.
Subgroup seriesIn mathematics, specifically group theory, a subgroup series of a group is a chain of subgroups: where is the trivial subgroup. Subgroup series can simplify the study of a group to the study of simpler subgroups and their relations, and several subgroup series can be invariantly defined and are important invariants of groups. A subgroup series is used in the subgroup method. Subgroup series are a special example of the use of filtrations in abstract algebra.
Polycyclic groupIn mathematics, a polycyclic group is a solvable group that satisfies the maximal condition on subgroups (that is, every subgroup is finitely generated). Polycyclic groups are finitely presented, which makes them interesting from a computational point of view. Equivalently, a group G is polycyclic if and only if it admits a subnormal series with cyclic factors, that is a finite set of subgroups, let's say G0, ...
Quasidihedral groupIn mathematics, the quasi-dihedral groups, also called semi-dihedral groups, are certain non-abelian groups of order a power of 2. For every positive integer n greater than or equal to 4, there are exactly four isomorphism classes of non-abelian groups of order 2n which have a cyclic subgroup of index 2. Two are well known, the generalized quaternion group and the dihedral group. One of the remaining two groups is often considered particularly important, since it is an example of a 2-group of maximal nilpotency class.
Cyclic groupIn group theory, a branch of abstract algebra in pure mathematics, a cyclic group or monogenous group is a group, denoted Cn, that is generated by a single element. That is, it is a set of invertible elements with a single associative binary operation, and it contains an element g such that every other element of the group may be obtained by repeatedly applying the group operation to g or its inverse. Each element can be written as an integer power of g in multiplicative notation, or as an integer multiple of g in additive notation.
Classification of finite simple groupsIn mathematics, the classification of finite simple groups is a result of group theory stating that every finite simple group is either cyclic, or alternating, or it belongs to a broad infinite class called the groups of Lie type, or else it is one of twenty-six or twenty-seven exceptions, called sporadic. The proof consists of tens of thousands of pages in several hundred journal articles written by about 100 authors, published mostly between 1955 and 2004.
Frucht's theoremFrucht's theorem is a theorem in algebraic graph theory conjectured by Dénes Kőnig in 1936 and proved by Robert Frucht in 1939. It states that every finite group is the group of symmetries of a finite undirected graph. More strongly, for any finite group G there exist infinitely many non-isomorphic simple connected graphs such that the automorphism group of each of them is isomorphic to G. The main idea of the proof is to observe that the Cayley graph of G, with the addition of colors and orientations on its edges to distinguish the generators of G from each other, has the desired automorphism group.
Spectral sequenceIn homological algebra and algebraic topology, a spectral sequence is a means of computing homology groups by taking successive approximations. Spectral sequences are a generalization of exact sequences, and since their introduction by , they have become important computational tools, particularly in algebraic topology, algebraic geometry and homological algebra. Motivated by problems in algebraic topology, Jean Leray introduced the notion of a sheaf and found himself faced with the problem of computing sheaf cohomology.
Homotopy categoryIn mathematics, the homotopy category is a built from the category of topological spaces which in a sense identifies two spaces that have the same shape. The phrase is in fact used for two different (but related) categories, as discussed below. More generally, instead of starting with the category of topological spaces, one may start with any and define its associated homotopy category, with a construction introduced by Quillen in 1967. In this way, homotopy theory can be applied to many other categories in geometry and algebra.
Height (abelian group)In mathematics, the height of an element g of an abelian group A is an invariant that captures its divisibility properties: it is the largest natural number N such that the equation Nx = g has a solution x ∈ A, or the symbol ∞ if there is no such N. The p-height considers only divisibility properties by the powers of a fixed prime number p. The notion of height admits a refinement so that the p-height becomes an ordinal number.