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Group Theory

Symmetry made algebraic -- groups, subgroups, and the homomorphisms between them, built from first principles up through the classification of finite groups and the Sylow theorems.

Free to read now, no account needed: Readiness: the discrete math this course leans on. Create a free account to open the other chapters, take the quizzes and keep your progress.

1 Foundations and the idea of a group πŸ”’

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  • What is abstract algebra? ~12 min
  • Symmetry as motivation ~14 min
  • Binary operations and closure ~14 min
  • Associativity ~12 min
  • Identity and inverses ~14 min
  • Cayley tables ~12 min
  • The group axioms ~12 min
  • Groups and non-groups ~14 min
  • A first gallery of groups ~15 min

2 Basic group concepts πŸ”’

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  • Abelian vs. non-abelian groups ~12 min
  • Finite and infinite groups; order of a group ~12 min
  • Order of an element ~14 min
  • Powers and integer exponents of an element ~13 min
  • Cyclic groups ~13 min
  • Generators of a cyclic group ~12 min
  • Subgroups: definition and first examples ~14 min
  • The trivial subgroup and generated subgroups ~13 min

3 Modular arithmetic and cyclic groups πŸ”’

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  • Congruence modulo n, revisited as group structure ~14 min
  • The group Z_n under addition ~13 min
  • Units modulo n and the group U(n) ~14 min
  • The greatest common divisor and group structure ~16 min
  • Euler's phi function ~13 min
  • Generators of Z_n ~12 min
  • Order of elements in Z_n and U(n) ~13 min
  • Classifying finite cyclic groups ~14 min
  • A first look at modular exponentiation ~15 min

4 Permutation groups πŸ”’

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  • Permutations as bijections and two-line notation ~16 min
  • The symmetric group Sβ‚™ ~15 min
  • Cycle notation ~16 min
  • Disjoint cycle decomposition ~17 min
  • Composing permutations ~17 min
  • Inverse permutations ~15 min
  • Transpositions and generating Sβ‚™ ~18 min
  • Parity -- even and odd permutations ~18 min
  • The alternating group Aβ‚™ ~17 min

5 Dihedral and symmetry groups πŸ”’

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  • Symmetries of geometric objects, revisited ~14 min
  • The dihedral group Dβ‚™ ~15 min
  • Rotations and reflections as generators ~16 min
  • Composing symmetries and non-abelian behavior ~16 min
  • A presentation of Dβ‚™ ~17 min
  • Cayley tables for Dβ‚™ ~16 min
  • Symmetry groups of regular polygons ~15 min
  • Dβ‚™ as a subgroup of Sβ‚™ ~17 min

6 Subgroups πŸ”’

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  • The subgroup test ~15 min
  • The finite subgroup test ~14 min
  • Cyclic subgroups, revisited ~15 min
  • Subgroups generated by a subset ~15 min
  • Intersections of subgroups ~14 min
  • Products of subgroups ~16 min
  • Subgroups of cyclic groups ~15 min
  • The subgroup lattice ~15 min

7 Cosets and Lagrange's theorem πŸ”’

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  • Left and right cosets ~16 min
  • Coset representatives and the coset partition ~15 min
  • The index of a subgroup ~13 min
  • Lagrange's theorem ~15 min
  • Consequences: element order divides group order ~12 min
  • Groups of prime order are cyclic ~12 min
  • Possible orders of elements and subgroups ~12 min
  • Euler's theorem and Fermat's little theorem ~18 min

8 Normal subgroups πŸ”’

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  • When left and right cosets agree ~16 min
  • Conjugation ~16 min
  • The definition of a normal subgroup ~18 min
  • Normality tests ~17 min
  • The center of a group ~17 min
  • The normalizer of a subgroup ~17 min
  • Normal subgroups: examples and counterexamples ~18 min

9 Quotient groups πŸ”’

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  • Motivation: collapsing cosets into elements ~15 min
  • Why normality makes the operation well-defined ~18 min
  • The quotient group G/N ~18 min
  • Quotient groups of cyclic groups ~16 min
  • Quotient groups of permutation groups ~17 min
  • A first look at the First Isomorphism Theorem ~16 min
  • The quotient construction as a recurring pattern ~14 min

10 Homomorphisms and the isomorphism theorems πŸ”’

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  • Group homomorphisms: definition and examples ~18 min
  • The kernel of a homomorphism ~20 min
  • The image of a homomorphism ~18 min
  • Injective and surjective homomorphisms ~20 min
  • Isomorphisms ~20 min
  • Automorphisms ~18 min
  • The First Isomorphism Theorem ~24 min
  • The Second Isomorphism Theorem ~22 min
  • The Third Isomorphism Theorem ~20 min
  • The Correspondence Theorem ~22 min

11 Direct products and group constructions πŸ”’

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  • The external direct product ~16 min
  • Orders of elements in a direct product ~15 min
  • When is a direct product cyclic? ~16 min
  • Internal direct products ~17 min
  • Recognizing an internal direct product ~15 min
  • The classification of finite abelian groups ~18 min
  • Applying the classification theorem ~16 min
  • A first look at semidirect products ~17 min

12 Group actions πŸ”’

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  • Groups that move things ~13 min
  • The definition of a group action ~15 min
  • Orbits ~15 min
  • Stabilizers ~15 min
  • The orbit-stabilizer theorem ~17 min
  • Transitive and faithful actions ~15 min
  • The conjugation action and conjugacy classes ~16 min
  • Cayley's theorem revisited ~16 min

13 Counting with group actions πŸ”’

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  • Fixed points of a group element ~14 min
  • Burnside's lemma ~18 min
  • Counting distinct colorings ~15 min
  • Necklace and bracelet problems ~16 min
  • A first look at PΓ³lya enumeration ~15 min
  • Symmetry and combinatorial counting ~15 min
  • Choosing a group action to solve a counting problem ~16 min

14 Classification of finite groups πŸ”’

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  • Groups of prime order ~14 min
  • Groups of order pΒ² ~18 min
  • Groups of order pq ~17 min
  • Small-order classification as a worked recipe ~20 min
  • Finite abelian groups, revisited ~15 min
  • Simple groups: a first look ~16 min
  • Composition series ~18 min
  • The Jordan–HΓΆlder theorem ~16 min

15 Sylow theory πŸ”’

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  • p-groups ~16 min
  • Sylow p-subgroups: definition ~17 min
  • The First Sylow Theorem: existence ~20 min
  • The Second Sylow Theorem: conjugacy ~19 min
  • The Third Sylow Theorem: counting ~20 min
  • Using Sylow's theorems to classify groups ~21 min
  • Normal Sylow subgroups ~18 min

16 Advanced group theory: presentations and structure πŸ”’

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  • Generators and relations ~18 min
  • Free groups ~16 min
  • Finitely generated and finitely presented groups ~17 min
  • Group presentations revisited ~19 min
  • The commutator and the commutator subgroup ~18 min
  • Abelianization ~17 min
  • Solvable groups ~19 min
  • Nilpotent groups ~17 min
  • Inner and outer automorphisms ~18 min
  • Characteristic subgroups ~16 min
  • Group extensions and the Schur–Zassenhaus theorem ~17 min

17 Cayley graphs πŸ”’

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  • What a Cayley graph is ~18 min
  • Generating sets and Cayley graphs ~18 min
  • Directed versus undirected Cayley graphs ~18 min
  • Reading group structure from a graph ~20 min
  • Group theory and graph theory: connections ~20 min

18 Applications of group theory πŸ”’

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  • Cryptography: RSA, completed ~22 min
  • Algebraic coding theory ~22 min
  • Symmetry in geometry: frieze and wallpaper groups ~16 min
  • Molecular symmetry and crystallography ~16 min
  • The Rubik's Cube as a group ~14 min
  • Group theory in physics: symmetry and conservation laws ~14 min
  • Group theory in computer science and coding ~14 min

19 Capstone: the group investigation πŸ”’

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  • Synthesizing group identification ~16 min
  • Synthesizing subgroup and coset computation ~18 min
  • Synthesizing homomorphisms and isomorphisms ~20 min
  • Synthesizing group actions and counting ~18 min
  • Synthesizing classification and Sylow ~20 min
  • The group investigation: a guided case study ~20 min