I Can a group be isomorphic to one of its quotients?

WWGD
Science Advisor
Homework Helper
Messages
7,734
Reaction score
12,900
Of course it must be an infinite group, otherwise |G/N|=|G|/|N| and then {e} is the only ( and trivial) solution. I understand there is a result that for every quotient Q:=G/N there is a subgroup H that is isomorphic to Q. Is that the case?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
How about an infinite product ##\mathbb{Z}\times\mathbb{Z}\times...## and quotient out by the first factor?

WWGD said:
I understand there is a result that for every quotient Q:=G/N there is a subgroup H that is isomorphic to Q. Is that the case?
No, there is no subgroup of ##\mathbb{Z}## that is isomorphic to ##\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}.##
 
  • Like
Likes heff001, mathwonk, graphking and 2 others
Infrared said:
How about an infinite product ##\mathbb{Z}\times\mathbb{Z}\times...## and quotient out by the first factor?No, there is no subgroup of ##\mathbb{Z}## that is isomorphic to ##\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}.##
Thanks. Sorry, I believe the result I quoted (may)apply to infinite groups.
 
WWGD said:
Thanks. Sorry, I believe the result I quoted (may)apply to infinite groups.
No, even if the quotient is infinite, it is still false. There is no subgroup of ##\mathbb{Z}\times\mathbb{Z}## that is isomorphic to ##\left(\mathbb{Z}\times\mathbb{Z}\right)/\left(\{0\}\times 2\mathbb{Z}\right)\cong\mathbb{Z}\times\left(\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}\right).##
 
Re the lack of correspondence between subgroups and quotient groups, I though of another argument: just take a simple group. It will have non-trivial subgroups but no non-trivial quotient. Maybe simplest vase is ##S_5##, the permutation group on 5 elements . It has the alternating subgroup, which cannot be a quotient by cardinality reasons.
 
The world of 2\times 2 complex matrices is very colorful. They form a Banach-algebra, they act on spinors, they contain the quaternions, SU(2), su(2), SL(2,\mathbb C), sl(2,\mathbb C). Furthermore, with the determinant as Euclidean or pseudo-Euclidean norm, isu(2) is a 3-dimensional Euclidean space, \mathbb RI\oplus isu(2) is a Minkowski space with signature (1,3), i\mathbb RI\oplus su(2) is a Minkowski space with signature (3,1), SU(2) is the double cover of SO(3), sl(2,\mathbb C) is the...