[Math] Find the subgroup of $GL(2,\mathbb{C})$ generated by two matrices $A$ and $B$.

abstract-algebragroup-theory

Find the subgroup of $GL(2,\mathbb{C})$ generated by the matrices $A$ and $B$, where $A=\begin{pmatrix}
1 & 0\\
0 & i
\end{pmatrix}$ and $B=\begin{pmatrix}
0 & 1\\
-1 & 0
\end{pmatrix}$.

I have tried some thing and I found that order of both $A$ and $B$ is 4.

Best Answer

Here's a more structural approach. Let $G=\langle A,B\rangle$. As you already noted $A$ and $B$ have order $4$. Now note that $A^2 = \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 0 & -1 \end{pmatrix}$. Hence $P:=A^2B= \begin{pmatrix} 0 & 1 \\ 1 & 0 \end{pmatrix}$ is a permutation matrix. Clearly $G=\langle A,P\rangle$.

If $D$ is a diagonal matrix, then $PDP^{-1}$ is again a diagonal matrix with the diagonal entries flipped. Let $N$ be the subgroup of $G$ generated by $A$ and $PAP^{-1}$. Then $N$ consists of diagonal matrices with entries in $\{1,i,-1,-i\}$. Note that $N \cong \mathbb Z/4 \mathbb Z \times \mathbb Z/4\mathbb Z$. $N$ contains $\langle A \rangle$ and is closed under conjugation by $P$. Since $G$ is generated by $A$ and $P$, this is sufficient to see that $N$ is a normal subgroup of $G$. Moreover, $\langle P \rangle \cap N$ is the trivial group. Hence $G$ is a semidirect product of $N$ and $\langle P \rangle \cong \mathbb Z/2\mathbb Z$. Explicitly, $$ G \cong (\mathbb Z/4\mathbb Z \times \mathbb Z/4\mathbb Z) \rtimes \mathbb Z/2\mathbb Z, $$ where $\mathbb Z/2\mathbb Z$ acts on $\mathbb Z/4\mathbb Z \times \mathbb Z/4\mathbb Z$ by flipping the components.

In particular $G$ has 32 elements, and every element can be uniquely written in the form $A^j (PAP^{-1})^k P^l$ with $j$, $k \in \{0,\ldots,3\}$ and $l \in \{0,1\}$.