Abstract Algebra – Intuitive Definitions of the Orbit and the Stabilizer

abstract-algebragroup-actionsgroup-theory

I don't fully understand the definition of an Orbit. Mathematically, it is given by

$$
\operatorname{Orb}(x) = \{y = gx \mid g \in G\}
$$

where $G$ is a group and $x \in X$, a set that is acted upon by the group $G$, but what does this actually mean? Is it the set of all elements $x$ after having been acted upon by some element $g$?

The stabilizer is given by $\{g \in G \mid gx = x\}$. So does this mean the set of all elements $g$, when after actings upon $x$ give you the element $x$? That is, the set of all elements $g$ whose action on $x$ doesn't change it?

Best Answer

The orbit of $x$ is "everything that can be reached from $x$ by an action of something in $G$."

The stabilizer of $x$ is "the set of all elements of $G$ which don't move $x$ when they act on $x$".

Those already seem pretty intuitive... what else can be said?

I guess you might want to look at orbits and stabilizers for particular actions. For example, if a group is acting on itself by conjugation, then the orbit of an element is that element's conjugacy class. One element stabilizes another in this action exactly when they commute.

Related Question