[Math] Link between cyclic and abelian groups

abelian-groupscyclic-groupsfinite-groupsgroup-theory

I know that every cyclic group is abelian. But what about the converse? Today in my lecture, the lecturer used the fact that a group was simple and abelian to conclude that it is cyclic of prime order. Why is this true?

Best Answer

But what about the converse?

Is false. Take $G=\mathbb{Z}_2\oplus\mathbb{Z}_2$. Or more explicitely $G=\{e, a, b, c\}$ with addition

$$e\mbox{ is neutral}$$ $$a+a=e$$ $$b+b=e$$ $$c+c=e$$ $$a+b=c$$ $$a+c=b$$ $$b+c=a$$

Also known as the Klien four-group. This group is abelian. It is not cyclic because it is of order $4$ while every (nontrivial) element is of order $2$.

Finite (or even finitely generated) abelian groups are all known. If $G$ is a finite abelian group then

$$G\simeq\mathbb{Z}_{p_1^{a_1}}\oplus\cdots\oplus \mathbb{Z}_{p_m^{a_m}}$$

for some (not necessarily distinct) primes $p_1,\ldots, p_m$ and naturals $a_1,\ldots,a_m$.

For the finitely generated case you have to add $\mathbb{Z}^k$ term.

a group was simple and abelian to conclude that it is cyclic of prime order. Why is this true?

Abelian groups have this neat property: every subgroup is normal. Now if $G$ is of order $n$ then by Cauchy's theorem it has a subgroup $H$ of prime order $p | n$. This subgroup is nontrivial. It is proper if $n$ is not prime. If additionally $G$ is abelian then $H$ is normal, hence $G$ is not simple.

So the only possibility for an abelian group to be simple is when it is of prime order. Again Cauchy's theorem implies that such group has to be cyclic and indeed every $\mathbb{Z}_p$ is simple.