What does this group theory notation mean: $\cap_{(x \in G)}xHx^{-1}$

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I came across on this website 1 the notation $\cap_{(x \in G)}xHx^{-1}$, where $H$ is a subgroup of $G$. What does this mean?

Best Answer

As a set, $$xHx^{-1}=\{xhx^{-1}\mid h\in H \}.$$ It is a nice exercise to show that $$\bigcap_{x\in G}xHx^{-1}$$ is a normal subgroup of $G$ (by construction essentially) and that it is the largest normal subgroup of $G$ contained in $H$. This thing is called the core of $H$.

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