CHAPTER 4

The Sylow Theorems

Lagranges Theorem says that if H is a subgroup of a nite group G then |H| divides |G|. The converse is false: if G is a nite group and m is a number which divides |G| then it is not necessarily true that G has a subgroup of order m. For example, A5 has order 60 which is divisible by 15 and yet it can be shown that A5 has no subgroups of order 15. The Sylow theorems provide a partial converse to Lagranges theorem. In particular, Sylow proved that if m divides |G| and m is a power of a prime number then G has a subgroup of order m. The Sylow theorems also give useful information about the number of such subgroups. For example, if G is a group of order 60 then G always has at least one subgroup of order 4 and the number of subgroups of order 4 is 1, 3, 5 or 15. Here is another example. If G has order 168 then the Sylow theorems tell us that G has subgroups of all the following orders: 1 2 3 4 7 8. These are the only prime powers which divide 168. For other numbers such as 21 which are factors of 168 it is not immediately clear whether there is or is not a subgroup of corresponding order. p-groups D EFINITION 4.1. Let p be a prime. A group G of a group is called a p-group if every element g of G has order pm for some m = m(g) 0.

L EMMA 4.2 (Corollary of Lagranges and Cauchys Theorem). Let p be a prime. A nite group G is a p-group if and only if G has order pn for some n 0.

P ROOF. Suppose that G is a nite p-group. If q is any prime dividing the order of G then G contains an element of order q by Cauchys theorem. Therefore q = p. This shows that p is the only prime which can divide |G|. Therefore |G| = pn for some n 0. Conversely suppose that G has order pn for some n 0. Let g be any element of G. Let r be the order of g. The cyclic subgroup g has order r and so r divides pn by Lagranges theorem. Therefore r is a power of p. (Theorem 4.2 1 ). Every non-trivial nite p-group has non-trivial centre. 2 Groups of order pn for n 3

T HEOREM 4.3. Let p be a prime and let Cpn denote a cyclic group of order pn . (i) Every group of order p is cyclic and so isomorphic to Cp .
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(ii) Every group of order p2 is abelian and is isomorphic to one of the two groups (iii) Every abelian group of order Cp Cp Cp Cp Cp p3 Cp2 . Cp Cp2 Cp3 . is isomorphic to one of the groups

(iv) If G is a non-abelian group of order p3 then (G) Cp and G/ (G) Cp Cp . = = D EFINITION 4.4. Let G be a nite group and let p be a prime which divides the order of G. A subgroup H of G is called a Sylow p-subgroup if and only if H is a p-group and |G : H| is not divisible by p. R EMARK 4.5. Note that if n is a natural number and p is a prime which divides n then there is a unique way to write n in the form pm s where m and s are natural numbers such that p | s. The factor s is called the p -part of n. To nd this form you need to factorize n into a product of primes. E XAMPLE 4.6. (i) 60 has the prime factorization 2 2 3 5. Therefore, with p = 2 we have the expression and we see that 22 is the largest power of 2 which divides 60. (ii) If G is a group of order 60 then every Sylow 2-subgroup has order 4. (iii) 168 has the prime factorization 23 3 7 and therefore we have the expression and we see that 23 is the largest power of 2 which divides 168. (iv) If G is a group of order 168 then every Sylow 2-subgroup of G has order 8. (v) 7! has the factorization 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 and from this we can see that 32 is the largest power of 3 which divides 7!. (vi) Every Sylow 3-subgroup of the symmetric group S7 has order 9. E XERCISE 4.7. (i) Find the prime factorization of 3420. [Hint: 3420 is divisible by 19.] (ii) If G is a group of order 3420 what is the order of a Sylow 19-subgroup of G? (iii) Find the largest power of 3 which divides 9!. (iv) What is the order of a Sylow 3 subgroup of S9 ? The Statement and Proof of the Sylow Theorems We need two lemmas in order to prove the Sylow theorems. L EMMA 4.8. Let G be a group and let P and Q be p-subgroups. Suppose that Q normalizes P. Then PQ is also a p-subgroup. P ROOF. Since Q normalizes P we know that PQ is a subgroup. Now |PQ| = |P| |Q| and |P Q| 168 = 23 21 60 = 22 15

so PQ is a p-group.

THE STATEMENT AND PROOF OF THE SYLOW THEOREMS

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L EMMA 4.9 (Wielandts Observation). Let n be a natural number and let p be a prime which divides n. Write n = pm s where p | s. Then n p | . pm P ROOF. Write out the binomial coefcient like this: pm s pm s 1 pm s 2 pm s i pm s pm + 3 pm s pm + 2 pm s pm + 1 m m ... m ... pm p 1 p 2 p i 3 2 1 and observe that in each fraction the power of p in the denominator exactly matches the power of p in the numerator. Now we are in a position to state and prove the Sylow Theorems. T HEOREM 4.10 (The Sylow Theorems). Let G be a nite group and let p be a prime which divides |G|. Then (i) G has at least one Sylow p-subgroup. (ii) More generally, if p divides |G| for some 0 then G has a subgroup of order p . (iii) Every p-subgroup of G is contained in a Sylow p-subgroup of G. (iv) Let P be a Sylow p-subgroup of G. Every Sylow p-subgroup of G is conjugate to P. (v) The number r of Sylow p-subgroups of G satises and in addition r 1 (mod p),

r|s where s is the p -part of the order of G.

G P ROOF. (i) Let pm be the largest power of p which divides |G|. Let X be the set pm of all subsets of G with exactly pm elements. Then G acts on X by left multiplication. First note that for all X X ,

We also know that

| stabG (X)| pm .

p | |X |. The second displayed fact tells us that there is an orbit whose size is not divisible by p. Choose X X such that From this together with the rst displayed fact it follows that This shows that there is at least one Sylow p-subgroup. (ii) We postpone the proof of this part. For now, notice that if = 0 then p = 1 and the claim is true for the trivial subgroup of G; if = 1 then p = p and the claim is true by Cauchys theorem; |GX | = pm . p | |OX |.

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if = m then we have proved the claim in part (i). (iii) Let P be a Sylow p-subgroup. Let Q be any p-subgroup. Let P be the set of all conjugates of P. Then G acts on P by conjugation. By the orbitstabilizer theorem, the number r of conjugates of P is |G : NG (P)|. Note that p | r. Then Q acts on P by conjugation. Each Q-orbit has size a power of P. There must be an orbit whose order is not divisible by p. However the only power of p which is not divisible by p is p0 = 1. So there is an orbit of size 1. Let g P be an element in an orbit of size 1. Then Q normalizes g P. Therefore g PQ is a p-group. Hence g PQ = g P and so Q g P. (iv) Assume now that Q is a Sylow p-subgroup. Then it follows that Q = g P. Thus every Sylow p-subgroup is conjugate to P. (v) Moreover g P is clearly the only orbit of size 1. Therefore r 1 (mod p). What about part (ii) of the Sylow theorems? It sufces to prove the following: L EMMA 4.11. Let G be a nite p-group. Then G contains a subgroup of order pm whenever pm |G|. P ROOF. We proceed by induction on the order of G. If |G| = 1 there is nothing to prove. Suppose that G is a p-group of order > 1 and that the theorem is true for p-groups of smaller order. Then G is a non-trivial p-group and therefore it has non-trivial centre. Let Z denote the centre of G. By Cauchys theorem, Z contains a subgroup K of order p. Since Z is central, K is also central and therefore normal. If G has order pn then the quotient group G/K is dened and it has order pn1 . By induction G/K has subgroups of every possible order p j with 0 j n 1. By the correspondence theorem, a subgroup of order p j is of the form H/K where H is some subgroup of G containing K and so H has order p j+1 . This shows that G has subgroups of any possible p-power order. Permutation Representations D EFINITION 4.12. Let G be a group. A permutation representation of G of degree n is a homomorphism from G to Sn . L EMMA 4.13. There is a bijective correspondence between permutation representations of a group G and actions of G on {1, . . . , n}. Simple groups D EFINITION 4.14. A group is said to be simple if and only if it has exactly two normal subgroups, namely {e} and G. E XERCISE 4.15. Let G be a group of order 3420. (i) Let r be the number of Sylow 19 subgroups of G. Show that r is equal to 1 or 20. (ii) Assume now that G is simple. Show that G has exactly 20 Sylow 19 subgroups.

SIMPLE GROUPS

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By considering the action of G by conjugation on the set of Sylow 19-subgroups, show that there is a permutation representation Prove that is a monomorphism whose image lies in the alternating group A20 . Show that if P is a Sylow 19-subgroup then NG (P) has order 171. Show that G does not contain an element of order 171. (iii) Find an example of a group of order 3420 which has an element of order 171. (iv) Find an example of a group of order 3420 which is abelian but which has no elements of order 171. E XERCISE 4.16. (i) Prove that every simple group of order 60 is isomorphic to a subgroup of the alternating group A6 . (ii) Prove that every simple group of order 168 is isomorphic to a subgroup of the alternating group A8 . E XERCISE 4.17. (i) Prove that every group of order 15 is cyclic. (ii) Show that the symmetric group S5 has no elements of order 15. (iii) Show that the alternating group A5 has no subgroups of order 15. [Note this cannot be deduced directly from Lagranges Theorem because 15 divides 60 = |A5 |.] E XERCISE 4.18. (i) Let G be a non-abelian group of order pq where p and q are primes. We have already seen that G has exactly q subgroups of order p. Use the Sylow theorems to prove that (ii) Deduce that every group of order 77 is abelian. (iii) Show that the subgroup of S7 generated by = (1 2 3 4 5 6 7) and = (2 3 5)(4 7 6) has order 21 and is non-abelian. [Hint: show rst that = 2 .] (iv) Show that the subgroup of S11 generated by (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11) and (2 5 6 10 4)(3 9 11 8 7) is non-abelian of order 55. (v) Write down a list all the numbers of the form pq where p < q are primes and q 13. There are 15 such numbers. Which of the numbers n in this list have the property that all groups of order n are abelian? q1 (mod p). : G S20 .