Prove that $[G: S]=[\phi [G]: \phi [S]] \cdot[N: S \cap N]$

47 Views Asked by At

I'm doing Exercise 10 in textbook Algebra by Saunders MacLane and Garrett Birkhoff. Could you please verify if my attempt is fine or contains logical mistakes?

enter image description here

Let $\phi:G \to H$ be a group homomorphism such that $N = \operatorname{ker} \phi$ and $S$ is a subgroup of $G$. The induced map $\phi[\cdot]$ is defined as $\phi[S] = \{\phi(x) \mid x \in S\}$. Then $$[G: S]=[\phi [G]: \phi [S]] \cdot[N: S \cap N]$$


My attempt: First, we need a lemma:

If $N \le S \le G$, then $x \in S \iff \phi(x) \in \phi[S]$.

Notice that $$[G: S]=[\phi [G] : \phi [S]] \cdot [N : S \cap N] \iff \frac{|G|}{|S|} = \frac{|\phi [G] |}{|\phi [S]|} \cdot \frac{|N|}{|S \cap N|}$$

By second isomorphism theorem on groups, we have ${|SN|} / {|N|} = {|S|} / {|S \cap N|}$. Moreover, $\phi [SN] = \phi [S]$. Then our job boils down to proving ${|G|} / {|SN|} = {|\phi [G] |} / {|\phi [SN] |}$. Consider the map $$\psi: G/SN \to \phi [G] / \phi [SN], \quad gSN \mapsto \phi(g) \phi [SN]$$

It's sufficient to show that $\psi$ is bijective. Let $x,y \in G$ such that $xSN = ySN$. We have $xSN = ySN$ iff $x^{-1}y \in SN$ iff $(\star)$ $\phi(x^{-1}y ) \in \phi [SN]$ iff $\phi(x)^{-1} \phi(y) \in \phi [SN]$. Hence $\psi$ is both well-defined and injective. Clearly, $\phi$ is surjective. This completes the proof.

$(\star)$ This is due to our lemma and the fact that $N \le SN$.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

1
On BEST ANSWER

I would use the first isomorphism theorem to get that $\phi(G)\cong G/N$ And similarly we have that $\phi(S)\cong S/(N\cap S)$ From here it should be a breeze since and isomorphism is a bijection so $|\phi(G)|= |G/N|$ and $|\phi(S)|= |S/(N\cap S)|$ Divide and you are done

Edit: $\phi(S)\cong S/(N\cap S)$ follows from the restriction of $\phi$ to $S$