Subgroup

🅟 Mar 17, 2026

  🅤 Jun 11, 2026

Definition 1.

Let $(G, *)$ be a group. $(H, *)$ is a subgroup of $(G, *)$, written $H \leq G$, if $(H, *)$ itself is a group and $H \subseteq G$.


Proposition 1.

Let $G$ be a group with neutral element $e$ and $H$ be a subgroup. Then the neutral element of $H$ is also $e$.

Proof. If $e’$ is the neutral element of $H$,

\[e'e' = e' = ee',\]

hence $e’ = e$ by cancellation property of group.


Proposition 2.

Let $G$ be a group and $H \subseteq G$ be non-empty. $H$ is a subgroup as soon as:

  1. Closure under multiplication. For all $a$, $b \in H$,

    \[ab \in H.\]
  2. Closure under inversion. For all $a \in H$,

    \[a^{-1} \in H.\]

Proposition 3.

Let $G$ be a group and $H \subseteq G$ be non-empty. $H$ is a subgroup as soon as for all $a$, $b\in H$,

\[ab^{-1} \in H.\]

Proposition 4.

Let $G$ be a finite group and $H\subseteq G$ be non-empty. $H$ is a subgroup as soon as $H$ is closed under multiplication, i.e for all $a$, $b\in H$,

\[ab \in H.\]