We have already seen that the orbit-stabilizer theorem can answer some nontrivial questions. For example: how large is the symmetry group of a tetrahedron?
Recall that the theorem says that for any group acting on a set , and any element , there is a bijection
In particular, if is finite, then
Counting theorems of this kind are extremely useful in mathematics. They are like a “layup” in basketball—the easiest way to score. Once you reduce a difficult problem to a counting problem, you have made progress.
**# §12 Simple Groups and the Hölder Program
Some groups cannot be built out of other groups. For example, what if admits no nontrivial normal subgroups? Then there can be no short exact sequence unless or . In this sense, groups with no nontrivial normal subgroups are the simplest groups.
Definition 12.1 A group is called a simple group if it has no nontrivial normal subgroups.
Definition 11.1 A short exact sequence of groups is a sequence consisting of two homomorphisms
satisfying the following conditions:
(1) is injective,
(2) is surjective, and
(3) the kernel of is equal to—not merely isomorphic to—the image of .
Proposition 10.1 Let be a normal subgroup. The map
(1) is a group homomorphism.
(2) is surjective.
(3) has kernel .
Let be a subgroup.
Question: When can the orbit set
be given a group structure?