In
group theory
In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as groups.
The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as rings, fields, and vector spaces, can all be seen ...
, the quaternion group Q
8 (sometimes just denoted by Q) is a
non-abelian group of
order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
* Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...
eight, isomorphic to the eight-element subset
of the
quaternion
In mathematics, the quaternion number system extends the complex numbers. Quaternions were first described by the Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton in 1843 and applied to mechanics in three-dimensional space. Hamilton defined a quater ...
s under multiplication. It is given by the
group presentation
:
where ''e'' is the identity element and
commutes with the other elements of the group.
Another
presentation of Q8 is
:
Compared to dihedral group
The quaternion group Q
8 has the same order as the
dihedral group
In mathematics, a dihedral group is the group of symmetries of a regular polygon, which includes rotations and reflections. Dihedral groups are among the simplest examples of finite groups, and they play an important role in group theory, ...
D4, but a different structure, as shown by their Cayley and cycle graphs:
In the diagrams for D
4, the group elements are marked with their action on a letter F in the defining representation R
2. The same cannot be done for Q
8, since it has no faithful representation in R
2 or R
3. D
4 can be realized as a subset of the
split-quaternions in the same way that Q
8 can be viewed as a subset of the quaternions.
Cayley table
The
Cayley table Named after the 19th century British mathematician Arthur Cayley, a Cayley table describes the structure of a finite group by arranging all the possible products of all the group's elements in a square table reminiscent of an addition or multiplic ...
(multiplication table) for Q
8 is given by:
Properties
The elements ''i'', ''j'', and ''k'' all have
order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
* Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...
four in Q
8 and any two of them generate the entire group. Another
presentation
A presentation conveys information from a speaker to an audience. Presentations are typically demonstrations, introduction, lecture, or speech meant to inform, persuade, inspire, motivate, build goodwill, or present a new idea/product. Presenta ...
of Q
8 based in only two elements to skip this redundancy is:
:
One may take, for instance,
and
.
The quaternion group has the unusual property of being
Hamiltonian: Q
8 is non-abelian, but every
subgroup
In group theory, a branch of mathematics, given a group ''G'' under a binary operation ∗, a subset ''H'' of ''G'' is called a subgroup of ''G'' if ''H'' also forms a group under the operation ∗. More precisely, ''H'' is a subgroup ...
is
normal. Every Hamiltonian group contains a copy of Q
8.
The quaternion group Q
8 and the dihedral group D
4 are the two smallest examples of a
nilpotent
In mathematics, an element x of a ring R is called nilpotent if there exists some positive integer n, called the index (or sometimes the degree), such that x^n=0.
The term was introduced by Benjamin Peirce in the context of his work on the cl ...
non-abelian group.
The
center and the
commutator subgroup of Q
8 is the subgroup
. The
inner automorphism group of Q
8 is given by the group modulo its center, i.e. the
factor group
Factor, a Latin word meaning "who/which acts", may refer to:
Commerce
* Factor (agent), a person who acts for, notably a mercantile and colonial agent
* Factor (Scotland), a person or firm managing a Scottish estate
* Factors of production, s ...
which is
isomorphic
In mathematics, an isomorphism is a structure-preserving mapping between two structures of the same type that can be reversed by an inverse mapping. Two mathematical structures are isomorphic if an isomorphism exists between them. The word i ...
to the
Klein four-group
In mathematics, the Klein four-group is a group with four elements, in which each element is self-inverse (composing it with itself produces the identity)
and in which composing any two of the three non-identity elements produces the third one ...
V. The full
automorphism group
In mathematics, the automorphism group of an object ''X'' is the group consisting of automorphisms of ''X'' under composition of morphisms. For example, if ''X'' is a finite-dimensional vector space, then the automorphism group of ''X'' is the g ...
of Q
8 is
isomorphic
In mathematics, an isomorphism is a structure-preserving mapping between two structures of the same type that can be reversed by an inverse mapping. Two mathematical structures are isomorphic if an isomorphism exists between them. The word i ...
to S
4, the
symmetric group
In abstract algebra, the symmetric group defined over any set is the group whose elements are all the bijections from the set to itself, and whose group operation is the composition of functions. In particular, the finite symmetric group ...
on four letters (see ''Matrix representations'' below), and the
outer automorphism group In mathematics, the outer automorphism group of a group, , is the quotient, , where is the automorphism group of and ) is the subgroup consisting of inner automorphisms. The outer automorphism group is usually denoted . If is trivial and has a ...
of Q
8 is thus S
4/V, which is isomorphic to S
3.
The quaternion group Q
8 has five conjugacy classes,
and so five
irreducible representation
In mathematics, specifically in the representation theory of groups and algebras, an irreducible representation (\rho, V) or irrep of an algebraic structure A is a nonzero representation that has no proper nontrivial subrepresentation (\rho, _ ...
s over the complex numbers, with dimensions 1, 1, 1, 1, 2:
Trivial representation.
Sign representations with i, j, k-kernel: Q
8 has three maximal normal subgroups: the cyclic subgroups generated by i, j, and k respectively. For each maximal normal subgroup ''N'', we obtain a one-dimensional representation factoring through the 2-element
quotient group
A quotient group or factor group is a mathematical group obtained by aggregating similar elements of a larger group using an equivalence relation that preserves some of the group structure (the rest of the structure is "factored" out). For exam ...
''G''/''N''. The representation sends elements of ''N'' to 1, and elements outside ''N'' to −1.
2-dimensional representation: Described below in ''Matrix representations''.
The
character table of Q
8 turns out to be the same as that of D
4:
Since the irreducible characters
in the rows above have real values, this gives the
decomposition
Decomposition or rot is the process by which dead organic substances are broken down into simpler organic or inorganic matter such as carbon dioxide, water, simple sugars and mineral salts. The process is a part of the nutrient cycle and ...
of the real
group algebra of
into minimal two-sided
ideals:
:
where the
idempotents