1. External Direct Products (11/4) Definition. If G 1, G 2,..., G n are groups, then their external direct product G 1  G 2 ...  G n is simply the set of all ordered n-tuples of elements of the groups under component-wise operations. Example: What are the elements of Z 3  Z 4 ? How many? What is the sum of (1, 2) and (2, 3)? (We say “sum because these are additive group.) What is the order of (1, 1)? What does this say about this direct product group? Example: What are the elements of Z 2  Z 6 ? How many? What is the order of (1, 1) in this group? Is it cyclic?

2. Basic Results Theorem (Order of the Product Group). If all groups in an external product are finite, then the order of the product group is just ______________________________. This is because as a set, the external product is just the “cartesian product” from set theory. Theorem (Order of an element in a Product Group). The order the element (a 1, a 2,..., a n ) is _______________ ___________________________________________. Corollary. The group Z j  Z k is cyclic if and only if _________________________________. Generalize to n components.

3. Examples In each case below 1. How many elements does the group have? 2. What is the largest order of any element in the group? Hence, is it cyclic? 3. Write each as being isomorphic to another product with as few factors as possible. Z 2  Z 9  Z 5 Z 2  Z 3  Z 3  Z 5 Z 4  Z 3  Z 9  Z 5  Z 5

4. Groups of Order 4 Theorem. Every group G of order 4 is isomorphic to either Z 4 (i.e., is cyclic) or Z 2  Z 2 (i.e., is a Klein-4 group). Proof. If G has an element of order 4, then G is cyclic, hence isomorphic to Z 4. Otherwise G must consist of {e, a, b, ab}, the latter 3 of order 2 (and, recall, ab=ba). Now the function taking e to (0, 0), a to (1, 0), b to (0, 1) and ab to (1, 1) is easily checked to be an isomorphism. This is an example of the upcoming Fundamental Theorem of Finite Abelian Groups, which says that every finite abelian group can be expressed as a direct product of cyclic, i.e., Z n, groups.

5. The Structure of the U groups Theorem. If s and t are relatively prime, then U(st) is isomorphic to U(s)  U(t). Theorem (Gauss). U(2)  {0}, U(4)  Z 2, for n > 2, U(2 n )  Z 2  Z 2^(n – 2), (i.e., is not cyclic), and for p any odd prime, U(p n )  Z p^n - p^(n – 1) (i.e., is cyclic). Examples. Check this for n = 8, 9, 10, 12, 16.

6. Assignment for Wednesday Hand-in #3 is due. Read Chapter 8 through page 168. On page 174, do Exercises 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15.