The order of an element in a group

Content created by Jonathan Prieto-Cubides, Fredrik Bakke and Egbert Rijke

Created on 2022-08-18.
Last modified on 2023-08-21.

module group-theory.orders-of-elements-groups where
Imports 
open import elementary-number-theory.group-of-integers

open import foundation.universe-levels

open import group-theory.free-groups-with-one-generator
open import group-theory.groups
open import group-theory.kernels
open import group-theory.normal-subgroups

Idea

For each element g : G of a group G we have a unique group homomorphism f : ℤ → G such that f 1 = g. The order of g is defined to be the kernel of this group homomorphism f. Since kernels are ordered by inclusion, it follows that the orders of elements of a group are ordered by reversed inclusion.

If the group G has decidable equality, then we can reduce the order of g to a natural number. In this case, the orders of elements of G are ordered by divisibility.

If the unique group homomorphism f : ℤ → G such that f 1 = g is injective, and G has decidable equality, then the order of g is set to be 0, which is a consequence of the point of view that orders are normal subgroups of ℤ.

Definitions

The type of orders of elements in groups

order-Group : (l : Level) → UU (lsuc l)
order-Group l = Normal-Subgroup l ℤ-Group

The order of an element in a group

module _
  {l : Level} (G : Group l)
  where

  order-element-Group : type-Group G → order-Group l
  order-element-Group g =
    kernel-hom-Group ℤ-Group G (hom-element-Group G g)

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