Automorphism

In mathematics, an automorphism is an
isomorphism from a mathematical object
to itself. It is, in some sense, a symmetry
of the object, and a way of mapping the
object to itself while preserving all of its
structure. The set of all automorphisms of
an object forms a group, called the
automorphism group. It is, loosely
speaking, the symmetry group of the
object.
Definition
In the context of abstract algebra, a
mathematical object is an algebraic
structure such as a group, ring, or vector
space. An automorphism is simply a
bijective homomorphism of an object with
itself. (The definition of a homomorphism
depends on the type of algebraic structure;
see, for example, group homomorphism,
ring homomorphism, and linear operator).

The identity morphism (identity mapping)

is called the trivial automorphism in some
contexts. Respectively, other (non-identity)
automorphisms are called nontrivial
automorphisms.
The exact definition of an automorphism
depends on the type of "mathematical
object" in question and what, precisely,
constitutes an "isomorphism" of that
object. The most general setting in which
these words have meaning is an abstract
branch of mathematics called category
theory. Category theory deals with
abstract objects and morphisms between
those objects.

In category theory, an automorphism is an

endomorphism (i.e., a morphism from an
object to itself) which is also an
isomorphism (in the categorical sense of
the word).
This is a very abstract definition since, in
category theory, morphisms aren't
necessarily functions and objects aren't
necessarily sets. In most concrete
settings, however, the objects will be sets
with some additional structure and the
morphisms will be functions preserving
that structure.

Automorphism group
If the automorphisms of an object X form
a set (instead of a proper class), then they
form a group under composition of
morphisms. This group is called the
automorphism group of X.
Closure
Composition of two automorphisms is
another automorphism.
Associativity
It is part of the definition of a category
that composition of morphisms is
associative.
Identity
The identity is the identity morphism
from an object to itself, which is an
automorphism.
Inverses
By definition every isomorphism has an
inverse which is also an isomorphism,
and since the inverse is also an
 endomorphism of the same object it is
an automorphism.

The automorphism group of an object X in

a category C is denoted AutC(X), or simply
Aut(X) if the category is clear from
context.

Examples
In set theory, an arbitrary permutation of
the elements of a set X is an
automorphism. The automorphism
group of X is also called the symmetric
group on X.
In elementary arithmetic, the set of
integers, Z, considered as a group under
addition, has a unique nontrivial
automorphism: negation. Considered as
a ring, however, it has only the trivial
automorphism. Generally speaking,
negation is an automorphism of any
abelian group, but not of a ring or field.
A group automorphism is a group
isomorphism from a group to itself.
Informally, it is a permutation of the
group elements such that the structure
remains unchanged. For every group G
there is a natural group homomorphism
G → Aut(G) whose image is the group
Inn(G) of inner automorphisms and
whose kernel is the center of G. Thus, if
G has trivial center it can be embedded
into its own automorphism group.[1]
In linear algebra, an endomorphism of a
vector space V is a linear operator V →
V. An automorphism is an invertible
linear operator on V. When the vector
space is finite-dimensional, the
automorphism group of V is the same
as the general linear group, GL(V).
A field automorphism is a bijective ring
homomorphism from a field to itself. In
the cases of the rational numbers (Q)
and the real numbers (R) there are no
nontrivial field automorphisms. Some
subfields of R have nontrivial field
automorphisms, which however do not
extend to all of R (because they cannot
preserve the property of a number
having a square root in R). In the case of
the complex numbers, C, there is a
unique nontrivial automorphism that
sends R into R: complex conjugation,
but there are infinitely (uncountably)
many "wild" automorphisms (assuming
the axiom of choice).[2][3] Field
automorphisms are important to the
theory of field extensions, in particular
Galois extensions. In the case of a
Galois extension L/K the subgroup of all
automorphisms of L fixing K pointwise
is called the Galois group of the
extension.
The automorphism group of the
quaternions (H) as a ring are the inner
automorphisms, by the Skolem–Noether
theorem: maps of the form
a ↦ bab−1.[4]. This group is isomorphic
to SO(3), the group of rotations in 3-
dimensional space.
The automorphism group of the
octonions (O) is the exceptional Lie
group G2.
In graph theory an automorphism of a
graph is a permutation of the nodes that
preserves edges and non-edges. In
particular, if two nodes are joined by an
edge, so are their images under the
permutation.
In geometry, an automorphism may be
called a motion of the space.
Specialized terminology is also used:
In metric geometry an
automorphism is a self-isometry.
The automorphism group is also
called the isometry group.
In the category of Riemann
surfaces, an automorphism is a
biholomorphic map (also called a
conformal map), from a surface to
itself. For example, the
automorphisms of the Riemann
sphere are Möbius transformations.
An automorphism of a
differentiable manifold M is a
diffeomorphism from M to itself.
The automorphism group is
sometimes denoted Diff(M).
In topology, morphisms between
topological spaces are called
continuous maps, and an
automorphism of a topological
space is a homeomorphism of the
space to itself, or self-
homeomorphism (see
homeomorphism group). In this
 example it is not sufficient for a
morphism to be bijective to be an
isomorphism.

History
One of the earliest group automorphisms
(automorphism of a group, not simply a
group of automorphisms of points) was
given by the Irish mathematician William
Rowan Hamilton in 1856, in his icosian
calculus, where he discovered an order
two automorphism,[5] writing:

so that is a new fifth root of

unity, connected with the former
 fifth root by relations of
perfect reciprocity.

Inner and outer

automorphisms
In some categories—notably groups, rings,
and Lie algebras—it is possible to separate
automorphisms into two types, called
"inner" and "outer" automorphisms.

In the case of groups, the inner

automorphisms are the conjugations by
the elements of the group itself. For each
element a of a group G, conjugation by a is
the operation φa : G → G given by
φa(g) = aga−1 (or a−1ga; usage varies). One
can easily check that conjugation by a is a
group automorphism. The inner
automorphisms form a normal subgroup
of Aut(G), denoted by Inn(G); this is called
Goursat's lemma.

The other automorphisms are called outer

automorphisms. The quotient group
Aut(G) / Inn(G) is usually denoted by
Out(G); the non-trivial elements are the
cosets that contain the outer
automorphisms.

The same definition holds in any unital ring

or algebra where a is any invertible
element. For Lie algebras the definition is
slightly different.

See also
Antiautomorphism
Automorphism (in Sudoku puzzles)
Characteristic subgroup
Endomorphism ring
Frobenius automorphism
Morphism
Order automorphism (in order theory).
Relation-preserving automorphism
Fractional Fourier transform

References
1. PJ Pahl, R Damrath (2001). "§7.5.5
Automorphisms". Mathematical
foundations of computational engineering
(Felix Pahl translation ed.). Springer. p. 376.
ISBN 3-540-67995-2.
2. Yale, Paul B. (May 1966).
"Automorphisms of the Complex
Numbers" (PDF). Mathematics Magazine.
39 (3): 135–141. doi:10.2307/2689301 .
JSTOR 2689301 .
3. Lounesto, Pertti (2001), Clifford Algebras
and Spinors (2nd ed.), Cambridge
University Press, pp. 22–23, ISBN 0-521-
00551-5
4. Handbook of algebra, 3, Elsevier, 2003,
p. 453
5. Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1856).
"Memorandum respecting a new System of
Roots of Unity" (PDF). Philosophical
Magazine. 12: 446.

External links
Automorphism at Encyclopaedia of
Mathematics
Weisstein, Eric W. "Automorphism" .
MathWorld.

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