Scribd
Upload
74 views3 pages

Dihedral Group Overview by Jen Paulhus

The document discusses dihedral groups, which are groups that describe the symmetries of regular polygons. It defines plane symmetries as transformations that preserve distances and maps a figure onto itself, and defines regular polygons as equilateral and equiangular polygons. It uses the square as an example, identifying its rotations by 90°, 180°, and 270° degrees, and reflections across diagonal lines. These symmetries of the square form a group called D4. More generally, the symmetries of any regular n-gon form a dihedral group called Dn. Dn has n rotations and n reflections as its elements, and is generated by a rotation r and reflection s.

Uploaded by

shahzeb khan
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
74 views3 pages

Dihedral Group Overview by Jen Paulhus

The document discusses dihedral groups, which are groups that describe the symmetries of regular polygons. It defines plane symmetries as transformations that preserve distances and maps a figure onto itself, and defines regular polygons as equilateral and equiangular polygons. It uses the square as an example, identifying its rotations by 90°, 180°, and 270° degrees, and reflections across diagonal lines. These symmetries of the square form a group called D4. More generally, the symmetries of any regular n-gon form a dihedral group called Dn. Dn has n rotations and n reflections as its elements, and is generated by a rotation r and reflection s.

Uploaded by

shahzeb khan
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Dihedral Group Notes

Jen Paulhus

The dihedral group is a group formed from the plane symmetries of regular polygons. What
are plane symmetries and regular polygons?

Definition. A plane symmetry of a figure is a function from the plane to itself that carries the
figure onto itself and preserves distances.

Definition. A regular polygon is a polygon that is equiangular and equilateral (so all sides have
the same length and all angles have the same measurement).

Example Let’s start by considering the square. Label it with vertices 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Notice that one plane symmetry is simply rotating the figure clockwise by 90◦ (or π2 radians).
We call that rotation r. We can also rotate by 180◦ (or π radians) and 270◦ (or 3π
2
radians). Those
three rotations are drawn below.

Another plane symmetry is reflection along the diagonal line connecting vertex 1 with vertex 3,
we call this s. There is also reflection along the x-axis and y-axis, as well as the other diagonal. The
four reflections are drawn below. Notice they are each compositions of s with one of the rotations
above.

1
The pictures above represent all plane symmetries. Any other swapping of vertices you attempt
will violate the distance preserving condition for plane symmetries. So, for instance, we cannot just
switch vertices 1 and 4 above. This would change the distance between 1 and 3.

There are many relations among the pictures above. For instance, what happens if we reflect
across the diagonal line from vertex 1 to vertex 3, followed by a 270◦ rotation? This is the same
as doing one 90◦ rotation followed by reflection across the diagonal line from vertex 1 to vertex 3.
In symbols r3 s = sr, we write this as with function composition. So r3 s means “apply s and then
apply r3 ”.
Theorem 1. The set of plane symmetries of a square under the operation of function composition
forms a group called D4 or the dihedral group on 4 objects (called the octic group in your book).
Proof: The composition of plane symmetries must be a plane symmetry (it must preserve
distance and carry the figure onto itself) and hence the operation is binary. Associativity follows
from function composition. The identity is the trivial symmetry. And, finally, inverses exist. The
intuitive idea is that one can “undo” any plane symmetry. For instance, s can be “undone” by
another application of s, and r can be “undone” by applying r3 . 2

In the discussion above, was there anything particularly special about squares? Could we do the
same analysis with pentagon or hexagon or any regular n-gon? Definitely. (Recall that a regular
n-gon is an n sided polygon that is equilateral and equiangular.)

Definition. The dihedral group of order 2n is the group formed by the symmetries of a regular
n-gon. We denote this group as Dn (although the occasional book will write this as D2n ).
Theorem 2. Label the vertices of Dn starting with v1 and working clockwise to v2 , v3 , etc. Let r
be rotation of the n-gon by 2π/n radians and let s be reflection across the line connecting v1 to the
center of the object.
(1) e, r, r2 , . . .,rn−1 are all distinct and rn = e so o(r) = n.
(2) o(s) = 2.
(3) s 6= ri for any i.
(4) ri s 6= rj s for all 0 ≤ i, j ≤ n − 1 with i 6= j.
From this we can conclude that Dn = {e, r, r2 , . . . , rn−1 , s, rs, r2 s, . . . , rn−1 s}.
Proof: (1) Consider where v1 gets mapped under each symmetry. The symmetry r sends v1 to
v2 , while r2 sends v1 to v3 and ri sends v1 to vi+1 and i + 1 6= j + 1 when i 6= j if 0 ≤ i, j < n. (2)

2
Simply consider what applying s twice to each vertex will do to it. (3) The symmetry s fixes v1
yet the only ri which does this is rn = e but s is not the identity since it sends v2 to vn . (4) Since
ri 6= rj by (1), reflecting each by s will not produce the same symmetry. 2

Definition. Since every element of Dn is a product of s and r, we say that those two elements
generate the group. In general we say that a subset S of a group G generates the group if every
element of the group may be written as a product of elements in S.

Theorem 3. Let r, s ∈ Dn be as defined above.


(1) rs = sr−1 .
(2) For homework you will prove that ri s = sr−i for all 0 ≤ i ≤ n.

Proof: For (1) consider where rs sends v1 . The symmetry s sends it to v1 , followed by the
symmetry r which sends v1 to v2 . Conversely, for sr−1 we first apply r−1 to v1 which goes to vn and
then s sends vn to v2 .
Similarly s sends v2 to vn and r sends vn to v1 while r−1 sends v2 to v1 and s preserves v1 .
In general, if 2 < i ≤ n then s sends vi to vn−i+2 and r sends vn−i+2 to vn−i+3 whereas r−1 sends
vi to vi−1 and s sends vi−1 to vn−(i−1)+2 = vn−i+ . So rs and sr−1 send every vertex to the same
vertex. 2

Notice that (1) tells us that Dn is not abelian if n ≥ 3. The Theorem above is very useful for
computations. For example if we want to know what s(rs) is in the group, we can rewrite rs as
sr−1 and get s(rs) = s(sr−1 ) = (ss−1 )r−1 = rn−1 since s has order 2 and r · rn−1 = rn = e.

Common questions

Powered by AI

The relation rs = sr^(-1) is crucial for understanding the algebraic structure of the dihedral group as it describes the non-commutative nature of the group operations. This relation indicates that reflecting then rotating is equivalent to rotating inversely then reflecting, which is a manifestation of the symmetry and flexibility inherent in the group structure. Because of this relation, despite the group being non-abelian, it retains a certain symmetry in its operation that reflects its geometric interpretation. This property is significant for computations within the group and demonstrates one of the defining characteristics of dihedral groups, affecting the way elements interact algebraically .

Function composition in dihedral groups explains the binary operation as it serves as the process through which two symmetries are combined to form another symmetry within the group. Each symmetry operation can be seen as a function, and applying one after another is analogous to composing two functions. For instance, composing a reflection with a rotation results in a new symmetry that is part of the group. This operation is both associative and closed within the group because the composition of any two symmetries results in a symmetry, demonstrating that the group property is maintained .

In dihedral groups, elements are generated by the operations of rotation and reflection, commonly denoted as r and s. These operations serve as generators since every element of the group can be expressed with combinations of these two generators. Specifically, the elements of the dihedral group Dₙ can be written as {e, r, r²,..., rⁿ⁻¹, s, rs, r²s,..., rⁿ⁻¹s}, where r is a rotation by 2π/n radians, and s is a reflection across a line of symmetry. These generators define the structure of the group, determining all possible symmetry operations and combinations, thus fully describing the group's behavior and properties .

The theorem stating that Dₙ is not abelian implies that the order of operations matters for symmetries within a regular polygon, indicating that performing a sequence of transformations cannot be simplified or reversed arbitrarily. This non-commutative property means that two consecutive operations, such as a rotation followed by a reflection, generally yield different results than if the operations are reversed. This aspect is significant in understanding how symmetries interact within the group and reflects the geometric complexities during transformations in regular polygons with n sides (n ≥ 3).

The elements of Dₙ illustrate the distinct symmetrical properties of a regular n-gon through specific combinations of rotations and reflections that map the n-gon onto itself while preserving its regularity. Each element of Dₙ, expressed in terms of e (identity), rotations r through rⁿ⁻¹, and reflections s through rⁿ⁻¹s, showcase the complete set of symmetries possible. These symmetries encompass the entire range of rotational transformations and reflective symmetries specific to the n-sided regular figure, thus encapsulating all ways the polygon can be congruently transformed. These operations collectively define and bound the symmetrical behavior unique to the structure of regular n-gons .

A dihedral group being non-abelian for n ≥ 3 implies that the order in which symmetry operations are performed affects the outcome. In mathematical terms, this means that the group operations (rotations and reflections) do not commute. For example, performing a rotation followed by a reflection gives a different result than performing the reflection followed by the same rotation, i.e., rs ≠ sr, where r is a rotation and s a reflection. This lack of commutativity is a fundamental property influencing how these symmetry operations interact .

It is impossible for symmetries involving arbitrary swapping of vertices to belong to a dihedral group because such actions would not preserve the distance between vertices, violating the fundamental requirement for plane symmetries in dihedral groups. Dihedral groups consist of symmetries that maintain the regularity of a polygon, meaning each transformation must map the figure onto itself while preserving distances and angles. Arbitrary swaps would disrupt the equilateral and equiangular properties, hence are not allowable operations within the structure of a dihedral group .

In dihedral groups, reflections across different axes of symmetry add variety to the group's structure without changing its fundamental nature. For any regular polygon, there are multiple axes along which reflection can occur—each directly related to the number of sides of the polygon. For example, in a Dₙ group, the reflections are across axes that pass through vertices and midpoints of opposite sides. Each reflection axis corresponds to a unique reflection element in the group, but the overall structure and order of the group remain unchanged. This variance enriches the possible combinations of symmetries while preserving the group's properties, such as non-commutativity and the symmetry set's closure .

The structure of the dihedral group D₄, which corresponds to the symmetries of a square, is similar to the structure of dihedral groups for other regular n-gons, such as hexagons. The dihedral group Dₙ represents the symmetries of a regular n-gon, which includes n rotations and n reflections. The group operation is function composition, and similar to D₄, it forms a group by including all plane symmetries such as rotations and reflections that preserve the geometric structure of the n-gon. The properties like non-commutative nature (non-abelian for n ≥ 3) and the ability to generate the group using a rotation and a reflection are applicable to any regular n-gon .

Associativity is a necessary condition for the set of plane symmetries in dihedral groups because it ensures the consistency and predictability of symmetry operations regardless of how they are grouped. Without associativity, the grouping of transformations would affect outcomes, which is not permissible in a mathematical group. In dihedral groups, associativity guarantees that the result of composing multiple symmetries is independent of how the operations are associated, meaning (ab)c = a(bc) for any symmetries a, b, and c in the group. This property is crucial for maintaining the structure and functionality of the symmetry group .

You might also like