normal subgroup
A subgroup of a group is normal if for all . Equivalently, is normal if and only if for all , i.e., if and only if each conjugacy class
of is either entirely inside or entirely outside .
The notation or is often used to denote that is a normal subgroup of .
The kernel of any group homomorphism is a normal subgroup of . More surprisingly, the converse
is also true: any normal subgroup is the kernel of some homomorphism
(one of these being the projection map , where is the quotient group
).