finite subgroup
Theorem. A non-empty finite subset of a group is a subgroup of if and only if
(1) |
Proof. The condition (1) is apparently true if is a subgroup. Conversely, suppose that a nonempty finite subset of the group satisfies (1). Let and be arbitrary elements of . By (1), all () powers of belong to . Because of the finiteness of , there exist positive integers such that
By (1),
Thus also , whence, by the theorem of the http://planetmath.org/node/1045parent entry, is a subgroup of .
Example. The multiplicative group of all nonzero complex numbers
has the finite multiplicative subset , which has to be a subgroup of .