algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary ...

, the fixed-point subgroup

G^f

of an automorphism ''f'' of a

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

''G'' is the

subgroup In group theory, a branch of mathematics, given a group ''G'' under a binary operation ∗, a subset ''H'' of ''G'' is called a subgroup of ''G'' if ''H'' also forms a group under the operation ∗. More precisely, ''H'' is a subgroup ...

of ''G'': :

G^f = \.

More generally, if ''S'' is a

set Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...

of automorphisms of ''G'' (i.e., a subset of the

automorphism group In mathematics, the automorphism group of an object ''X'' is the group consisting of automorphisms of ''X'' under composition of morphisms. For example, if ''X'' is a finite-dimensional vector space, then the automorphism group of ''X'' is the g ...

of ''G''), then the set of the elements of ''G'' that are left fixed by every automorphism in ''S'' is a subgroup of ''G'', denoted by ''G''^''S''. For example, take ''G'' to be the group of

invertible In mathematics, the concept of an inverse element generalises the concepts of opposite () and reciprocal () of numbers. Given an operation denoted here , and an identity element denoted , if , one says that is a left inverse of , and that is ...

''n''-by-''n''

real Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010) ...

matrices Matrix most commonly refers to: * ''The Matrix'' (franchise), an American media franchise ** ''The Matrix'', a 1999 science-fiction action film ** "The Matrix", a fictional setting, a virtual reality environment, within ''The Matrix'' (franchis ...

and

f(g)=(g^T)^

(called the

Cartan involution In mathematics, the Cartan decomposition is a decomposition of a semisimple Lie group or Lie algebra, which plays an important role in their structure theory and representation theory. It generalizes the polar decomposition or singular value decom ...

). Then

G^f

is the group

O(n)

of ''n''-by-''n''

orthogonal matrices In linear algebra, an orthogonal matrix, or orthonormal matrix, is a real square matrix whose columns and rows are orthonormal vectors. One way to express this is Q^\mathrm Q = Q Q^\mathrm = I, where is the transpose of and is the identity ma ...

. To give an abstract example, let ''S'' be a subset of a group ''G''. Then each element ''s'' of ''S'' can be associated with the automorphism

g \mapsto sgs^

, i.e.

conjugation Conjugation or conjugate may refer to: Linguistics * Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form * Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language Mathematics * Complex conjugation, the chang ...

by ''s''. Then :

G^S = \

; that is, the

centralizer In mathematics, especially group theory, the centralizer (also called commutant) of a subset ''S'' in a group ''G'' is the set of elements \mathrm_G(S) of ''G'' such that each member g \in \mathrm_G(S) commutes with each element of ''S'', ...

of ''S''.

References

{{algebra-stub Algebraic groups