Union College Union | Digital Works Honors Theses Student Work 6-2015 The yS low Theorems and Classification of Small Finite Order Groups William Stearns Union College - Schenectady, NY Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses Part of the Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons Recommended Citation Stearns, William, "The yS low Theorems and Classification of Small Finite Order Groups" (2015). Honors Theses. 395. https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/395 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Union | Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Union | Digital Works. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE SYLOW THEOREMS AND CLASSIFICATION OF SMALL FINITE ORDER GROUPS WILLIAM W. STEARNS Abstract. This thesis will provide an overview of various topics in group theory, all in order to accomplish the end goal of classifying all groups of order up to 15. An important precursor to classifying finite order groups, the Sylow Theorems illustrate what subgroups of a given group must exist, and constitute the first half of this thesis. Using these theorems in the latter sections we will classify all the possible groups of various orders up to isomorphism. In concluding this thesis, all possible distinct groups of orders up to 15 will be defined and the groundwork set for further study. 1. Introduction The results in this thesis require some background knowledge and motivation. To that end, material covered in an introductory course on abstract algebra should be sufficient. In particular, it is assumed that the reader is familiar with the concepts and definitions of: group, subgroup, coset, index, homomorphism, and kernel.