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Generators for certain normal subgroups of (2,3,7)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

John Leech
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow

Extract

The infinite group

is the group of direct symmetry operations of the tessellation {3,7} of the hyperbolic plane ((3), chapter 5). This has the smallest fundamental region of any such tessellation, and related to this property is the fact that the group (2, 3, 7) has a remarkable wealth of interesting finite factor groups, corresponding to the finite maps obtained by identifying the results of suitable translations in the hyperbolic plane. The simplest example of this is the group LF(2,7), which is Klein's simple group of order 168. I have studied this group in an earlier paper ((4)), showing inter alia that the group is obtained as a factor group of (2,3,7) by adjoining any one of the relations

each of which implies the others. The method used was to find a set of generators for the normal subgroup with quotient group LF(2,7) and, working entirely within this subgroup, to exhibit that any one of these relations implies its collapse. The technique of working with this subgroup had been developed earlier and applied in (6) to prove that the factor group

is finite and of order 10,752.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1965

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References

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