In mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, a Tarski monster group, named for Alfred Tarski

Alfred Tarski

Alfred Tarski was a Polish logician and mathematician. Educated at the University of Warsaw and a member of the Lwow-Warsaw School of Logic and the Warsaw School of Mathematics and philosophy, he emigrated to the USA in 1939, and taught and carried out research in mathematics at the University of...

, is an infinite group

Group (mathematics)

In mathematics, a group is an algebraic structure consisting of a set together with an operation that combines any two of its elements to form a third element. To qualify as a group, the set and the operation must satisfy a few conditions called group axioms, namely closure, associativity, identity...

 G, such that every proper subgroup H of G, other than the identity subgroup, is a cyclic group

Cyclic group

In group theory, a cyclic group is a group that can be generated by a single element, in the sense that the group has an element g such that, when written multiplicatively, every element of the group is a power of g .-Definition:A group G is called cyclic if there exists an element g...

 of order a fixed prime number

Prime number

A prime number is a natural number greater than 1 that has no positive divisors other than 1 and itself. A natural number greater than 1 that is not a prime number is called a composite number. For example 5 is prime, as only 1 and 5 divide it, whereas 6 is composite, since it has the divisors 2...

 p. A Tarski monster group is necessarily simple

Simple group

In mathematics, a simple group is a nontrivial group whose only normal subgroups are the trivial group and the group itself. A group that is not simple can be broken into two smaller groups, a normal subgroup and the quotient group, and the process can be repeated...

. It was shown by A. Yu. Olshanskii in 1979 that Tarski groups exist, and that there is a Tarski p-group for every prime p > 10⁷⁵. They are a source of counterexample

Counterexample

In logic, and especially in its applications to mathematics and philosophy, a counterexample is an exception to a proposed general rule. For example, consider the proposition "all students are lazy"....

s to conjectures in group theory

Group theory

In mathematics and abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as groups.The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as rings, fields, and vector spaces can all be seen as groups endowed with additional operations and...

, most importantly to Burnside's problem

Burnside's problem

The Burnside problem, posed by William Burnside in 1902 and one of the oldest and most influential questions in group theory, asks whether a finitely generated group in which every element has finite order must necessarily be a finite group...

 and the von Neumann conjecture

Von Neumann conjecture

In mathematics, the von Neumann conjecture stated that a topological group G is not amenable if and only if G contains a subgroup that is a free group on two generators. The conjecture was disproved in 1980....

.

Definition

Let be a fixed prime number. An infinite group is called a Tarski Monster group for if every nontrivial subgroup (i.e. every subgroup other than 1 and G itself) has elements.

Properties

• is necessarily finitely generated. In fact it is generated by every two non-commuting elements.
• is simple. If and is any subgroup distinct from the subgroup would have elements.
• The construction of Ol'shanskii shows in fact that there are continuum-many non-isomorphic Tarski Monster groups for each prime .