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Tuesday, 2 April 2013

A simple proof of Jordan-Holder

Theorem (Jordan-Holder) Any two composition series are equivalent.
proof: Induction of the length of the series. Suppose we have 1 \lhd \cdots \lhd L \lhd G and 1 \lhd \cdots \lhd K \lhd G then L \lhd KL \lhd G implies that KL/L is a normal subgroup of the composition factor G/L which being a simple group implies that KL = L\text{ or }G and similarly KL = K\text{ or }G.
Suppose KL \not = G, then L = K and we are done by induction. Suppose KL = G then by noether2 we have \frac{G}{L} \simeq \frac{KL}{L} \simeq \frac{K}{K \cap L} and \frac{G}{K} \simeq \frac{KL}{K} \simeq \frac{L}{K \cap L} therefore the composition series \begin{array}{c} 1 &\lhd& \cdots &\lhd& L \lhd G \\ 1 &\lhd& \cdots \lhd L \cap K &\lhd& L \lhd G \\ 1 &\lhd& \cdots \lhd L \cap K &\lhd& K \lhd G \\ 1 &\lhd& \cdots &\lhd& K \lhd G \\ \end{array} are equivalent.