Alphabeta Math
CounterexampleConstruction: Literature-sourcedVerification: AI-adaptedprecheck passaudited 2026-08-03
How statement and proof provenance work

The first chip identifies the source of the statement or construction; the second identifies the source of its local proof or verification.

  • Literature-sourced: the exact statement appears in a cited source; only wording and notation differ.
  • AI-adapted: a semantically identical restatement of literature-sourced material, modulo indexing, notation, and boundary cases adopted by the library.
  • AI-generated: a genuinely novel statement formulated by AI, with no source for the claim itself.

These labels describe origin, not correctness: citations and verification chips remain separate evidence.

The cyclic group Z/4 is not isomorphic to Z/2×Z/2

Counterexample

The groups Z/4 and Z/2×Z/2 both have four elements, but they are not isomorphic: the first has an element of order 4, whereas every nonidentity element of the second has order 2.

Facts & Assumptions

Given: The additive quotient groups Z/4 and Z/2.

[L1]

The residue classes modulo n form the quotient group of the additive integers (For every n∈N, the congruence-class group (Z/n,+) is the quotient group (Z,+)/nZ).

[L2]

In a direct product, a pair with finite component orders m,n has order the unique positive natural whose canonical integer image is lcm⁡(ι(m),ι(n)) (If g and h have finite orders m and n, then ι(ord⁡(g,h))=lcm⁡(ι(m),ι(n)) in G×H).

Refutation

technique · direct
1.1

The class [1] in Z/4 has order 4, while the nonzero class in Z/2 has order 2.

L1givenalgebra
2.1

By [L2], each nonidentity pair has component orders 1,2 or 2,2. Their least common multiple is 2, so every nonidentity pair has order 2.

step 1.1L2given
3.1

A group isomorphism preserves the least positive exponent at which a power is the identity, by [L3]; it therefore cannot send the order-4 element of step 1.1 to any element of the target.

step 1.1step 2.1L3
4.1

Hence Z/4 and Z/2×Z/2 are not isomorphic.

step 3.1∎

Depends on

Used by

Nothing in the library uses this result yet.

Dependency tree · two levels

32 results within two dependency steps of this one, each drawn at its shortest distance from it. An arrow runs from a result to what uses it, so the chart reads left to right and ends at this result, which carries a heavier outline. Every node is a link to that result. Click elsewhere on the chart to enlarge it.

Sources