Alphabeta Math
False statementConstruction: AI-adaptedVerification: AI-adaptedprecheck passaudited 2026-08-17
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.

False statement: every divisor of the order of a finite group occurs as a subgroup order

Statement

False claim: every divisor of the order of a finite group occurs as a subgroup order. See Sylow I: every finite group has a Sylow p-subgroup.

Facts & Assumptions

Given: The hypotheses and objects in the false claim.

[L1]

Let G be finite, let p be prime, and write ∣G∣=pam with p∤m. Then G has a subgroup of order pa, hence a Sylow p-subgroup (def-sylow-p-subgroup). (Sylow I: every finite group has a Sylow p-subgroup).

[L2]

Let G be finite abelian and let d be a positive divisor of ∣G∣. Then G has a subgroup of order d. (Converse of Lagrange for finite abelian groups: every divisor occurs as a subgroup order).

[L3]

For n∈N, the alternating group is the kernel of the sign homomorphism, An:=ker⁡(sgn⁡:Sn→{+1,−1})={σ∈Sn:sgn⁡(σ)=1}. Thus An consists exactly of the even permutations. The subgroup and normality assertions implicit in the word “group” follow from thm-image-subgroup-and-kernel-normal. (The alternating group An=ker⁡(sgn⁡) of even permutations).

[L4]

Let G be a finite group and H≤G. Then ∣G∣=[G:H] ∣H∣. Consequently, under the canonical embedding ι:N→Z, ∣H∣ divides ∣G∣. (Lagrange's theorem: ∣G∣=[G:H]∣H∣ for every subgroup H of a finite group G).

Refutation

technique · direct
1.1L1L2L3L4givenalgebra

The divisor 6 of ∣A4∣=12 is not the order of a subgroup. Indeed, a hypothetical subgroup H of order 6 would have index 2 and hence be normal. Sylow I applied inside H gives an element of order 3.

2.1step 1.1givenalgebra∎

Conjugating that 3-cycle in A4, and also conjugating its inverse, puts all eight 3-cycles in the normal subgroup H. Together with the identity this gives more than six elements, a contradiction. Thus the general converse fails although the cited abelian and prime-power special cases remain valid. This proves the stated claim.

Depends on

Used by

Nothing in the library uses this result yet.

Dependency tree · two levels

29 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