Iwasawa group

In mathematics a group is sometimes called an Iwasawa group or M-group or modular group if its lattice of subgroups is modular.

Alternatively, a group G is called an Iwasawa group when every subgroup of G is permutable in G (Ballester-Bolinches et al. 2010, pp. 24-25).

Iwasawa (1941) proved that a p-group G is an Iwasawa group if and only if one of the following cases happens:

• G is a Dedekind group, or
• G contains an abelian normal subgroup N such that the quotient group G/N is a cyclic group and if q denotes a generator of G/N, then for all n ∈ N, q^-1nq = n^1+ps where s ≥ 1 in general, but s ≥ 2 for p=2.

In Berkovich & Janko (2008, p. 257), Iwasawa's proof was deemed to have some essential gaps, which were filled by F. Napolitani and Z. Janko. Schmidt (1994) has provided an alternative proof along different lines in his textbook. As part of Schmidt's proof, he proves that a finite p-group is a modular group if and only if every subgroup is permutable, by (Schmidt 1994, Lemma 2.3.2, p. 55).

Every subgroup of a finite p-group is subnormal, and those finite groups in which subnormality and permutability coincide are called PT-groups. In other words, a finite p-group is an Iwasawa group if and only if it is a PT-group.

See also

• Modular law for groups

Further reading

Both finite and infinite M-groups are presented in textbook form in Schmidt (1994, Ch. 2). Modern study includes Zimmermann (1989).