Groups of order 8

This article gives information about, and links to more details on, groups of order 8
See pages on algebraic structures of order 8 | See pages on groups of a particular order

This article gives basic information comparing and contrasting the groups of order $8$. See also more detailed information on specific subtopics through the links:

Information type	Page summarizing information for groups of order 8
element structure	element structure of groups of order 8
subgroup structure	subgroup structure of groups of order 8
linear representation theory	linear representation theory of groups of order 8

The list

Common name for group	Second part of GAP ID (GAP ID is (8,second part))	Hall-Senior number	Hall-Senior symbol	Nilpotency class
cyclic group:Z8	1	3	$(3)$	1
direct product of Z4 and Z2	2	2	$(21)$	1
dihedral group:D8	3	4	$8\Gamma _{2}a_{1}$	2
quaternion group	4	5	$8\Gamma _{2}a_{2}$	2
elementary abelian group:E8	5	1	$(1^{3})$	1

To learn more about how to come up with the list and prove that it is exhaustive (i.e., that these are precisely the isomorphism classes of groups of order 8), see classification of groups of prime-cube order

To understand these in a broader context, see
groups of order 2^n|groups of prime-cube order

Subgroup/quotient relationships

Subgroup relationships

Quotient relationships

Arithmetic functions

Functions taking values between 0 and 3

Group	GAP ID (second part)	Hall-senior number	prime-base logarithm of exponent	nilpotency class	derived length	Frattini length	minimum size of generating set	subgroup rank	rank as p-group	normal rank	characteristic rank	prime-base logarithm of order of derived subgroup	prime-base logarithm of order of inner automorphism group
Cyclic group:Z8	1	3	3	1	1	3	1	1	1	1	1	0	0
Direct product of Z4 and Z2	2	2	2	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	0	0
Dihedral group:D8	3	4	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	2
Quaternion group	4	5	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	2
Elementary abelian group:E8	5	1	1	1	1	1	3	3	3	3	3	0	0

Here now is the same table along with various measures of averages and deviations: [SHOW MORE]

Group	GAP ID (second part)	Hall-senior number	prime-base logarithm of exponent	nilpotency class	derived length	Frattini length	minimum size of generating set	subgroup rank	rank as p-group	normal rank	characteristic rank	prime-base logarithm of order of derived subgroup	prime-base logarithm of order of inner automorphism group
Cyclic group:Z8	1	3	3	1	1	3	1	1	1	1	1	0	0
Direct product of Z4 and Z2	2	2	2	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	0	0
Dihedral group:D8	3	4	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	2
Quaternion group	4	5	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	2
Elementary abelian group:E8	5	1	1	1	1	1	3	3	3	3	3	0	0
Mean			2	1.4	1.4	2	2	2	1.8	1.8	1.6	0.4	0.8
Median			2	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	1	0	0
Mode			2	1	1	2	2	2	1	1	1	0	0
Standard deviation			0.71	0.55	0.55	0.71	0.71	0.84	0.84	0.89	0.55	1.1
Standard deviation to mean ratio		0.35	0.39	0.39	0.35	0.35	0.35	0.46	0.46	0.56	1.37	1.37

Same, with rows and columns interchanged:

Function	Cyclic group:Z8	Direct product of Z4 and Z2	Dihedral group:D8	Quaternion group	Elementary abelian group:E8
prime-base logarithm of exponent	3	2	2	2	1
nilpotency class	1	1	2	2	1
derived length	1	1	2	2	1
Frattini length	3	2	2	2	1
minimum size of generating set	1	2	2	2	3
subgroup rank	1	2	2	2	3
rank as p-group	1	2	2	1	3
normal rank as p-group	1	2	2	1	3
characteristic rank as p-group	1	2	1	1	3

Here are the correlations between these various arithmetic functions across the groups of order 8: [SHOW MORE]

Arithmetic function	prime-base logarithm of exponent	nilpotency class	derived length	Frattini length	minimum size of generating set	subgroup rank	rank	normal rank	characteristic rank	prime-base logarithm of order of derived subgroup	prime-base logarithm of order of inner automorphism group
prime-base logarithm of exponent	1	0	0	1	-1	-1	-0.85	-0.85	-0.79	0	0
nilpotency class	0	1	1	0	0	0	-0.33	-0.33	-0.61	1	1
derived length	0	1	1	0	0	0	-0.33	-0.33	-0.61	1	1
Frattini length	1	0	0	1	-1	-1	-0.85	-0.85	-0.79	0	0
minimum size of generating set	-1	0	0	-1	1	1	0.85	0.85	0.79	0	0
subgroup rank	-1	0	0	-1	1	1	0.85	0.85	0.79	0	0
rank as p-group	-0.85	-0.33	-0.33	-0.85	0.85	0.85	1	1	0.87	-0.33	-0.33
normal rank as p-group	-0.85	-0.33	-0.33	-0.85	0.85	0.85	1	1	0.87	-0.33	-0.33
characteristic rank as p-group	-0.79	-0.61	-0.61	-0.79	0.79	0.79	0.87	0.87	1	-0.61	-0.61
prime-base logarithm of order of derived subgroup	0	1	1	0	0	0	-0.33	-0.33	-0.61	1	1
prime-base logarithm of order of inner automorphism group	0	1	1	0	0	0	-0.33	-0.33	-0.61	1	1

Arithmetic function values of a counting nature

Group	GAP ID (second part)	Hall-senior number	number of conjugacy classes	number of subgroups	number of conjugacy classes of subgroups	number of normal subgroups	number of automorphism classes of subgroups	number of characteristic subgroups
Cyclic group:Z8	1	3	8	4	4	4	4	4
Direct product of Z4 and Z2	2	2	8	8	8	8	6	4
Dihedral group:D8	3	4	5	10	8	6	6	4
Quaternion group	4	5	5	6	6	6	4	3
Elementary abelian group:E8	5	1	8	16	16	16	4	2

Here is the same table, with rows and columns interchanged:

Function	Cyclic group:Z8	Direct product of Z4 and Z2	Dihedral group:D8	Quaternion group	Elementary abelian group:E8
number of conjugacy classes	8	8	5	5	8
number of subgroups	4	8	10	6	16
number of conjugacy classes of subgroups	4	8	8	6	16
number of normal subgroups	4	8	6	6	16
number of automorphism classes of subgroups	4	6	6	4	4
number of characteristic subgroups	4	4	4	3	2

Arithmetic function values of a representational nature

Group	GAP ID (second part)	Hall-senior number	minimum degree of faithful permutation representation	minimum degree of faithful transitive permutation representation	minimum degree of faithful linear representation over $\mathbb {C}$	symmetric genus
cyclic group:Z8	1	3	8	8	1	?
direct product of Z4 and Z2	2	2	6	8 (at most)	2	?
dihedral group:D8	3	4	4	4	2	?
quaternion group	4	5	8	8	2	?
elementary abelian group:E8	5	1	6	8 (at most)	3	?

Numerical invariants

Group	Conjugacy class sizes	Degrees of irreducible representations
cyclic group:Z8	1 (8 times)	1 (8 times)
direct product of Z4 and Z2	1 (8 times)	1 (8 times)
dihedral group:D8	1,1,2,2,2	1,1,1,1,2
quaternion group	1,1,2,2,2	1,1,1,1,2
elementary abelian group:E8	1 (8 times)	1 (8 times)

Group properties

Property	Cyclic group:Z8	Direct product of Z4 and Z2	Dihedral group:D8	Quaternion group	Elementary abelian group:E8
cyclic group	Yes	No	No	No	No
elementary abelian group	No	No	No	No	Yes
abelian group	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
homocyclic group	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
metacyclic group	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
metabelian group	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
group of nilpotency class two	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
maximal class group	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
ambivalent group	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
rational group	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
rational-representation group	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
group in which every element is automorphic to its inverse	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
group in which any two elements generating the same cyclic subgroup are automorphic	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
T-group	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
C-group	No	No	No	No	Yes
SC-group	No	No	No	No	Yes
UL-equivalent group	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Classification and families

Up to isoclinism

Up to the relation of being isoclinic, there are two equivalence classes:

Description of equivalence class	Members	Hall-Senior name	Second parts of IDs of members
abelian groups of order eight	cyclic group:Z8, direct product of Z4 and Z2, elementary abelian group:E8	$8\Gamma _{1}$	1,2,5
non-abelian groups of order eight	dihedral group:D8, quaternion group	$8\Gamma _{2}$	3,4

Up to Hall-Senior genus

Up to the relation of groups having the same Hall-Senior genus, there are four equivalence classes:

Description of equivalence class	Members	Hall-Senior name	Hall-Senior numbers	Second parts of GAP ID of members
Cyclic group	cyclic group:Z8	$(3)$	3	1
Abelian group for partition $3=2+1$	direct product of Z4 and Z2	$(21)$	2	2
Non-abelian groups	dihedral group:D8, quaternion group	$8\Gamma _{2}a$ (the dihedral group is $8\Gamma _{2}a_{1}$ and the quaternion group is $8\Gamma _{2}a_{2}$)	4,5	3,4
Elementary abelian group	elementary abelian group:E8	$(1^{3})$	1	5

Element structure

Further information: element structure of groups of order 8

Order statistics

FACTS TO CHECK AGAINST:

ORDER STATISTICS (cf. order statistics, order statistics-equivalent finite groups): number of nth roots is a multiple of n | Finite abelian groups with the same order statistics are isomorphic | Lazard Lie group has the same order statistics as the additive group of its Lazard Lie ring | Frobenius conjecture on nth roots

1-ISOMORPHISM (cf. 1-isomorphic groups): Lazard Lie group is 1-isomorphic to the additive group of its Lazard Lie ring | order statistics-equivalent not implies 1-isomorphic

Here are the statistics for a particular order.

Group	Second part of GAP ID	Hall-Senior number	Number of elements of order 1	Number of elements of order 2	Number of elements of order 4	Number of elements of order 8
cyclic group:Z8	1	3	1	1	2	4
direct product of Z4 and Z2	2	2	1	3	4	0
dihedral group:D8	3	4	1	5	2	0
quaternion group	4	5	1	1	6	0
elementary abelian group:E8	5	1	1	7	0	0

Here are the number of $n^{th}$ root statistics. The number of $n^{th}$ roots equals the number of elements whose order divides $n$.

Group	Second part of GAP ID	Hall-Senior number	Number of first roots	Number of $2^{nd}$ roots	Number of $4^{th}$ roots	Number of $8^{th}$ roots
cyclic group:Z8	1	3	1	2	4	8
direct product of Z4 and Z2	2	2	1	4	8	8
dihedral group:D8	3	4	1	6	8	8
quaternion group	4	5	1	2	8	8
elementary abelian group:E8	5	1	1	8	8	8

Equivalence classes

No two of the groups of order 8 are order statistics-equivalent, and hence no two of them are 1-isomorphic.

Subgroup structure

Detailed information

Group	Second part of GAP ID	Subgroup structure page
Cyclic group:Z8	1	--
Direct product of Z4 and Z2	2	subgroup structure of direct product of Z4 and Z2
Dihedral group:D8	3	subgroup structure of dihedral group:D8
Quaternion group	4	subgroup structure of quaternion group
Elementary abelian group:E8	5	--

Number of subgroups per isomorphism type

The number in each column is the number of subgroups in the given group of that isomorphism type:

Group	Second part of GAP ID	Hall-Senior number	cyclic group:Z2	cyclic group:Z4	Klein four-group	Total (row sum + 2, for trivial group and whole group)
cyclic group:Z8	1	3	1	1	0	4
direct product of Z4 and Z2	2	2	3	2	1	8
dihedral group:D8	3	4	5	1	2	10
quaternion group	4	5	1	3	0	6
elementary abelian group:E8	5	1	7	0	7	16

Number of normal subgroups per isomorphism type

Group	Second part of GAP ID	Hall-Senior number	cyclic group:Z2	cyclic group:Z4	Klein four-group	Total (row sum + 2, for trivial group and whole group)
cyclic group:Z8	1	3	1	1	0	4
direct product of Z4 and Z2	2	2	3	2	1	8
dihedral group:D8	3	4	1	1	2	6
quaternion group	4	5	1	3	0	6
elementary abelian group:E8	5	1	7	0	7	16

Number of subgroups of various kinds per order

Group	Second part of GAP ID	Hall-Senior number	Subgroups of order 2	Normal subgroups of order 2	Subgroups of order 4	Normal subgroups of order 4
cyclic group:Z8	1	3	1	1	1	1
direct product of Z4 and Z2	2	2	3	3	3	3
dihedral group:D8	3	4	5	1	3	3
quaternion group	4	5	1	1	3	3
elementary abelian group:E8	5	1	7	7	7	7

Possibilities for maximal subgroups

Collection of isomorphism classes of maximal subgroups	Groups
cyclic group:Z4 only	cyclic group:Z8, quaternion group
Klein four-group only	elementary abelian group:E8
cyclic group:Z4 and Klein four-group	direct product of Z4 and Z2, dihedral group:D8

Subgroup-defining functions

Values up to isomorphism type

Subgroup-defining function	Cyclic group:Z8	Direct product of Z4 and Z2	Dihedral group:D8	Quaternion group	Elementary abelian group:E8
center	cyclic group:Z8	direct product of Z4 and Z2	cyclic group:Z2	cyclic group:Z2	elementary abelian group:E8
derived subgroup	trivial group	trivial group	cyclic group:Z2	cyclic group:Z2	trivial group
Frattini subgroup	cyclic group:Z4	cyclic group:Z2	cyclic group:Z2	cyclic group:Z2	trivial group

Automorphism groups

Group	GAP ID (second part)	Order of automorphism group	Iso. class of automorphism group	Log_2 of largest power of 2 dividing automorphism group	Iso. class of 2-Sylow subgroup of automorphism group	Log_2 of order of 2-core	Iso. class of 2-core	Log_2 of order of inner automorphism group	Iso. class of inner automorphism group
cyclic group:Z8	1	4	Klein four-group	2	Klein four-group	2	Klein four-group	0	trivial group
direct product of Z4 and Z2	2	8	dihedral group:D8	3	dihedral group:D8	3	dihedral group:D8	0	trivial group
dihedral group:D8	3	8	dihedral group:D8	3	dihedral group:D8	3	dihedral group:D8	2	Klein four-group
quaternion group	4	24	symmetric group:S4	3	dihedral group:D8	2	Klein four-group	2	Klein four-group
elementary abelian group:E8	5	168	general linear group:GL(3,2)	3	dihedral group:D8	0	trivial group	0	trivial group

Associated constructs

Associated construct	Cyclic group:Z8	Direct product of Z4 and Z2	Dihedral group:D8	Quaternion group	Elementary abelian group:E8
automorphism group	Klein four-group	dihedral group:D8	dihedral group:D8	symmetric group:S4	general linear group:GL(3,2)
inner automorphism group	trivial group	trivial group	Klein four-group	Klein four-group	trivial group
holomorph	holomorph of Z8	upper-triangular unipotent matrix group:U(4,2)	holomorph of D8	holomorph of Q8	general affine group:GA(3,2)