Dear GAP forum,
are the following versions of semidirect products isomorphic? Suppose N and S are groups, and h in Hom(S,Aut(N)) is a homomorphism from S to the automorphism group Aut(N) of N. Then we can define group operations on the cartesian product N*S = { (n,s) | n in N, s in S } in two ways: Right-sided version (as usual): (n,s)*(m,t) := (n*[h(s)](m), s*t), where h(s) in Aut(N), with inverse elements (n,s)^{-1} = ([h(t^{-1})](s^{-1}),t^{-1}). Left-sided version (rather unusual): (n,s)*(m,t) := ([h(t^{-1})](n)*m, s*t), where h(t^{-1}) in Aut(N), with inverse elements (n,s)^{-1} = ([h(t)](s^{-1}),t^{-1}). The operations are associative, with neutral element (1,1). For both group operations, N*1 is a normal subgroup of N*S and 1*S is a subgroup of N*S. Does the assigned homomorphism h determine a semidirect product structure on N*S uniquely ? Daniel C. Mayer _______________________________________________ Forum mailing list Forum@mail.gap-system.org http://mail.gap-system.org/mailman/listinfo/forum