Every Subgroup of an Abelian Group is Normal

Theorem

Let \(G\) be an abelian group and \(H\) a subgroup. Then \(H \trianglelefteq G\), that is, \(H\) is normal in \(G\).

Proof

Let \(g \in G\) and \(h \in H\). Now, because we are in a commutative group, we have

\[\begin{align*} g \ast h \ast g^{-1} &= g \ast g^{-1} \ast h \\ &= \mathrm{id} \ast h \\ &= h \in H \\ \end{align*}\]

and thus \(H\) is normal.