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Order (group theory)

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In group theory, the term order has different meanings in different contexts.

The order of a group G, sometimes denoted \ord(G), is the cardinality of its underlying set.

The order of an element x of G, \text{ord}(x), is the order of the subset generated by x. If \text{ord}(x) is finite, then it is also the least positive integer n for which x^n=e.

In number theory, for a relatively prime to n, the order of a (mod n) usually means the order of a in the multiplicative group of non-zero divisors in \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}.

By Lagrange's Theorem, \text{ord}(x) \mid \text{ord}(G), when G is finite. In a number theoretic context, this proves Fermat's Little Theorem and Euler's generalization.

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