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I am defining a matrix group in GAP. I know that its a finite group, and can compute its order. Using sonata package and commands like AllGroups( Size( G ) ) and IsIsomorphicGroup( G, H ) commands, I can find the Group-ID in the GAP database.

I would like to identify this group with a well-known group like Dihedral, Quaternion, Cyclic, etc. Is there any way to achieve this?

m1 := [[0,-1],[1,0]] ;
m2 := [[0,1],[1,0]] ;
G := Group( m1, m2 );
Size( G );

One option I can think is to define these standard groups and check if $G$ is isomorphic to any of them! For example,

IsCyclic( G ); # This is easy!
Q := QuaternionGroup( Size( G ) );
IsIsomorphicGroup( G, Q );
D := DihedralGroup( Size( G ) );
IsIsomorphicGroup( G, D );

I know the term well-known is a vague, but these are the groups, I would understand from my textbook!

A possible (vague) general question can be asked, are there named groups in GAP?

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    $\begingroup$ I usually use StructureDescription(G) $\endgroup$
    – Easy
    Apr 12, 2019 at 13:29
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    $\begingroup$ From the manual of StructureDescription: Note that StructureDescription is not intended to be a research tool, but rather an educational tool. $\endgroup$ Apr 12, 2019 at 16:50
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    $\begingroup$ You can find the index in the small groups library easier with IdGroup. $\endgroup$
    – ahulpke
    Apr 12, 2019 at 19:15
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    $\begingroup$ What is a standard group is very subjective, beyond a handfull of small examples. There are libraries of groups in GAP that have names, but some names are specific to the library (even just: Number $x$ in the library), and classification provided by the library might involve actions and not only isomorphism. $\endgroup$
    – ahulpke
    Apr 12, 2019 at 19:23
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    $\begingroup$ A plug for a webpage of my colleague Tim Dokchitser: people.maths.bris.ac.uk/~matyd/GroupNames. Descriptions and impressively much information about impressively many groups of order up to 500, which you can find by their SmallGroups ID. Not all of them, of course. $\endgroup$ Apr 13, 2019 at 12:40

1 Answer 1

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You might notice that $m_2$ and $m_1m_2$ both have order two, and your group is certainly generated by $m_2$ and $m_1m_2$, therefore, it must be dihedral. (In this case, of order $8$, since $m_1$ has order $4$.)

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