Theorem in group theory
In group theory, the correspondence theorem[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] (also the lattice theorem,[9] and variously and ambiguously the third and fourth isomorphism theorem[6][10]) states that if
is a normal subgroup of a group
, then there exists a bijection from the set of all subgroups
of
containing
, onto the set of all subgroups of the quotient group
. Loosely speaking, the structure of the subgroups of
is exactly the same as the structure of the subgroups of
containing
, with
collapsed to the identity element.
Specifically, if
is a group,
, a normal subgroup of
,
, the set of all subgroups
of
that contain
, and
, the set of all subgroups of
,
then there is a bijective map
such that
for all 
One further has that if
and
are in
then
if and only if
;
- if
then
, where
is the index of
in
(the number of cosets
of
in
);
where
is the subgroup of
generated by 
, and
is a normal subgroup of
if and only if
is a normal subgroup of
.
This list is far from exhaustive. In fact, most properties of subgroups are preserved in their images under the bijection onto subgroups of a quotient group.
More generally, there is a monotone Galois connection
between the lattice of subgroups of
(not necessarily containing
) and the lattice of subgroups of
: the lower adjoint of a subgroup
of
is given by
and the upper adjoint of a subgroup
of
is a given by
. The associated closure operator on subgroups of
is
; the associated kernel operator on subgroups of
is the identity. A proof of the correspondence theorem can be found here.
Similar results hold for rings, modules, vector spaces, and algebras. More generally an analogous result that concerns congruence relations instead of normal subgroups holds for any algebraic structure.