Examples
Every group G can itself be thought of as a left or right G-torsor under the natural action of left or right multiplication.
Another example is the affine space concept: the idea of the affine space A underlying a vector space V can be said succinctly by saying that A is principal homogeneous space for V acting as the additive group of translations.
The flags of any regular polytope form a torsor for its symmetry group.
Given a vector space V we can take G to be the general linear group GL(V), and X to be the set of all (ordered) bases of V. Then G acts on X in the way that it acts on vectors of V; and it acts transitively since any basis can be transformed via G to any other. What is more, a linear transformation fixing each vector of a basis will fix all v in V, hence being the neutral element of the general linear group GL(V) : so that X is indeed a principal homogeneous space. One way to follow basis-dependence in a linear algebra argument is to track variables x in X. Similarly, the space of orthonormal bases (the Stiefel manifold of n-frames) is a principal homogeneous space for the orthogonal group.
In category theory, if two objects X and Y are isomorphic, then the isomorphisms between them, Iso(X,Y), form a torsor for the automorphism group of X, Aut(X), and likewise for Aut(Y); a choice of isomorphism between the objects gives an isomorphism between these groups and identifies the torsor with these two groups, and giving the torsor a group structure (as it is a base point).
Read more about this topic: Principal Homogeneous Space
Famous quotes containing the word examples:
“No rules exist, and examples are simply life-savers answering the appeals of rules making vain attempts to exist.”
—André Breton (1896–1966)
“In the examples that I here bring in of what I have [read], heard, done or said, I have refrained from daring to alter even the smallest and most indifferent circumstances. My conscience falsifies not an iota; for my knowledge I cannot answer.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“There are many examples of women that have excelled in learning, and even in war, but this is no reason we should bring ‘em all up to Latin and Greek or else military discipline, instead of needle-work and housewifry.”
—Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733)