MATH 3005 Homework Han-Bom Moon

Homework 5 Solution
Chapter 5 - Permutation groups.
due: Oct. 17.

1. Let
" # " #
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
= , = .
3 4 1 2 6 7 5 8 6 5 4 1 3 2 8 7

(a) Compute , , and 1 .

" # " #
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
= , = ,
7 6 2 3 1 4 8 5 4 1 6 5 2 8 3 7
" #
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 = .
3 4 1 2 7 5 6 8

(b) Write , , as products of disjoint cycles.

= (13)(24)(567), = (162534)(78), = (1785)(2643).

(c) Write , , as products of 2-cycles.

= (13)(24)(57)(56), = (14)(13)(15)(12)(16)(78),

= (15)(18)(17)(23)(24)(26).

(d) Find || and ||.

|| = lcm(2, 2, 3) = 6, || = lcm(6, 2) = 6.

2. Let
= (1357)(462), = (265)(13)(47).

(a) Write , , 1 as products of disjoint cycles.

= (154)(67), = (273)(45), 1 = (1753)(264).

(b) Write , , as products of 2-cycles.

= (17)(15)(13)(42)(46), = (25)(26)(13)(47), = (14)(15)(67).

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MATH 3005 Homework Han-Bom Moon

(c) Write , , as matrix forms.

" # " #
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
= , = ,
3 4 5 6 7 2 1 3 6 1 7 2 5 4
" #
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
= .
5 2 3 1 4 7 6

(d) Find || and ||.

|| = lcm(4, 3) = 12, , || = lcm(3, 2, 2) = 6.

3. (a) Find the maximum of || for S10 . Find an element of S10 with the
maximum order.

If we decompose 10 as a sum of positive integers, then the set of all partitions

is

{10, 9 + 1, 8 + 2, 8 + 1 + 1, 7 + 3, 7 + 2 + 1, 7 + 1 + 1 + 1, 6 + 4, 6 + 3 + 1, 6 + 2 + 2,

6 + 2 + 1 + 1, 6 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1, 5 + 5, 5 + 4 + 1, 5 + 3 + 2, 5 + 3 + 1 + 1, 5 + 2 + 2 + 1,
5+2+1+1+1, 5+1+1+1+1+1, 4+4+2, 4+4+1+1, 4+3+3, 4+3+2+1,
4+3+1+1+1, 4+2+2+2, 4+2+2+1+1, 4+2+1+1+1+1, 4+1+1+1+1+1+1,
3 + 3 + 3 + 1, 3 + 3 + 2 + 2, 3 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 1, 3 + 3 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1, 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1,
3+2+2+1+1+1, 3+2+1+1+1+1+1, 3+1+1+1+1+1+1+1, 2+2+2+2+2,
2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1, 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1, 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1,
2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1, 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1}.
In each case, if we compute the least common multiple of the integers, then
the maximum occurs when 5 + 3 + 2, and lcm(5, 3, 2) = 30. Therefore the
maximum order is 30 and = (12345)(678)(9, 10) is an element of the order.
20
[
(b) Among elements of Sn , find the maximum order and an element with
n=2
the maximum order. (If you are really interested in, try to make a computer
program calculating m(n) := the maximum order of an element in Sn , for
n 100. Can you find any patterns?)

Many of students successfully made some computer code to find the maxi-
mum order. It seems that this computation is too lengthy and heavy to do
by your hands, but you may realize that actually the most part of the com-
putation above is redundant. Here are several observations to reduce the
computation.
Step 1. It is sufficient to consider partitions with1out repeated integers, be-
cause the repeated integers do not affect on the least common multiple. So
we may assume that a1 > a2 > > ak for a given partition a1 +a2 + +ak .

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MATH 3005 Homework Han-Bom Moon

Step 2. Moreover, it is sufficient to consider partitions consisting of integers

a1 , a2 , , ak such that no ai is a multiple of aj . If there are such ai and aj ,
then after removing aj , the least common multiple is same.
Step 3. If a given partition a1 > a2 > > ak has the sum less than 20 and if
there is a positive integer b 20 (a1 + a2 + + ak ) such that b is relatively
prime to all of ai s, then by adding b to the partition, we can get a partition
with larger least common multiple.
Step 4. Whenever we have a partition which is a sub partition of the partition
on our list, we may omit it.
Now if you find all of such partitions of numbers at most 20, we have a
relatively reasonable size of set of partitions we need to consider:

{20, 19, 18, 17+3, 16+3, 15+4, 14+5, 14+3, 13+7, 13+5+2, 13+4+3, 13+3+2,

12+7, 12+5+3, 11+9, 11+8, 11+7+2, 11+6, 11+5+4, 11+5+3, 11+5+2,

11+4+3, 10+9, 10+7+3, 9+8, 9+7+2, 9+5+4, 8+7+5, 8+7+3, 8+5+3, 7+6+5,
7 + 5 + 4 + 3, 7 + 5 + 3 + 2}
Among those partitions, the maximum of the least common multiple occurs
at lcm(7 + 5 + 4 + 3) = 420. Therefore the maximum order is 420.

4. Let G be a group of permutations on a set X. Let x X and define stab(x) =

{ G | (x) = x}. Show that stab(x) G. This subgroup is called the stabilizer
of x in G.

Note that the constant map Id has the property that Id(x) = x, so Id stab(x)
and stab(x) 6= . If , stab(x), then (x) = ((x)) = (x) = x. Therefore
stab(x). Also if stab(x), then 1 (x) = 1 ((x)) = (1 )(x) =
Id(x) = x. So 1 stab(x). Thus stab(x) G.

5. Prove that every element in Sn (n > 1) can be written as a product of 2-cycles of

the form (1k). (This problem says that Sn is generated by n 1 elements. Indeed,
for every n 3, Sn can be generated by only two (!) elements, although the
structure of Sn is extremely complicated. Compare to the case of groups with a
single generator - cyclic groups.)

Every Sn can be written as a product of 2-cycles. So it is sufficient to check

that each two cycle (ab) with a, b > 1 is a product of (1k)s. Now (ab) = (1a)(1b)(1a).

6. By labeling four vertices of a square as 1, 2, 3, and 4 counterclockwise, we may

regard D4 as a permutation group, that is, a subgroup of S4 .

(a) Describe all elements of D4 as a permutation of those four elements.

Let i be the vertex on the i-th quadrant.

R0 = e, R90 = (1234), R180 = (13)(24), R270 = (1432),

H = (14)(23), V = (12)(34), D = (14), D0 = (23).

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MATH 3005 Homework Han-Bom Moon

(b) Among them, find all even permutations.

It is clear that R0 , R180 , H, V are even permutations and D, D0 are odd per-
mutations. Now R90 = (14)(13)(12) and R270 = (12)(13)(14), so they are
odd permutations, too.

7. Let G be a subgroup of Sn .

(a) If there is an odd permutation G, then show that exactly half of the
elements of G are even. (How can we show the fact that the given set has an
even number of elements?)

Let E be the set of even permutations in G, and let O be the set of odd
permutations in G. Define a map f : E O, as f () = . This map is well-
defined, because a product of an odd permutation and an even permutation
is odd. f is one-to-one, because

f (1 ) = f (2 ) 1 = 2 1 = 2

from the cancellation of . The map f is onto because for every odd permu-
tation O, 1 E and f (1 ) = 1 = . So f is a bijection and
|E| = |O|. So we have |G| = |E| + |O| = 2|E| and |G| is even.
(b) Suppose that G has odd number of elements. Show that G An . (Hint: Use
(a).)

If G has an odd permutation, then |G| must be even by (a). So if |G| is odd,
then all elements of G are even permutations. Therefore G An .