Christian Alexander

Math 403, Professor Haines

1) The elements of S3 are the identity e, the three transpositions , and the two
permutations of all three elements. We know from class that , 6= e, and
that 2 = 3 = e. Thus 3 = 6= e; if 2 were equal to e, then wed have
= 3 = 2 2 = e, which is false. Thus, e and the three are the four
S3 with 2 = e, and e and the two are the three with 3 = e.
2) It is easy to see that any Sn with 2 = e, 6= e must be a product of disjoint
transpositions. (Proof: Choose any a Sn . Then (a) = b, and (b) = a, for
some b. For at least one a Sn , we will have a 6= b, since otherwise = e. Thus,
we can write as the product of all the non-trivial transpositions (a b) taken over
a Sn , which are of course disjoint.) If 4 = e, 6= e, then either 2 = e or not;
if so, then the above characterizes . If not, then it characterizes = 2 ; i.e.,
is a product of disjoint transpositions. Its straightforward but tedious to show
that 2 = (a b) is impossible; thus, S4 must be of the form (a b)(c d) (if any
exist). Since = 2 , we can read off that (a) = x, (x) = b, (b) = y, (y) = a;
we must have a, b, x, y all distinct, so this says that is a 4-cycle. Of course, if
S4 is a 4-cycle, then 2 is the product of two disjoint transpositions; so the
set of all such that 4 = e, 2 6= e is the set of all 4-cycles. Finally, we may
characterize all such that 4 = e: they are e, all products of disjoint 2-cycles,
and all 4-cycles.
3) (i) is trivially false: there are n! permutations of n elements, and each element
of Sn is just one such permutation. (ii) is true; every finite group necessarily
has this property. (iii) is true; this is the product on Sn . (iv) is false; (1 2)
(2 3) 6= (2 3) (1 2). (v) is false; (1 2) and (2 3) are both 2-cycles, whereas
(1 2) (2 3) is a 3-cycle. (vi) is true; if = (i1 ir ) is an r-cycle, then 1
is also an r-cycle, since 1 sends (ij ) (ik ) if sends ij ik , and so
1 = ((i1 ) (ir )) explicitly. (vii) is the opposite of true; transpositions
are odd, since (1)1 is negative. (viii) is true; this is a particular case of the
parity of permutations. (ix) is false; we can write (1 2 3 4) = (1 2)(1 3)(1 4) =
(1 2)(1 3)(2 4)(1 4)(1 2). (x) is trivially false; setting = e, we can put and
as any two distinct transpositions.
4) For part (a): the number of ways to choose r numbers from n is the product
(n) (n r + 1). Each choice determines an r-cycle up to cyclic permutation
of the elements; since r cyclic permutations are possible, the number of cycles
is 1r (n) (n r + 1). For part (b): in an entirely similar way to part (a), the
number of ways of creating k r-cycles will be r1k (n) (n kr + 1), since this
will be the number of ways to pick kr elements, i.e. k groups of r elements, from
which we obtain r1k (n) (n kr + 1) products of unique r-cycles. The only
worry is overcounting based on re-ordering of the cycles, which is accounted for
by the k! in the denominator.
5) For part (a): letting ik be any element in the cycle, r (ik ) = k (rk (ik )) =
1

k (i1 ) = ik . For part (b), observe that q < r says that irq 6= i1 , and q (irq ) =
i1 , so that q 6= e.
6) By induction: the base cases k = 1 and k = 2 are obvious, and if the claim
holds for k, then k+2 k+2 = k+1 k+1 = = k k = ()k =
()k+2 . Therefore the claim holds for k generally.
7) Suppose isnt the identity; then there must be some a 6= b such that (a) = b.
Let c differ from both a and b; then commutativity implies that (a c)(a c) = ;
but passing c into each side, we come out with b on the LHS, and (c) on the
other. If (c) 6= b, we have a contradiction; if they are equal, then (a) = (c)
says a = c, also a contradiction.
8) The system of (a) fails to be a group because the operation is not associative,
since (a b) c 6= a (b c) in general for integers. The system of (b) also
fails, since almost no elements have an inverse under the given operation. The
system of (c) works fine as a group; its isomorphic to (Z7 , +). The system of
(d) works fine, since its a closed subset, thus subgroup, of the ordinary group
of rational numbers.
9) A polynomial in Z[x] corresponds uniquely to a tuple (n, a0 , a1 , ...an ) of a positive integer n and integers a0 , a1 , ...an . Now consider the number of tuples
whose coefficients satisfy n + |a0 | + |a1 | + ... + |an | = N for some fixed N (let
T (N ) denote the set of all such tuples). Finding the number of solutions to
n + b0 + b1 + ... + bn = N with bi 0 for 0 i n is equivalent to finding the

number of solutions to (b0 + 1) + (b1 + 1) + ... + (bn + 1) = N ; and this is Nn1
(we are partitioning N by n + 1 positive integers, so a stars-and-bars argument
applies). Now, there are at most 2n+1 different tuples (a0 , a1 , ...an ) of integers,
not necessarily non-negative, corresponding to any partition (|a0 |, |a1 |, ...|an |);


PN
so we find that |T (N )| n=1 2n+1 Nn1 . In particular, T (N ) is finite. Now,
any tuple obviously belongs to T (N ) for some N ; so we find that
S the number of
polynomials in Z[x] is in correspondence with (a subset of) N N T (N ). This
set is a countable union of finite sets, and so is countable; and therefore the
integer-coefficient polynomials must be countable as well.