MATH 151, Assignment 5 Solutions

Name: Oscar

Date: 02/25/15

2.85 Prove the following claim for cycles in Sn .

(b) If and are two disjoint cycles then | | = lcm(||, | |).
Proof. Since and are disjoint then ( )k = k k , for every k Z. If r = lcm(||, | |),
then both ||, and | | divide r. It follows that
( )r = r r = e e = e
So, | | divides r.
Now assume that ( )k = e, then k = k . Since and are disjoint, the functions k
and k are also disjoint. Hence, having k = k implies k = k = e. It follows that ||
and | | divide k, and thus k is at least r. In particular, for k = | |, we get that | | is at
least r.
Putting it all together we get that | | = r.

2.95 Prove the following claims about permutations in Sn .
(a) A k-cycle is even if and only if k is odd.
(c) Let Sn , then An 1 = An .
Hint: Exercise 2.76.
Proof. (a) Using Exercise 2.87, part (c) , we get that
(a1 a2 ak ) = (a1 a2 )(a2 a3 ) (ak1 ak )
It follows that the number of transpositions on the right-hand side expression is even if and
only if k is odd.
(c) Let Sn , an odd permutation. Note that 1 is also odd, because if it were not, then
it would be even, which would force to be even (An is a group). Impossible.
Now let An , then 1 must be even, as the sum of two odd integers and an even
integer is even. It follows that An 1 An . On the other hand, if An then so does
1 (same reasons used above). It follows that = ( 1 ) 1 An 1 . Hence,
An An 1 .

2.96 Let n N.
(e) Prove that the set of all odd permutations in Sn is a coset of An .
n!
(f ) Conclude that |An | = .
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Proof. (e) From previous parts we get that every odd permutation is of the form , where
is a fixed odd permutation. It follows that the set of all odd permutations in Sn is a coset
of An .
(f ) From part (e), Sn is the union of two cosets of An : An itself and the set of all odd
n!
permutations. Hence, [Sn : An ] = 2 and thus |An | = .

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2.99 (a) What is the element in S5 that corresponds to the clockwise rotation in 144 (which is
an element of D5 )?
(b) Give an example of an element in S5 that does not correspond to an element in D5 .
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Proof. (a) The standard one click to the right rotation R D5 is a clockwise rotation
in 72 (because 5 72 = 360). It follows that the clockwise rotation in 144 is R2 . Since
R = (12345), then R2 = (13524).
(b) Consider = (12). This is not an element in D5 because if 1 and 2 exchange places
then we should get a reflection, and this reflection should move even more vertices than just
those two.

2.102 (c) Compute the following products in D6 :
(iii) RF R1

(iv) R4 F 3 R3 F

(v) R2 F R1 F

(vii) RF R2 F R3 F R4 F

Proof. We know that Rk F = F Rk , for all k N.

(iii) (RF )R1 = (F R1 )R1 = F R2 = F R4 .
(iv) R4 F 3 R3 F = R4 F (R3 F ) = R4 F (F R3 ) = R4 F 2 R3 = R
(v) R2 F R1 F = R4 F (R5 F ) = R4 F (F R5 ) = R4 F 2 R5 = R1 = R5
(vii) RF (R2 F )R3 F (R4 F ) = RF (F R2 )R3 F (F R4 ) = RF 2 R2 R3 F 2 R4 = R1 R1 =
R2 = R4


Extra Credit: Prove the following claims for permutations in Sn .

(b) If = (a1 a2 ak ), Sn , then 1 = ( (a1 ) (a2 ) (ak )), where (ai ) is the image
of ai under . Note that both and 1 are k-cycles.
(c) (a1 a2 ak ) = (a1 ak ) (a1 a3 )(a1 a2 ) = (a1 a2 )(a2 a3 ) (ak1 ak ).
Conclude that every permutation can be written as a product of transpositions.
Proof. (b) Since is bijective then every element in {1, 2, n} can be written as (x) for some
x {1, 2, n}. Hence, in order to show that 1 (y) = ( (a1 ) (a2 ) (ak ))(y) for all y
{1, 2, n} we could just show 1 ( (x)) = ( (a1 ) (a2 ) (ak ))( (x)) for all x {1, 2, n}.
We get
1 ( (x)) = ( (a1 ) (a2 ) (ak ))( (x))
which is
(x) = ( (a1 ) (a2 ) (ak )) (x)
So, if x = ai , for some i, then
(ai ) = (ai+1 mod k ) = ( (a1 ) (a2 ) (ak )) (ai )
If x 6= ai , for all i, then
(ai ) = (x) = x = ( (a1 ) (a2 ) (ak )) (x)
(c) A proof by induction is short and gives very little insight on what is really going on here. So,
I will provide a longer proof, but that really shows how it all works.
Consider the functions = (a1 a2 ak ) and = (a1 ak ) (a1 a3 )(a1 a2 ). We want to show = ,
so we need to show (x) = (x), for all x {1, 2, 3, , n}.
If x = ai for some i, then (ai ) = ai+1 mod k . On the other hand, we have three cases:
(i) If x = a1 then (a1 ) = a2 , as a2 only appears in the far-most right transposition only. This is
consistent with having (a1 ) = a2 .
(ii) If x = ak then (ak ) = a1 , as ak only appears in the far-most left transposition only. This is
consistent with having (ak ) = a1 .
(iii) If x 6= a1 , ak then ai appears exactly once in the transpositions of . Hence, ai will be fixed
by whatever is to the right of (a1 ak ) (a1 ai+1 )(a1 ai ) (in the product of transpositions of ). Now
it is easy to see that ai will be first moved to a1 and then to ai+1 . Since ai+1 does not appear
anymore in this product then (ai ) = ai+1 , which is consistent with what does.
If x 6= ai , for all i then both and fix this element.
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Now consider the functions = (a1 a2 ak ) and = (a1 a2 )(a2 a3 ) (ak1 ak ). We want to show
= , so we need to show (x) = (x), for all x {1, 2, 3, , n}.
If x = ai for some i, then (ai ) = ai+1 mod k . On the other hand, we notice that every ai 6= a1 , ak
appears in exactly two cycles in . Hence, we need to take cases again:
(i) If x = a1 then (a1 ) = a2 , as only the cycle (a1 a2 ) affects a1 . We are done because (a1 ) = a2 .
(ii) If x = ak , then the first transposition on the right sends ak to ak1 , but then the next one
sends ak1 to ak2 , and so on, until reaching a1 . It follows that (ak ) = a1 , which is exactly what
does to ak .
(iii) If x 6= a1 , ak then the first cycle (on the right) that moves ai is (ai ai+1 ), which sends ai to
ai+1 . At this point there are no ai+1 s on the cycles to the left of (ai ai+1 ), and thus (ai ) = ai+1 .
Just like .
Since every permutation is a product of cycles, and each cycle is a product of transpositions, then
it follows that each permutation is a product of transpositions.