Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-algebra-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2008/b/5/solution

Write with . For each divisor the subgroup has order . Conversely, if has order , Lagrange gives , and every satisfies , so . Therefore and . Equality follows from the common order. Thus there is exactly one subgroup for each divisor of .
For the Abelian assertion, take a surjection and let be the inverse image of . Every subgroup of has at most generators, by induction: its projection onto the first coordinate is either zero, reducing to , or for some . In the latter case choose one element with first coordinate ; subtracting its multiples reduces every element to the kernel, generated by at most elements by induction. The base case is the elementary description of subgroups of by their least positive element. Images of these generators generate , proving the claim.
In , the commuting disjoint transpositions generate . This is a three-dimensional vector space over , so it requires three generators and cannot be generated by two.
For each , take , generated by and the cycle . Its subgroup generated by
is . It requires generators by the same dimension argument, giving a two-generated group with a subgroup requiring more than generators.

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