Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-groups-and-representations-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/1/b/solution

Write the two Pauli matrices as
They satisfy , and . Moving every to the left of every reduces each word to one of eight distinct matrices. Consequently
Taking , gives and , identifying the group with the dihedral group of a square.
The elements are central. Conjugating by changes its sign, and similarly for and . No conjugation mixes these pairs: modulo the central subgroup the quotient group is the Klein four-group and hence Abelian. Thus the conjugacy classes are precisely
There are five complex irreducible representations, one for each conjugacy class. In a one-dimensional representation, the images of are signs . Since they commute, maps to , and all four choices of satisfy the relations. These are four inequivalent one-dimensional representations. The sum of squares of irreducible representation dimensions leaves for the fifth, so the dimensions are

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