Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2001/iii/paper-3/3/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 3 3 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the six-point matching geometry. A duad is an edge of the complete graph on six points, a syntheme is a perfect matching of its three pairs, and a pentad is a one-factorization: five pairwise edge-disjoint synthemes covering all fifteen duads.
First count the pentads without assuming their number. There are fifteen synthemes: the partner of the first point has five choices, the least remaining point then has three possible partners, and the last pair is forced. For a fixed syntheme , eight others share no edge with it: inclusion-exclusion gives . Two edge-disjoint synthemes have union a six-cycle. The complement of that cycle is a triangular prism, consisting of two triangles with three corresponding cross edges. It has precisely four perfect matchings: the all-cross matching and three matchings using one cross edge plus one edge from each triangle. The all-cross matching leaves two odd triangles and therefore cannot be completed by two matchings. The other three matchings are pairwise edge-disjoint and partition the prism. Hence extend to exactly one pentad.
Each pentad through uses four of its eight disjoint partners, and every partner gives exactly one completion. Thus lies in two pentads. Counting incidences gives pentads in total. Distinct pentads cannot share two synthemes because two disjoint synthemes determine their unique completion. Every syntheme therefore identifies a distinct pair of pentads; there are fifteen such pairs, so this incidence map is a bijection.
Permuting the six original points permutes the six pentads, defining a group homomorphism . It is faithful. If an element fixes every pentad, it fixes every syntheme by the pair-incidence bijection. A duad is the unique common edge of two distinct synthemes containing it, so every duad is fixed as well. A permutation fixing all two-element subsets fixes every point, by intersecting and for distinct . The kernel of a group homomorphism is therefore trivial. Both groups have order , so labeling the pentads produces an group automorphism of .
It remains to prove this group automorphism is outer. A transposition, say , fixes no pentad. If it fixed one, the unique syntheme in that pentad containing the duad would be fixed. Every other syntheme in the pentad contains 1 and 2 in separate edges. Swapping them changes those two edges but leaves the third edge unchanged. Hence is a distinct syntheme sharing an edge with , impossible for two members of the same pentad. Thus acts without fixed points on the six pentads and becomes a product of three disjoint transpositions.
Inner automorphisms preserve cycle type, whereas sends a single transposition to a triple transposition. ConsequentlyThis realizes the exceptional class-size coincidence from part (a). It is the full symmetric-group version of the pentad construction of the exceptional alternating-group automorphism, with faithfulness proved directly from incidence rather than borrowed from a simplicity theorem.
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