Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2007/iii/paper-7/2/iv/solution

Adjoin to and take fixing it. Choose three distinct points and put . This is an even involution interchanging and . Conjugation by it preserves , because it permutes the remaining points and preserves parity. Thus .
If , the even permutation moves into . The alternating group is transitive for : a suitable 3-cycle carries any prescribed point to another. Choose with . Then is even and fixes , so and . All conditions of the double-coset criterion for a one-point extension hold, including when and is trivial.
The constructed extension lies in and has order . Therefore

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