Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/ia/paper-3/8d/solution

For each , conjugation sends a subgroup to , a subgroup of the same order and hence still proper. Identity conjugation fixes every subgroup, and
These verify the group action laws.
The stabilizer subgroup of for this conjugation action is its normalizer . Since , the orbit-stabilizer theorem gives the number of distinct conjugates as
All these conjugate subgroups contain the identity, so counting that element only once gives
The last inequality uses the properness of , so . There is therefore an element outside this union, which is not conjugate to any element of . This proves that conjugates of a proper subgroup do not cover a finite group, including the case .

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