Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2011/ia/paper-3/5d/d/solution

Extend to a permutation of letters that fixes the last two letters. Let , and let be or according as is even or odd. Define
The two factors have disjoint supports and commute. Their signs cancel, so . Additivity of parity of a permutation modulo two gives
Thus is a group homomorphism. Its restriction to the first letters recovers , making it injective. Its image is therefore a subgroup isomorphic to :
This group embedding works for every positive , including the trivial case .

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