Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/ia/paper-3/8d/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ia Paper 3 8D a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The identity belongs to the center of a group. If commute with every , then does too; rearranging also shows that commutes with . Hence is a subgroup. Moreover for , so it is a normal subgroup.
Suppose . The conjugation action partitions into conjugacy classes. The orbit-stabilizer theorem gives class size , where is the centralizer of . By Lagrange's theorem, this size is a power of ; it is one exactly when is central. Thus the class equation has the formIt follows that . Since the identity is central, , and thereforeThis is the nontrivial-centre property of a finite p-group.
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