Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2026/ia/paper-3/7d/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 ia Paper 3 7D Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
An action is a map satisfying and ; it induces . Acting on the left cosets of gives a homomorphism with kernel contained in . If were trivial, would divide , so under the stated hypothesis is nontrivial. For with the least prime divisor of , the transitive image in has order divisible by ; its other possible prime divisors are smaller, hence absent, so its order is . Thus the kernel has index and, being contained in , equals . Prime index alone is insufficient: a subgroup generated by a transposition in has index and is not normal.
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