Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/prelims/mathematics-i/7/b/ii/solution

For a free group action, every stabilizer subgroup is . By the orbit-stabilizer theorem, every orbit of a group action has cardinality . Hence the two free group actions have the same number
of orbits of a group action. Choose one representative from each orbit of a group action and one representative from each orbit of a group action, and match them using .
Every has a unique expression . The orbit of a group action determines , and the free group action property determines : if , then , forcing . Therefore the rule
defines a function without ambiguity. For ,
which proves the required identity for every .
Indeed, is a bijection: its inverse is , well defined because the second is also a free group action. If is empty, the unique empty function already satisfies the identity. Thus the result holds in every case, and proves the stronger statement that free finite actions with equal cardinality are isomorphic.

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