Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2002/paper-2/9/solution

Conjugacy classes. For , its conjugacy class is
Every element belongs to its own conjugacy class, by taking . To prove uniqueness, suppose belongs to both and . Then
For every , this makes a conjugate of as well. Hence , and reversing the argument gives the other inclusion. Two conjugacy classes that meet are therefore equal, proving that the classes partition .
Abelian case. If is an abelian group, then for every , so for each .
Centre. An element has a singleton conjugacy class precisely when for every , equivalently for every . Thus the definition in the paper agrees with the usual centre of a group:
The identity lies in . If , then for any , , so . Also implies , so . This proves it is a subgroup. Any two of its elements commute because either one commutes with every element of . Consequently .
Square symmetry. Use the paper's notation for the eight-element dihedral group of a square. Let be a quarter-turn and a reflection, so and . A rotation commutes with exactly when , or modulo four. This selects and . No reflection commutes with , because
and . Therefore

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