Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/paper-2/10/iv/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2014 Paper 2 10 iv Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Write the lower block of as . ThenA representation of must satisfy its defining relation , so . For real , this means or ; it also ensures invertibility.
If , then while . The image of the generator has order four, so its four powers are distinct and the representation is faithful. If , then but , since the lower block has zero diagonal. The image has order two and the kernel is . HenceFor other values there is no representation of , rather than an additional unfaithful case; in particular would make the assigned matrix singular. These conclusions are the faithfulness criterion for a block representation of the cyclic group of order four. There is no requirement that the proposed representation be orthogonal, so no separate conditions should be imposed.
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