Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/paper-2/10/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2016 Paper 2 10 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
A cyclic group of order contains an element of order two if and only if divides . Necessity follows from Lagrange's theorem; for even , the unique such element is . HenceBecause has order and the representation is faithful, cannot be a reflection, which has order two. It is therefore a rotation through a primitive angle , with . The condition on the greatest common divisor is exactly what makes its order rather than a proper divisor. Since is even, is odd, so is the half-turn:The character is the trace:Choosing the primitive generator with gives the customary rotation representation. The general coprime value is included because faithfulness alone does not select that generator. These are the two-dimensional cases in the irreducible real representations of a finite cyclic group.
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