Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-options-i-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2006/a/a1/solution

Write the group action as . A right group action satisfies and . Its orbit and stabilizer are
The identity belongs to . If , then , so . Also implies , so . Thus is a subgroup.
For the orbit-stabilizer theorem, the map , , is onto, and
Its fibers are precisely the right cosets , each containing elements. Counting these disjoint fibers gives
For the symmetric group , the six subgroups are
The group action has four orbits: each of , , and is fixed, while the three order-two subgroups form one orbit. Here an orbit is a collection of subgroups, rather than a collection of individual permutations.

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