Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-options-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2009/b/b2/ii/solution
Past exam of the options II course of the University of Oxford 2009 B B2 ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
Let act by left multiplication on its five left cosets of . This gives a group homomorphism . Its kernel is the core of a subgroup, : an element fixes every coset precisely when all its conjugates lie in . It is a normal subgroup contained in , so the hypothesis forces the kernel to be trivial. Thus embeds in .
The image has order and index two, hence is the kernel of a surjection . All transpositions are conjugate and generate , so under any such surjection they must all have the same nonidentity image. This determines the map uniquely as the sign homomorphism. Its kernel is , proving .
To prove simplicity directly, the nonidentity conjugacy classes in have sizes . A double transposition has centralizer of order four in ; a three-cycle has centralizer of order three; a five-cycle has centralizer of order five, yielding the two classes of size twelve. The class sizes together with the identity account for all sixty elements. A normal subgroup must be a union of these classes containing the identity, and its order must divide sixty. None of the proper nontrivial sums of these sizes with one is a divisor of sixty. Therefore , and hence , is simple.
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