Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/2/d/solution
Past exam of the short options course of the University of Oxford 2015 2 d Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
The given unitriangular group of degree three over F3 has elements, just as does, so counting alone cannot distinguish them. Instead compare element orders.
Write an element as , with strictly upper triangular of size . Then . Over the finite field , the binomial theorem for commuting matrices givesEvery nonidentity element of consequently has element order . In contrast, has element order , by part (b). An isomorphism preserves element order, soEquivalently, the exponent of a finite group is for and for .
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