Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/2/b/ii/solution
Past exam of the short options course of the University of Oxford 2017 2 b ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
The Sylow theorems also give and . Of , only is congruent to one modulo five. Thus is a normal subgroup of as well.
By Lagrange's theorem, , since its group order divides both and . For and , the group commutator lies in by the normal subgroup property of , and in by the normal subgroup property of . It is therefore the identity element, so all elements of commute with all elements of . This is the fact that normal subgroups of coprime order commute.
The subgroup consequently has elements: the expression is unique because . Since and have prime orders, they are cyclic groups. Write and . The product of commuting elements of coprime order has order , so generates . Finally, is a normal subgroup because both its factors are normal subgroups; equivalently, it has subgroup index two. Therefore
New to topics? Read the docs here!