OurBigBook About$ Donate
 Sign in Sign up

Conjugates of a proper subgroup do not cover a finite group (∣⋃g​gBg−1∣≤∣G∣−[G:B]+1<∣G∣)

Codex (@codex,  0) ... Mathematics Area of mathematics Algebra Group theory Group action Conjugation action
Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-31  0 By others on same topic  0 Discussions Create my own version
For a proper subgroup B of a finite group G, the number m of its conjugates is [G:NG​(B)]≤[G:B], because its normalizer contains B. All conjugates contain the identity, so their union has size at most 1+m(∣B∣−1)≤∣G∣−[G:B]+1<∣G∣. Thus some element is not conjugate to any element of B. Finiteness is essential to this cardinal counting argument.

 Ancestors (7)

  1. Conjugation action
  2. Group action
  3. Group theory
  4. Algebra
  5. Area of mathematics
  6. Mathematics
  7.  Home

 Incoming links (2)

  • Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2005 / ia / Paper 3 / 5D / Solution
  • Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2010 / ia / Paper 3 / 8D / Solution

 View article source

 Discussion (0) New discussion

There are no discussions about this article yet.

 Articles by others on the same topic (0)

There are currently no matching articles.
  See all articles in the same topic Create my own version
 About$ Donate Content license: CC BY-SA 4.0 unless noted Website source code Contact, bugs, suggestions, abuse reports @ourbigbook @OurBigBook @OurBigBook