Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ii Paper 1 19I b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The complex regular representation has basis and left actionIf is the identity, thenso . Thus is a faithful representation.
By Maschke's theorem, the regular representation decomposes as a direct sum of irreducibles,Its kernel is the intersection of the kernels of the constituent representations:Each constituent kernel is a normal subgroup of . If is simple, every such kernel is either or . They cannot all be , because then their intersection would be , contradicting faithfulness of the regular representation. Hence some has trivial kernel. Therefore every finite simple group has a faithful irreducible representation of a finite simple group.