Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2008 / ib / Paper 1 / 10G / iii

For each involution $t\in G$, its conjugacy class has size fifteen, so its centralizer $C_G(t)$ has order four. A group of order four is a cyclic group or a Klein four-group; the cyclic possibility would contain an element of order four, excluded by the geometric enumeration. Hence each $C_G(t)$ is a Klein four-group containing three involutions.

If $u$ is any of the three involutions in $C_G(t)$, the latter group is an abelian group and hence is contained in $C_G(u)$. Both centralizers have order four, so they are equal. It follows that the fifteen involutions partition into five triples, with five distinct centralizers. Conjugation by $G$ permutes these five subgroups and gives a group homomorphism $\theta :G\to S_5$. This action is nontrivial: otherwise each of these order-four subgroups would be a normal subgroup, contrary to simplicity. The kernel of $\theta$ is normal; since $G$ is simple and the action nontrivial, its kernel is trivial. Thus $\theta$ is injective.

The sign of $\theta (g)$ defines a homomorphism $G\to \{\pm 1\}$. If it were nontrivial, simplicity would make it injective, impossible for a group of order sixty mapping into one of order two. Hence every image permutation is even, and $\theta (G)\subseteq A_5$. Both groups have order sixty, so they are equal. This constructs the requested group isomorphism: