Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / ii / Paper 2 / 14D / d

Permuting the gaps, or equivalently relabelling the particles, leaves both quadratic forms invariant. The three-dimensional permutation representation splits as the rigid-rotation line spanned by $(1,1,1)$ and the two-dimensional sum-zero standard representation of the symmetric group.

The two displayed vibrational vectors merely choose a basis of that sum-zero plane. A permutation generally mixes them, but their common frequency leaves the whole plane invariant. This is precisely the degenerate normal modes from permutation symmetry required by the physical symmetry.