Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2007 / Paper 2 / 10 / Solution

A real two-dimensional group representation is a group homomorphism $D:G\to GL(2,\mathbb{R})$, so $D(AB)=D(A)D(B)$ and $D(I)=I$.

Substitute $\tilde{x}=\alpha x+\beta y$ and $\tilde{y}=\gamma x+\delta y$ into the quadratic expression. Its coefficients of $x^2$ and $y^2$ are ${\alpha }^2\hat{a}+{\gamma }^2\hat{b}$ and ${\beta }^2\hat{a}+{\delta }^2\hat{b}$. The cross term is zero for every matrix in this particular cyclic group, because each has one nonzero entry per row. ThusLet $J=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& -1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)$ generate the group. For $A=\pm I$, $M=I$; for $A=\pm J$, $M=S:=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)$. Since $S^2=I$, each $M$ is its own inverse and $D(J^k)=S^k$. The group law is respected: $S^{k+l}=S^k{S}^l$, and $S^4=I$ makes it independent of the representative modulo four. This proves that $D=M^{-1}$ is a group representation.

This quarter-turn action on diagonal quadratic forms hasso it is not faithful. Quadratic forms cannot distinguish a simultaneous sign reversal of both coordinates. The invariant coefficient directions $(1,1)$ and $(1,-1)$ correspond to the fixed form $x^2+y^2$ and the form $x^2-y^2$ whose sign changes under a quarter-turn.