Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2021 / Paper 2 / 9 / c / Solution

Let $n=p\ge 3$ be prime. Any subgroup contained in $⟨R⟩\cong C_p$ is either $\{I\}$ or the whole rotation subgroup. Both are normal: the trivial subgroup always is, and the rotation subgroup has index two, or equivalently is preserved by $mR{m}^{-1}=R^{-1}$.

If a normal subgroup contains any reflection, it contains its entire conjugacy class. Part (b) shows that this is every reflection for odd $p$. Products of reflections include a generator of the rotations, since $(Rm)m=R$. Such a normal subgroup must therefore be the whole dihedral group.

Thus the complete list of proper normal subgroups, including the trivial subgroup, isThis also agrees with classification of subgroups of a dihedral group: the reflection subgroups of order two are proper but are not normal when $p$ is odd.