Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 3 2D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For a finite group, the conjugacy classes partition the group, and a class is a singleton exactly when its element belongs to the centre of a group. Since the centre is trivial, the class equation becomeswhere the are all the nonidentity conjugacy classes. If the prime number divided every , reduction modulo would give , because . Therefore at least one of these class sizes is not divisible by . Primality now givesIts size is greater than one because the centre is trivial. This proves the prime-to-p conjugacy class lemma.
The conclusion requires to be prime. The printed question does not explicitly impose this hypothesis. If arbitrary composite divisors are allowed, take the symmetric group and : its centre is trivial, its two nonidentity conjugacy classes have sizes and , and neither is coprime to . Thus the argument proves the intended prime case and also identifies why the unrestricted literal reading is false.