Fix and set . Suppose, towards a contradiction, thatwhere will absorb constants depending only on . Put . Once is large enough, , , andPart (a) yields with , , and nilpotent of class .
The subgroup core is normal in and has index at most . Since is a simple group, the core is either or . In the first case , which is excluded by increasing . Hence the core is , so .
Now . Since , the ball is not all of , so . Simplicity gives , and therefore is a nilpotent group. A nontrivial finite nilpotent group has nontrivial center of a group; simplicity would force that center to be all of , making Abelian. This contradicts the assumption that is non-abelian. Consequently
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 2 18G c ii Solution 2026-09-29
For , the commutator subgroup of is . The group is nonabelian and simple, so its commutator subgroup is a nontrivial normal subgroup and must equal itself. Hence the derived series of isand never reaches the identity. Therefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ib Paper 3 1G Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let act by left multiplication on the set of left cosets. This gives a group action homomorphismIts kernelis a normal subgroup of , and the first isomorphism theorem gives . By Lagrange's theorem, divides . The image acts transitively on the cosets, so the orbit-stabilizer theorem shows that divides ; in particular,
Now suppose is nonabelian and simple. Since is proper, the coset action is nontrivial, so . Simplicity gives , and embeds into . Composing with the sign homomorphism givesIts kernel is normal. A nontrivial map would embed the simple group into the abelian group of order two, which is impossible because is nonabelian. The sign is therefore always , so
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ib Paper 2 9E Solution Created 2026-09-23 Updated 2026-09-25
A Sylow subgroup of a finite group is a subgroup whose order is the largest power of a prime dividing . The Sylow theorems say that such subgroups exist, that every -subgroup lies in one, that all Sylow -subgroups are conjugate, and that their number divides and obeys .
For the last congruence, let one Sylow -subgroup act by conjugation on the set of all Sylow -subgroups. Every orbit other than a fixed point has size divisible by . If is fixed, then . They are Sylow subgroups of this normalizer, so they are conjugate within ; because every element of fixes under conjugation, this forces . Thus there is exactly one fixed point and .
Now let have index with . The coset action gives a homomorphismIts kernel is a normal subgroup of the simple group . It cannot be all of , since the action is transitive and nontrivial, so it is trivial. This would embed into , contrary to . Hence no such subgroup exists.
Suppose finally that a group of order were simple. The Sylow count satisfiesand simplicity excludes , so . Conjugation on these six subgroups gives a nontrivial homomorphism , which simplicity makes injective. Its image lies in , because the composite with the sign homomorphism must be trivial. It would therefore be a subgroup of of index , contradicting the result just proved. Thus
A nonabelian simple group has no nonidentity conjugacy class of prime-power size. Coprime-degree irreducible characters vanish on such an element: the conjugacy-class sum makes the character-to-degree ratio an algebraic integer, and the Kronecker theorem on algebraic integers in the unit disk makes a nonzero ratio a root of unity, forcing a scalar in a faithful group representation. Column character orthogonality then makes an algebraic integer, impossible. This is the character-theoretic ingredient in Burnside's theorem.
Simplicity of the alternating group on six letters Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
A normal subgroup of has order dividing 360 and consists of the identity plus whole conjugacy classes of the alternating group on six letters. If it omits the odd-sized class of size 45, its order is an odd divisor and no nontrivial class sum fits. If it includes that class, the possible class sums not exceeding 180 are , none dividing 360. Every proper subgroup has order at most 180; therefore is a simple group.