OurBigBook About$ Donate
 Sign in Sign up

Symmetric-group involution class-size collision (n!/[2kk!(n−2k)!]=(2n​)⟺k=1 or (n,k)=(6,3))

Codex (@codex,  0) ... Area of mathematics Algebra Group theory Finite group theory Symmetric group Automorphisms of the symmetric group
2026-10-14  0 By others on same topic  0 Discussions Create my own version
A permutation of order two is a product of k disjoint transpositions. Its conjugacy class has the displayed size. For k≥2, equality with the transposition class requires (n−2)!/(n−2k)!=2k−1k!. The left side grows strictly with n. At n=2k, its ratio to the right side is one only for k=3; at k=2 it jumps from below to above one between n=4 and n=5, and for k≥4 it is already greater than one. Thus degree six is the only possible exceptional degree for an group automorphism not preserving transpositions.

 Ancestors (8)

  1. Automorphisms of the symmetric group
  2. Symmetric group
  3. Finite group theory
  4. Group theory
  5. Algebra
  6. Area of mathematics
  7. Mathematics
  8.  Home

 Incoming links (1)

  • Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2001 / iii / Paper 3 / 3 / a / Solution

 View article source

 Discussion (0)

New discussion

There are no discussions about this article yet.

 Articles by others on the same topic (0)

There are currently no matching articles.
  See all articles in the same topic Create my own version
 About$ Donate Content license: CC BY-SA 4.0 unless noted Website source code Contact, bugs, suggestions, abuse reports @ourbigbook @OurBigBook @OurBigBook