Final Practice Solutions
Final Practice Solutions
Final Practice Solutions
• Identity is in G: take a = 1, b = 0
1
• Closed under multiplication:
a b a1 b 1 aa1 ab1 + b
=
0 1 0 1 0 1
a1 = 1/a, b1 = −b/a.
2
Solution: (a) The orbit of a pentagon consists of all pentagons and has
12 elements. The stabilizer of a pentagon is the dihedral group D5 and has
10 elements.
(b) By counting formula, the isometry group of the ball has 12 × 10 = 120
elements.
(c) The orbit of a hexagon consists of all hexagons and has 20 elements.
The stabilizer of a hexagon consists of all elements in D6 which send neighbor-
ing hexagons to hexagons and pentagons to pentagons. It contains rotations
by 0, 2π/3 and 4π/3, as well as reflections in three planes through midpoints
of opposite edges. Therefore the stabilizer has 6 elements, and we can check
by counting formula that 20 × 6 = 120.
7. The trace of a 2 × 2 matrix is defined as
a b
tr = a + d.
c d
3
so tr(AB) = aa1 + bc1 + cb1 + dd1 . Clearly, this expression will not change if
we swap A and B.
b) By part (a), tr(A−1 · XA) = tr(XA · A−1 ) = tr(X).
8. Prove that the equation x2 + 1 = 4y has no integer solutions.
Solution: Let us consider all possible remainders of x modulo 4. If x = 0
mod 4 then x2 + 1 = 1 mod 4; if x = 1 mod 4 then x2 + 1 = 2 mod 4;if
x = 2 mod 4 then x2 + 1 = 1 mod 4;if x = 3 mod 4 then x2 + 1 = 2
mod 4. Therefore x2 + 1 is never divisible by 4.
9. Are there two non-isomorphic groups with (a) 6 elements (b) 7 elements
(c) 8 elements?
Solution: (a) Yes, for example D3 and Z6 . The orders of elements in D3
are 1,2,3, while Z6 has an element of order 6, so they are not isomorphic. (b)
No: by Lagrange theorem the order of every element x divides 7, so it should
be 1 (and x = e) or 7. If the order of x equals 7, then this is just the cyclic
group generated by x. So every two groups with 7 elements are cyclic and
hence isomorphic. (c) Yes, for example D4 and Z8 . The orders of elements in
D4 are 1,2,4, while Z8 has an element of order 8, so they are not isomorphic.
10. (a) Prove that any homomorphism from Z11 to S10 is trivial.
(b) Find a nontrivial homomorphism from Z11 to S11 .
Solution: (a) Suppose that f : Z11 → S10 is a homomorphism. Then by
Counting Formula |Im(f )| divides |Z11 | = 11. Since 11 is prime, the image
of f has either 1 or 11 elements.
On the other hand, by Lagrange Theorem |Im(f )| divides |S10 | = 10!.
Since 11 does not divide 10!, the image must have 1 element, so f is trivial.
(b) We can define f (k) = (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11)k for all integer k. Then
f (k + l) = f (k)f (l) and f (11) = e, so f defines a homomorphism from Z11
to S11 .
11. How many conjugacy classes are there in S5 ?
Solution: The conjugacy classes in Sn correspond to cycle types. There
are 7 possible cycle types (listed by length of their cycles): e, 2, 3, 4, 5, 2 +
2, 2 + 3.
12. Are the following matrices orthogonal? Do they preserve orientation?
4
√1 √1 √1
0 1 0
3 2 6
1 −1
, 1 0 0 , √13 − √12 √16 .
1 1
0 0 1 √1 0 − √26
3
16. Find the conjugacy classes and centralizers of all elements in the dihedral
group (a) D5 (b) D6 .
Solution: (a) We proved in class that the conjugacy classes in D5 have
the following form:
2π 4π
{e}, {rotations by ± }, {rotations by ± }, {all reflections}.
5 5
5
The centralizer of e is the whole group D5 . The centralizer of any nontrivial
rotation consists of all rotations and has size 5. The centralizer of any reflec-
tion has size 2 and consists of this reflection and identity. We can check the
counting formula
1 · 10 = 2 · 5 = 2 · 5 = 5 · 2 = 10.
(b) We proved in class that the conjugacy classes in D6 have the following
form:
2π 4π
{e}, {rotations by ± }, {rotations by ± }, {rotation by π},
6 6
{reflections in lines through opposite vertices},
{reflections in lines through idpoints of opposite sides}.
The centralizer of e and of rotation by π is the whole group D6 . The cen-
tralizer of any other rotation consists of all rotations and has size 6. The
centralizer of any reflection has size 4 and consists of this reflection, reflec-
tion in perpendicular line, rotation by π and identity. We can check the
counting formula
1 · 12 = 2 · 6 = 3 · 4 = 12.