Criterion for element of alternating group to be real
From Groupprops
Revision as of 01:58, 30 October 2010 by Vipul (talk | contribs) (Created page with "==Statement== Suppose <math>n</math> is a natural number and <math>A_n</math> is the fact about::alternating group on a set of size <math>n</math>. An element <math>g \i...")
Statement
Suppose is a natural number and
is the Alternating group (?) on a set of size
. An element
is a Real element (?) if and only if the cycle decomposition of
satisfies one of these three conditions:
- The cycle decomposition has a cycle of even length.
- The cycle decomposition has two cycles of equal odd length. Note that fixed points are counted as cycles of length 1, so this includes any permutation that has two or more fixed points.
- All the cycles have distinct odd lengths
are all distinct and
is even.
Note that the permutations which satisfy condition (1) or (2) are precisely those whose conjugacy class is unsplit from the symmetric group, where every element is real. (see splitting criterion for conjugacy classes in the alternating group). (3) is the case of a conjugacy class that splits in but each element still remains with its inverse.