Combinatorics of symmetric group:S6

This article gives specific information, namely, combinatorics, about a particular group, namely: symmetric group:S6.
View combinatorics of particular groups | View other specific information about symmetric group:S6

This page discusses some of the combinatorics associated with symmetric group:S6, that relies specifically on viewing it as a symmetric group on a finite set.

Partitions, subset partitions, and cycle decompositions

Denote by $\mathcal{B}(n)$ the set of all unordered set partitions of $\{1,2,\dots ,n\}$ into subsets and by $P(n)$ the set of unordered integer partitions of $n$. There are natural combinatorial maps:

$S_n\to \mathcal{B}(n)\to P(n)$

where the first map sends a permutation to the subset partition induced by its cycle decomposition, which is equivalently the decomposition into orbits for the action of the cyclic subgroup generated by that permutation on $\{1,2,\dots ,n\}$. The second map sends a subset partition to the partition of $n$ given by the sizes of the parts. The composite of the two maps is termed the cycle type, and classifies conjugacy classes in $S_n$, because cycle type determines conjugacy class.

Further, if we define actions as follows:

• $S_n$ acts on itself by conjugation
• $S_n$ acts on $\mathcal{B}(n)$ by moving around the elements and hence changing the subsets
• $S_n$ acts on $P(n)$ trivially

then the maps above are $S_n$-equivariant, i.e., they commute with the $S_n$-action. Moreover, the action on $\mathcal{B}(n)$ is transitive on each fiber above $P(n)$ and the action on $S_n$ is transitive on each fiber above the composite map to $P(n)$. In particular, for two elements of $\mathcal{B}(n)$ that map to the same element of $P(n)$, the fibers above them in $S_n$ have the same size.

There are formulas for calculating the sizes of the fibers at each level.

In our case

$n=6$

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