Definition and first properties
The symmetric group on a finite set is the group whose elements are all bijective functions from to and whose group operation is that of function composition. For finite sets, "permutations" and "bijective functions" refer to the same operation, namely rearrangement. The symmetric group of degree is the symmetric group on the set . The symmetric group on a set is denoted in various ways, including , , , , and . If is the set then the name may be abbreviated to , , , or . Symmetric groups on infinite sets behave quite differently from symmetric groups on finite sets, and are discussed in , , and . The symmetric group on a set of elements has order (theApplications
The symmetric group on a set of size ''n'' is the Galois group of the general polynomial of degree ''n'' and plays an important role in Galois theory. In invariant theory, the symmetric group acts on the variables of a multi-variate function, and the functions left invariant are the so-called symmetric functions. In the representation theory of Lie groups, the representation theory of the symmetric group plays a fundamental role through the ideas of Schur functors. In the theory of Coxeter groups, the symmetric group is the Coxeter group of type A''n'' and occurs as the Weyl group of theGroup properties and special elements
The elements of the symmetric group on a set ''X'' are the permutations of ''X''.Multiplication
The group operation in a symmetric group is function composition, denoted by the symbol ∘ or by simple juxtaposition. The composition of permutations and , pronounced " of ", maps any element of to . Concretely, let (see permutation for an explanation of notation): Applying after maps 1 first to 2 and then 2 to itself; 2 to 5 and then to 4; 3 to 4 and then to 5, and so on. So, composing and gives A cycle of length , taken to the th power, will decompose into cycles of length : For example, (, ),Verification of group axioms
To check that the symmetric group on a set ''X'' is indeed a group, it is necessary to verify the group axioms of closure, associativity, identity, and inverses. # The operation of function composition is closed in the set of permutations of the given set ''X''. # Function composition is always associative. # The trivial bijection that assigns each element of ''X'' to itself serves as an identity for the group. # Every bijection has an inverse function that undoes its action, and thus each element of a symmetric group does have an inverse which is a permutation too.Transpositions, sign, and the alternating group
A transposition is a permutation which exchanges two elements and keeps all others fixed; for example (1 3) is a transposition. Every permutation can be written as a product of transpositions; for instance, the permutation ''g'' from above can be written as ''g'' = (1 2)(2 5)(3 4). Since ''g'' can be written as a product of an odd number of transpositions, it is then called an odd permutation, whereas ''f'' is an even permutation. The representation of a permutation as a product of transpositions is not unique; however, the number of transpositions needed to represent a given permutation is either always even or always odd. There are several short proofs of the invariance of this parity of a permutation. The product of two even permutations is even, the product of two odd permutations is even, and the product of one of each is odd. Thus we can define the sign of a permutation: : With this definition, : is a group homomorphism ( is a group under multiplication, where +1 is e, the neutral element). The kernel of this homomorphism, that is, the set of all even permutations, is called the alternating group A''n''. It is a normal subgroup of S''n'', and for it has elements. The group S''n'' is the semidirect product of A''n'' and any subgroup generated by a single transposition. Furthermore, every permutation can be written as a product of '' adjacent transpositions'', that is, transpositions of the form . For instance, the permutation ''g'' from above can also be written as . The sorting algorithm bubble sort is an application of this fact. The representation of a permutation as a product of adjacent transpositions is also not unique.Cycles
A cycle of ''length'' ''k'' is a permutation ''f'' for which there exists an element ''x'' in such that ''x'', ''f''(''x''), ''f''2(''x''), ..., ''f''''k''(''x'') = ''x'' are the only elements moved by ''f''; it conventionally is required that since with the element ''x'' itself would not be moved either. The permutation ''h'' defined by : is a cycle of length three, since , and , leaving 2 and 5 untouched. We denote such a cycle by , but it could equally well be written or by starting at a different point. The order of a cycle is equal to its length. Cycles of length two are transpositions. Two cycles are ''disjoint'' if they have disjoint subsets of elements. Disjoint cycles commute: for example, in S6 there is the equality . Every element of S''n'' can be written as a product of disjoint cycles; this representation is unique up to the order of the factors, and the freedom present in representing each individual cycle by choosing its starting point. Cycles admit the following conjugation property with any permutation , this property is often used to obtain its generators and relations. :Special elements
Certain elements of the symmetric group of are of particular interest (these can be generalized to the symmetric group of any finite totally ordered set, but not to that of an unordered set). The is the one given by: : This is the unique maximal element with respect to the Bruhat order and the longest element in the symmetric group with respect to generating set consisting of the adjacent transpositions , . This is an involution, and consists of (non-adjacent) transpositions : :: so it thus has sign: : which is 4-periodic in ''n''. In S2''n'', the '' perfect shuffle'' is the permutation that splits the set into 2 piles and interleaves them. Its sign is also Note that the reverse on ''n'' elements and perfect shuffle on 2''n'' elements have the same sign; these are important to the classification of Clifford algebras, which are 8-periodic.Conjugacy classes
The conjugacy classes of S''n'' correspond to the cycle types of permutations; that is, two elements of S''n'' are conjugate in S''n'' if and only if they consist of the same number of disjoint cycles of the same lengths. For instance, in S5, (1 2 3)(4 5) and (1 4 3)(2 5) are conjugate; (1 2 3)(4 5) and (1 2)(4 5) are not. A conjugating element of S''n'' can be constructed in "two line notation" by placing the "cycle notations" of the two conjugate permutations on top of one another. Continuing the previous example, which can be written as the product of cycles as (2 4). This permutation then relates (1 2 3)(4 5) and (1 4 3)(2 5) via conjugation, that is, It is clear that such a permutation is not unique. Conjugacy classes of S''n'' correspond to integer partitions of ''n'': to the partition with and , is associated the set ''C''''μ'' of permutations with cycles of lengths . Then ''C''''μ'' is a conjugacy class of S''n'', whose elements are said to be of cycle-type .Low degree groups
The low-degree symmetric groups have simpler and exceptional structure, and often must be treated separately. ;S0 and S1: The symmetric groups on theMaps between symmetric groups
Other than the trivial map and the sign map , the most notable homomorphisms between symmetric groups, in order of relative dimension, are: * corresponding to the exceptional normal subgroup ; * (or rather, a class of such maps up to inner automorphism) corresponding to the outer automorphism of S6. * as a transitive subgroup, yielding the outer automorphism of S6 as discussed above. There are also a host of other homomorphisms where .Relation with alternating group
For , the alternating group A''n'' isGenerators and relations
The symmetric group on letters is generated by the adjacent transpositions that swap and . The collection generates subject to the following relations: * * for , and * where 1 represents the identity permutation. This representation endows the symmetric group with the structure of a Coxeter group (and so also a reflection group). Other possible generating sets include the set of transpositions that swap and for , or more generally any set of transpositions that forms a connected graph, and a set containing any -cycle and a -cycle of adjacent elements in the -cycle.Subgroup structure
A subgroup of a symmetric group is called a permutation group.Normal subgroups
The normal subgroups of the finite symmetric groups are well understood. If , S''n'' has at most 2 elements, and so has no nontrivial proper subgroups. The alternating group of degree ''n'' is always a normal subgroup, a proper one for and nontrivial for ; for it is in fact the only nontrivial proper normal subgroup of , except when where there is one additional such normal subgroup, which is isomorphic to the Klein four group. The symmetric group on an infinite set does not have a subgroup of index 2, as Vitali (1915) proved that each permutation can be written as a product of three squares. (Any squared element must belong to the hypothesized subgroup of index 2, hence so must the product of any number of squares.) However it contains the normal subgroup ''S'' of permutations that fix all but finitely many elements, which is generated by transpositions. Those elements of ''S'' that are products of an even number of transpositions form a subgroup of index 2 in ''S'', called the alternating subgroup ''A''. Since ''A'' is even a characteristic subgroup of ''S'', it is also a normal subgroup of the full symmetric group of the infinite set. The groups ''A'' and ''S'' are the only nontrivial proper normal subgroups of the symmetric group on a countably infinite set. This was first proved by Onofri (1929) and independently Schreier– Ulam (1934). For more details see . That result, often called the Schreier-Ulam theorem, is superseded by a stronger one which says that the nontrivial normal subgroups of the symmetric group on a set are 1) the even permutations with finite support and 2) for every cardinality the group of permutations with support less than .Maximal subgroups
The maximal subgroups of fall into three classes: the intransitive, the imprimitive, and the primitive. The intransitive maximal subgroups are exactly those of the form for . The imprimitive maximal subgroups are exactly those of the form , where is a proper divisor of ''n'' and "wr" denotes the wreath product. The primitive maximal subgroups are more difficult to identify, but with the assistance of the O'Nan–Scott theorem and the classification of finite simple groups, gave a fairly satisfactory description of the maximal subgroups of this type, according to .Sylow subgroups
The Sylow subgroups of the symmetric groups are important examples of ''p''-groups. They are more easily described in special cases first: The Sylow ''p''-subgroups of the symmetric group of degree ''p'' are just the cyclic subgroups generated by ''p''-cycles. There are such subgroups simply by counting generators. The normalizer therefore has order and is known as a Frobenius group (especially for ), and is the affine general linear group, . The Sylow ''p''-subgroups of the symmetric group of degree ''p''2 are the wreath product of two cyclic groups of order ''p''. For instance, when , a Sylow 3-subgroup of Sym(9) is generated by and the elements , and every element of the Sylow 3-subgroup has the form for . The Sylow ''p''-subgroups of the symmetric group of degree ''p''''n'' are sometimes denoted W''p''(''n''), and using this notation one has that is the wreath product of W''p''(''n'') and W''p''(1). In general, the Sylow ''p''-subgroups of the symmetric group of degree ''n'' are a direct product of ''a''''i'' copies of W''p''(''i''), where and (the base ''p'' expansion of ''n''). For instance, , the dihedral group of order 8, and so a Sylow 2-subgroup of the symmetric group of degree 7 is generated by and is isomorphic to . These calculations are attributed to and described in more detail in . Note however that attributes the result to an 1844 work of Cauchy, and mentions that it is even covered in textbook form in .Transitive subgroups
A transitive subgroup of S''n'' is a subgroup whose action on is transitive. For example, the Galois group of a ( finite) Galois extension is a transitive subgroup of S''n'', for some ''n''.Young subgroups
A subgroup of that is generated by transpositions is called a ''Young subgroup''. They are all of the form where is an integer partition of . These groups may also be characterized as the parabolic subgroups of when it is viewed as a reflection group.Cayley's theorem
Cayley's theorem states that every group ''G'' is isomorphic to a subgroup of some symmetric group. In particular, one may take a subgroup of the symmetric group on the elements of ''G'', since every group acts on itself faithfully by (left or right) multiplication.Cyclic subgroups
Cyclic groups are those that are generated by a single permutation. When a permutation is represented in cycle notation, the order of the cyclic subgroup that it generates is the least common multiple of the lengths of its cycles. For example, in S, one cyclic subgroup of order 5 is generated by (13254), whereas the largest cyclic subgroups of S are generated by elements like (123)(45) that have one cycle of length 3 and another cycle of length 2. This rules out many groups as possible subgroups of symmetric groups of a given size. For example, S has no subgroup of order 15 (a divisor of the order of S), because the only group of order 15 is the cyclic group. The largest possible order of a cyclic subgroup (equivalently, the largest possible order of an element in S) is given by Landau's function.Automorphism group
For , S''n'' is a complete group: its center and outer automorphism group are both trivial. For , the automorphism group is trivial, but S2 is not trivial: it is isomorphic to C2, which is abelian, and hence the center is the whole group. For , it has an outer automorphism of order 2: , and the automorphism group is a semidirect product . In fact, for any set ''X'' of cardinality other than 6, every automorphism of the symmetric group on ''X'' is inner, a result first due to according to .Homology
The group homology of S''n'' is quite regular and stabilizes: the first homology (concretely, the abelianization) is: : The first homology group is the abelianization, and corresponds to the sign map S''n'' → S2 which is the abelianization for ''n'' ≥ 2; for ''n'' < 2 the symmetric group is trivial. This homology is easily computed as follows: S''n'' is generated by involutions (2-cycles, which have order 2), so the only non-trivial maps are to S2 and all involutions are conjugate, hence map to the same element in the abelianization (since conjugation is trivial in abelian groups). Thus the only possible maps send an involution to 1 (the trivial map) or to −1 (the sign map). One must also show that the sign map is well-defined, but assuming that, this gives the first homology of S''n''. The second homology (concretely, the Schur multiplier) is: : This was computed in , and corresponds to the double cover of the symmetric group, 2 · S''n''. Note that the exceptional low-dimensional homology of the alternating group ( corresponding to non-trivial abelianization, and due to the exceptional 3-fold cover) does not change the homology of the symmetric group; the alternating group phenomena do yield symmetric group phenomena – the map extends to and the triple covers of A6 and A7 extend to triple covers of S6 and S7 – but these are not ''homological'' – the map does not change the abelianization of S4, and the triple covers do not correspond to homology either. The homology "stabilizes" in the sense of stable homotopy theory: there is an inclusion map , and for fixed ''k'', the induced map on homology is an isomorphism for sufficiently high ''n''. This is analogous to the homology of families Lie groups stabilizing. The homology of the infinite symmetric group is computed in , with the cohomology algebra forming a Hopf algebra.Representation theory
The representation theory of the symmetric group is a particular case of the representation theory of finite groups, for which a concrete and detailed theory can be obtained. This has a large area of potential applications, from symmetric function theory to problems ofSee also
* Braid group * History of group theory * Signed symmetric group and Generalized symmetric group * * Symmetric inverse semigroup * Symmetric powerNotes
References
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