Abstract Algebra I Groups

Central Luzon State University

Department of Mathematics and Physics
Science City of Muñoz 3120
Nueva Ecija, Philippines

5 Permutation Groups
In this section, we will discuss about definitions and examples of permutation groups
and their properties.

5.1 Definition and Notation

Definition 5.1.1. A permutation of a set A is a function σ : A → A that is both
one-to-one and onto.

Example 5.1.2. Let A = {1, 2, 3}. Then, the following functions σi are the distinct
permutation of A.
σ1 : σ1 (1) = 1, σ1 (2) = 2, σ1 (3) = 3 σ4 : σ4 (1) = 2, σ4 (2) = 3, σ4 (3) = 1
σ2 : σ2 (1) = 1, σ2 (2) = 3, σ2 (3) = 2 σ5 : σ5 (1) = 3, σ5 (2) = 1, σ5 (3) = 2
σ3 : σ3 (1) = 2, σ3 (2) = 1, σ3 (3) = 3 σ6 : σ6 (1) = 3, σ6 (2) = 2, σ6 (3) = 1
These permutations can also be written as follows:
   
1 2 3 1 2 3
σ1 = σ4 =
1 2 3 2 3 1
1 2 3 1 2 3
σ2 = σ5 =
1 3 2 3 1 2
1 2 3 1 2 3
σ3 = σ6 =
2 1 3 3 2 1

Remark 5.1.3. If σ and γ are permutations of a set A, then the composition σγ = σ ◦ γ,

expressed in array notation, is carried out from right to left by going from top to bottom,
then from top to bottom.

Example 5.1.4. Consider the following permutations of A = {1, 2, 3}:

   
1 2 3 1 2 3
σ= and γ =
1 3 2 3 1 2
By Remark 5.1.3, we have
  
1 2 3 1 2 3
σγ =
1 3 2 3 1 2
 
1 2 3
=
2 1 3

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1 2 3 1 2 3
For instance, in γ from the right side of the equation σγ = , we
1 3 2 3 1 2
have σγ(1) = σ(γ(1)) = 2 since at γ in the right of the equation, 3 is under 1 (γ(1) = 3)
and at σ in the right of the equation, 2 is under 3 (σ(3) = 2), we have

σγ(1) = σ(γ(1)) = σ(3) = 2.

Other images of σγ can be determined similarly.

Definition 5.1.5. Let A be a finite set. A permutation group of the set A is a set of
permutations which form a group under composition of permutations.

Example 5.1.6. Let S3 denotes the set of all one-to-one functions from A = {1, 2, 3} to
itself (ϕ : A → A). Then, S3 under the composition function is a group with six elements,
namely:
   
1 2 3 1 2 3
ϵ= α=
1 2 3  2 3 1 
1 2 3 1 2 3
β= α2 =
1 3 2  3 1 2 
1 2 3 1 2 3
αβ = α2 β =
2 1 3 3 2 1
 
1 2 3
Note that βα = = α2 β ̸= αβ. Hence, S3 is nonAbelian.
3 2 1
Practice Exercise: Show that S3 is a group under the composition function.

Example 5.1.7. Let A = {1, 2, . . . , n}. Analogous to Example 5.1.6, the set of all
permutation of A is the group called symmetric group of degree n, denoted by Sn .

Remark 5.1.8. Let A = {1, 2, . . . , n} and consider the group Sn . Then we have the
following:

(a) If α is a permutation of A, then the elements of Sn is of the form

 
1 2 ... n
α=
α(1) α(2) . . . α(n)

(b) The order of Sn is |Sn | = n! = n(n − 1) . . . (3)(2)(1)

(c) Sn is nonAbelian.

Practice Exercise:

1. How many elements does S4 has? How about S5 ?

   
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
2. Let α = ,β= , and
 5 1 3 6 7 2 4 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
γ= . Find αβ, γ 2 , and β −1 .
4 6 2 1 7 5 3

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5.2 Cycle Notation

Aside from array notation mentioned in Example 5.1.2, another notation that can be
used to specify permutation is the cycle notation. This notation is illustrated in the
following examples.
Example 5.2.1. Consider the permutation
 
1 2 3 4 5 6
α=
2 1 4 6 5 3

Then, its cycle notation is the following

α = (12)(346)(5)

where (12) describes α(1) = 2 and α(2) = 1; (346) describes α(3) = 4, α(4) = 6, and
α(6) = 3; and (5) describes α(5) = 5.
Example 5.2.2. The permutation
 
1 2 3 4 5 6
β=
5 3 1 6 2 4

can be expressed as β = (1523)(46).

Remark 5.2.3. Vdf
(a) In cycle notation, an expression of the form

(a1 a2 . . . am )

is called an m - cycle, a cycle of length m.

(b) In Example 5.2.1 and Example 5.2.2, α and β consist of product of cycles. For
instance, β consists of product of cycles (1523) and (46).

(c) Multiplication of cycles is introduced such that each cycle is a permutation that
fixes any element not appearing in the cycle.
Example 5.2.4. Let A = {1, 2, 3, 4}.The cycle (23) can be seen as a permutation repre-
senting  
1 2 3 4
α=
1 3 2 4
This means that 1 and 4 are fixed in (23).
Now, the product αβ of the cycles α and β are illustrated in the following example.
Example 5.2.5. Let α = (13)(27)(456)(8) and β = (1237)(648)(5). Then,

αβ = (13)(27)(456)(8)(1237)(648)(5)

Definition 5.2.6. A permutation α is in disjoint cycle form if each cycle in α have

no common elements in all other cycles in α.
We illustrate permutation in disjoint cycle form in the following example.

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Example 5.2.7. Consider the product of permutations

αβ = (13)(27)(456)(8)(1237)(648)(5)
from Example 5.2.5. By Remark 5.2.3 (c) and recalling that the composition function is
done form right to left, starting from element 1, we see that
ˆ (5) fixes 1;
ˆ (648) fixes 1;
ˆ (1237) sends 1 to 2 (since in (1237), β(1) = 2 );
ˆ (8) fixes 2;
ˆ (456) fixes 2;
ˆ (27) sends 2 to 7; and
ˆ (13) fixes 7
Hence, by the computation above, αβ(1) = 7. This computation can be imagined as
follows:

So, the disjoint form of αβ begin with αβ = (17 . . .).

Now, we repeat the entire process but this time we begin with with αβ(1) = 7. The
process can be determined as follows

Hence so far, have αβ = (173 . . .). So we continue this process until we exhaust all the
elements. Otherwise, if αβ send an element to an element already determined, then we
close this particular cycle. For instance, if we continue the above argument, αβ(3) = 2
making αβ = αβ = (1732 . . .). Moreover, αβ(2) = 1, a repeated element. So, we close
the cycle and start the process again with a new element in the previous cycle; that is
αβ = (1732)(4 . . .). Continuing the process until all the elements are exhausted, we get
αβ = (1732)(48)(56),
a disjoint cycle form of αβ = (13)(27)(456)(8)(1237)(648)(5).
Remark 5.2.8. In a permutation, in cycle notation (disjoint or not) of a set A =
{1, 2, . . . , n}, a cycle in A with only one element is usually omitted in the cycle nota-
tion.
Example 5.2.9. If α = (13)(27)(456)(8) and β = (1237)(648)(5), then by Remark 5.2.8,
α and β can be also expressed as
α = (13)(27)(456) and β = (1237)(648)
   
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Practice Exercise: Let α = and β = . Express αβ in
2 1 3 5 4 5 4 1 2 3
disjoint cycle form.

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5.3 Properties of Permutation Group

We will now introduce some properties of permutation group.

Theorem 5.3.1. If α is a permutation of a finite set, then α can be expressed as a cycle

or a product of disjoint cycles.

Proof. Let α be a permutation of a finite set A = {1, 2, . . . , m} for some positive integer
m. We want to show that α can be expressed as cycle or product of disjoint cycle. This
can be done by the following algorithm:

1. Choose and element in A as the starting element of a cycle in α, say a1 ∈ A. So we

have,
α = (a1 . . .) . . .

2. By the way a cycle is constructed, determine the next element in this cycle by
a2 = α(a1 ), a3 = α(a2 ) = α(α(a1 )) = α2 (a1 ), a4 = α(a3 ) = α(α(α(a1 ))) = α3 (a1 )
and so on, until we arrive at a1 = αm (a1 ) where m is the smallest positive integer
making the equation possible. This is possible since A is finite. By this time, we
determined a cycle in α, namely,

α = (a1 a2 . . . am ) . . .

If (a1 a2 . . . am ) exhaust all the elements of A, then we are done. Otherwise, proceed
with the next step.

3. Pick another element of A not in (a1 a2 . . . am ), say b1 , as the starting element of the
next cycle and determine the next elements by similar process to (2). So for the
second cycle, we have (b1 b2 . . . bk ) where k is the smallest positive integer such that
αk (b1 ) = b1 . Notice that there were no element in this cycle common to (a1 a2 . . . am )
(practice exercise). So, we have

α = α = (a1 a2 . . . am )(b1 b2 . . . bk ) . . .

4. Continue the process until all elements of A has been exhausted.

By this algorithm, we express any permutation α of A into a cycle or product of disjoint

cycles.

Example 5.3.2. Consider the finite set A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} and a permutation of A:

 
1 2 3 4 5 6
β=
5 3 1 6 2 4

As illustrated in Section 5.2, we can express beta as

β = (1523)(46)

Note that on the latter, β is expressed as product of 2 disjoint cycles.

Theorem 5.3.3. If two pair of cycles α and β have no entries common to both, then
αβ = βα.

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Example 5.3.4. Consider A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} and let α = (1, 2, 3) and β = (4, 5). Notice
that there are no entries to both α and β. By array notation, we have
   
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
α= and β =
2 3 1 4 5 1 2 3 5 4

So,     
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
αβ = = = (123)(45)
2 3 1 4 5 1 2 3 5 4 2 3 1 5 4
On the other hand,
    
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
βα = = = (123)(45)
1 2 3 5 4 2 3 1 4 5 2 3 1 5 4

Hence αβ = βα.

Theorem 5.3.5. If α is a permutation of a finite set that is written in disjoint cycle

form, then the order |α| is the least common multiple (LCM) of the length of the cycles
in α.

Example 5.3.6. vdfv

1. |(132)(45)| = 6

2. |(1432)(56)| = 4

3. |(123)(145)| = |(14523)| = 5

Example 5.3.7. Determine the orders of the 7! elements of S7 . Solution: The permu-
tation group S7 has 7! = 5040 elements. To determine the orders of each element of S7 ,
we only need to consider the structures of these elements. Let (n) be the length of a
disjoint cycle of an element of S7 . Then, any element of S7 , in terms of its cycles’ length,
can be expressed as follows: (7) for the permutations consisting of once cycle. The other
elements are the following:

(6)(1) (3)(2)(2)
(5)(2) (3)(2)(1)(1)
(5)(1)(1) (3)(1)(1)(1)(1)
(4)(3) (2)(2)(2)(1)
(4)(2)(1) (2)(2)(1)(1)(1)
(4)(1)(1)(1) (2)(1)(1)(1)(1)(1)
(3)(3)(1) (1)(1)(1)(1)(1)(1)(1)

By Theorem 5.3.5, based on the structures of elements of S7 above, it can be observed

that the order of an element of S7 is one of the following: 7, 6, 10, 5, 12, 4, 3, 2, and 1.

Practice Exercise:

1. Find the order of the following permutations:

(a) α = (1352)
(b) β = (125)(64)

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2. Determine the order of the elements of S6 .

Definition 5.3.8. A cycle of length 2 is called transposition.

Example 5.3.9. The permutation

 
1 2 3 4 5
= (25)
1 5 3 4 2

is a transposition.

Remark 5.3.10. If α is a transposition, then α2 = ϵ, the identity permutation. Moreover,

α−1 = α.

Theorem 5.3.11. Let n ≥ 2 be an integer. If α is a permutation of Sn , then α can be

expressed as product of transpositions.

Example 5.3.12. dg

1. (12345) = (15)(14)(13)(12)

2. (1632)(457) = (12)(13)(16)(47)(45)

The next theorem tell us that in the identity permutation that is expressed as product
of transpositions, the number of this permutation should be even; that is, the identity
permutation is an even permutation.

Theorem 5.3.13. Let ϵ be the identity permutation of a set A. If ϵ is expressed as

ϵ = β1 β2 . . . βr

where each β1 is a transposition, then r is even.

Theorem 5.3.14. Let α be a permutation of a set A. If α can be expressed as product

of transpositions in two different ways; that is,

α = β1 β2 . . . βr and α = γ1 γ2 . . . γs ,

then r and s must be both even or both odd.

Proof. Since α = β1 β2 . . . βr and α = γ1 γ2 . . . γs ,,

β1 β2 . . . βr =γ1 γ2 . . . γs
(β1 β2 . . . βr )(β1 β2 . . . βr )−1 =(γ1 γ2 . . . γs )(β1 β2 . . . βr )−1
ϵ =γ1 γ2 . . . γs βr−1 βr−1
−1
. . . β1−1
=γ1 γ2 . . . γs βr βr−1 . . . β1

where the last equation ϵ = γ1 γ2 . . . γs βr βr−1 . . . β1 is true by Remark 5.3.10. So, we

expressed the identity permutation to product of transposition in form βi and γj ( i ≤ r
and j ≤ s). It follows that, by Theorem 5.3.15, the total number of transpositions in ϵ
should be even. Hence, r + s is even. Consequently, for this to be possible, r and s must
be both even or both odd, as desired.

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Definition 5.3.15. A permutation α ∈ Sn is even (or odd) if it can be expressed as

product of even (or odd) number of transposition.

Example 5.3.16. The permutation

α = (13)(256) = (13)(26)(25)

is an odd permutation whiles

β = (216)(758) = (26)(21)(78)(75)

is an even permutation.

Practice Exercise: For each cycle below, express it as product of transpositions and
determine if it is even or odd permutation.

1. (135)

2. (1356)

3. (12)(134)(152)

4. (1243)(3521)

The next theorem tells us the collection of all even permutations of Sn is a subgroup
of Sn .

Theorem 5.3.17. The set S of even permutation in Sn is a subgroup of Sn .

Example 5.3.18. Consider the group S3 presented in Example 5.1.6 and consider the
its the set of even permutation S = {ϵ, α, α2 }, where α = (13)(12) and α2 = (23). We
apply finite subgroup test to show that S ≤ S3 . First, you may verify that ϵα = αϵ = α,
ϵα2 = α2 ϵ = α2 . Lastly, αα2 = α2 α = ϵ. Hence, by finite subgroup test S ≤ S3 , as
desired.

Definition 5.3.19. The set S mentioned in Theorem 5.3.17 is called the alternating
group of degree n and it is denoted by An .

Example 5.3.20. In Example 5.3.18, we replace S by A3 , that is A3 = {ϵ, α, α2 }, the

alternating group of degree 3.

The next theorem determines the order of any alternating group An .

n!
Theorem 5.3.21. For positive integer n > 1, |An | = 2
.
3! 6
From Example 5.3.20, you may see that |A3 | = 2
= 2
= 3.

Practice Execise:How many elements are there in A4 , A6 , and A9 ?

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