Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2024 / ii / Paper 1 / 19H / Solution

A complex representation of $G$ is a complex vector space $V$ together with a homomorphismIt is faithful when $\ker \rho =\{e\}$, equivalently when $\rho$ is injective. Every finite group has a faithful complex representation: in the regular representation, $G$ permutes the basis $\{e_h:h\in G\}$ byand a group element fixing every basis vector must be the identity.

If $g$ is conjugate to $g^k$, then $\rho (g)$ is similar to $\rho (g^k)=\rho (g{)}^k$. Thus the two matrices have the same spectrum, while an eigenvalue $\lambda$ of $\rho (g)$ gives the eigenvalue ${\lambda }^k$ of $\rho (g{)}^k$. Hence

Now take a $p$-cycle $g\in S_p$. It is conjugate to $g^k$ for every $1\le k<p$. Faithfulness makes $\rho (g)$ have order $p$, so its spectrum contains a nontrivial $p$th root of unity $\lambda$. The preceding implication puts all the $p-1$ distinct valuesin the spectrum. Therefore $\dim V\ge p-1$. This is the spectrum orbit bound for a faithful symmetric-group representation.

Finally let $G$ be the group of all permutations of $\mathbb{N}$. It has no faithful finite-dimensional complex representation. For every $n$, $G$ contains a subgroup $(C_2{)}^n$ generated by $n$ disjoint transpositions. In a $d$-dimensional complex representation, commuting involutions are simultaneously diagonalizable and hence map into the group of diagonal sign matrices, which has order $2^d$. A faithful restriction would require $2^n\le 2^d$ for every $n$, an impossibility.

Solved by gpt-5.6-sol high.