Let be an integer and be the exponent of in the decomposition of into prime factors. Show that the symmetric group has at least three subgroups of order .
Solution
Let and let be the exponent of in the prime factorization of . Recall that the order of is , so divides .
We will exhibit at least three subgroups of of order .
First, consider the Sylow -subgroups of . By Sylow's theorems, the number of Sylow -subgroups is congruent to modulo and divides . In particular, there is at least one Sylow -subgroup of order .
We will construct three explicit subgroups of order :
1. The subgroup consisting of all permutations of that permute the first elements, where is the largest power of less than or equal to . That is, is isomorphic to , and the -part of is maximized. However, to ensure order , we need to consider the actual Sylow -subgroups.
2. The subgroup consisting of all permutations that permute a different set of elements (for example, the last elements), again forming a subgroup isomorphic to .
3. The subgroup can be constructed as follows: Consider the direct product of ( times), embedded in as the group generated by disjoint transpositions. This subgroup is an elementary abelian -group of order , but for , the Sylow -subgroups are not all conjugate to this one, and the actual Sylow -subgroups are more complicated, but there are at least three such subgroups by the following argument.
Alternatively, note that the number of Sylow -subgroups is greater than for (since is even for ), and by Sylow's theorem, the number is congruent to modulo and divides . Therefore, there are at least three Sylow -subgroups of of order .
Thus, has at least three subgroups of order .