HOMEWORK SIX

2. Class equations
For any n ≥ 1, we let An denote the kernel of the sign homomorphism Sn →
{±1}.

(a) Suppose someone told you that the class equation for the group A5 is as
follows:
|A5 | = 1 + 20 + 12 + 12 + 15.
(In English: A5 has five conjugacy classes, of sizes 1, 20, 12, 12, and 15.)
Assuming this is accurate, prove that A5 only has trivial normal subgroups
(i.e., the only normal subgroups are {e} and A5 ).
Solution. Assume there exists such a normal subgroup H C A5 such that H 6= {e}
and H 6= A5 . By normality, gHg −1 = H for all g ∈ A5 . This shows that for any
h ∈ H, all its entire conjugacy is also in H. That is, H is a union of a number of
conjugacy classes of G.
Because e ∈ H but H 6= {e}, the subgroup H contains the conjugacy class of size
1, consisting of only e, and also contains at least one other orbit. This shows that
|H| ≥ 1+12 = 13. On the other hand, H is a subgroup of A5 and so |H| | |A5 | = 60.
Because H 6= A5 , this leaves us with only a few possibilities. Either
60 60 60
|H| = = 30 or |H| = = 20 or |H| = = 15.
2 3 4
But recall that H is a disjoint union of some conjugacy classes containing that of
size 1. It can be manually checked that it is impossible to select numbers from
1, 12, 12, 15, 20 including 1 so that they add up to 30 or 20 or 15. This gives a
contradiction, and therefore there cannot be a normal subgroup H C A5 such that
H 6= {e}, A5 . 

(b) Let G be a non-trivial group (i.e., |G| 6= 1). Prove it must have at least
two conjugacy classes.
Solution. There is one obvious conjugacy class. Because
geg −1 = gg −1 = e
for all g ∈ G, we immediately see that {e} ⊆ G is a conjugacy class. But we are
assuming that {e} 6= G. Since the conjugacy classes form a partition of G, there
must be at least one other conjugacy class. That is, there are at least two conjugacy
classes. 

(c) Let G be a group of order > 2. Is it possible for G to have exactly two
conjugacy classes? If so, find such an example and prove it is an example.
If not, prove why not. You should assume |G| is finite. If |G| is infinite, I
will be very impressed with a solution!
1
2 HOMEWORK SIX

Solution. The answer is that there is no finite G of order greater than 2 with two
conjugacy classes. Suppose G indeed has exactly two conjugacy classes. We know
that {e} ⊆ G is a conjugacy class, and thus its complement G \ {e} ⊆ G must be
the other conjugacy class. By the orbit-stabilizer formula,1 we have
|G|
|G| − 1 = |G \ {e}| =
|Gx |
for any x ∈ G \ {e} and Gx = {g ∈ G : gxg −1 = x}. Then
|G| 1
|Gx | = =1+
|G| − 1 |G| − 1
is an integer. Because |G| ≥ 3, this is impossible. Therefore G cannot have exactly
two conjugacy classes. 

Well, Hiro gave a real challenge! There actually is an infinite group that has two
conjugacy classes, and I am going to try and sketch the way this is constructed.
Here is the basic idea. We start with some group such that every non-identity
element has infinite order. Take the infinite cyclic group G0 = hti for instance.
Does this satisfy the condition that there are two conjugacy classes, i.e., every two
non-identity elements are conjugate to each other? No, because t ∈ hti and t2 ∈ hti
are not conjugate to each other. (We have tn t(tn )−1 = tn+1−n = t.) So the idea is
to throw an element s into the group that satisfies sts−1 = t2 . We would then get
ht, s | sts−1 = t2 i,
whatever it is. One concern would be that maybe imposing the relation somehow
forces the group to be the trivial group, or other small group. But in fact, this
never happens.
Definition 1. Let us say that a group G is torsion-free if g n 6= e for all elements
g 6= e ∈ G and n ≥ 1.
Theorem 2 (Higman–Newmann–Newmann, 1949). Let G be a torsion-free group
and let g, h ∈ G be two elements with g, h 6= e. Consider the group
G0 = hG, s | sgs−1 = hi = (G ∗ Z)/(minimal normal containing sgs−1 h−1 ).
There is a natural group homomorphism G → G0 given simply by g 7→ g. This
group homomorphism is injective. Moreover, G0 is also torsion-free.
Proof. Sorry, I have no idea how to prove this. But I can give you a reference if
you want. 
The point of this theorem is that in G0 , the elements g and h are conjugates, i.e.,
are in the same conjugacy class. What we are going to do is to use this many times
to make sure that every two non-identity elements are conjugates of each other.
Here is how you can do this. Let G be an arbitrary torsion-free group. For any
distinct elements g1 , h1 6= e in G, the theorem states that there exists an injection
G ,→ G(g1 ,h1 ) = hG, sg1 ,h1 | sg1 ,h1 g1 s−1
g1 ,h1 = h1 i.

1See Problem 2 or Homework Two if you don’t remember.

 HOMEWORK SIX 3

In this group, we have the property that g1 and h1 are conjugates. But we are not
satisfied with just g1 and h1 being conjugates. Take any other g2 , h2 ∈ G. Then
we can then form the group
G(g1 ,h1 ) ,→ G(g1 ,h1 ),(g2 ,h2 ) = hG(g1 ,h1 ) , sg2 ,h2 | sg2 ,h2 g2 s−1
g2 ,h2 = h2 i

= hG, sg1 ,h1 , sg2 ,h2 | sg1 ,h1 g1 s−1 −1

g1 ,h1 = h1 , sg2 ,h2 g2 sg2 ,h2 = h2 i.

Then we can inductively define

G(g1 ,h1 ),...,(gk ,hk ) = hG(g1 ,h1 ),...,(gk−1 ,hk−1 ) , sgk ,hk | sgk ,hk gk s−1
gk ,hk = hk i

= hG, sg1 ,h1 , . . . , sgk ,hk | sg1 ,h1 g1 s−1 −1

g1 ,h1 = h1 , . . . , sgk ,hk gk sgk ,hk = hk i.

We wish to continue this to all pairs (g, h) ∈ G × G, but there is an apparent

problem: we can’t apply the theorem infinitely many times.
The solution to this is to apply the theorem to finitely many pairs (g, h) ∈ G×G,
take all such groups obtained from the pairs, and sort of “glue” them together to
get one huge group. Let me make this gluing process precise. Suppose we have an
infinite sequence
A1 A2 A3 A4 ···
where each map is an injective homomorphism. Because the maps are injective,
we can consider Ak as a subgroup of Ak+1 . Under this identification, we can take
the union of the whole system, which is called the direct limit or colimit of the
system:
[∞
lim Ak = colim Ak = Ak .
−→ k
k n=1
This is indeed a group. Here is why. For any x, y ∈ limk Ak , there exist α, β such
−→
that x ∈ Aα and y ∈ Aβ . Then x, y ∈ Amax(α,β) and so their multiplication xy is
also in Amax(α,β) ⊆ limk Ak .
−→
This construction works even if the groups are not linearly ordered. For instance,
consider the following commuting diagram:
A1,1 A1,2 A1,3 ···

A2,1 A2,2 A2,3 ···

A3,1 A3,2 A3,3 ···

.. .. ..
. . .
Again we may consider all the injective homomorphisms as inclusions, and thus
take the union
∞
[
lim Ai,j = Ai,j .
−→
i,j i,j=1
Let us go back to our problem with this high-powered machinery. We look at all
the possible G(g1 ,h1 ),...,(gk ,hk ) and consider the whole complicated net of inclusions
4 HOMEWORK SIX

induced by them. This will look something like the following:

G(g1 ,h1 ) G(g1 ,h1 ),(g2 ,h2 ) ···

G G(g2 ,h2 ) G(g1 ,h1 ),(g3 ,h3 ) ···

G(g3 ,h3 ) G(g2 ,h2 ),(g3 ,h3 ) ···

.. .. ..
. . .
Now the direct limit of this system
G0 = lim G(g1 ,h1 ),...,(gk ,hk )
−→
will contain all possible sg,h for g, h 6= e in G. Because we have the relation
sg,h gs−1
g,h = h, any two non-identity elements in G are conjugate to each other in
G0 .
Proposition 3. If G is a torsion-free group, there is a natural inclusion map
G ,→ G0 = lim G(g1 ,h1 ),...,(gk ,hk ) ,
−→
and any two elements in G are conjugates in G0 . Moreover, G0 is also torsion-free.
Proof. The only part we haven’t proved is that G0 is torsion-free. But recall that
from the theorem we have that each G(g1 ,h1 ),...,(gk ,hk ) is torsion-free. If some element
x ∈ G0 has finite order, then x ∈ G(g1 ,h1 ),...,(gk ,hk ) . Since these groups are torsion-
free, it immediately follows that x = e. 
Starting with G0 ∼= Z, we apply the G0 construction iteratively to get G1 = (G0 )0 ,
G2 = (G1 )0 and so on. Here, note that we are using the fact that G0 is also torsion-
free, because this is needed in the G0 construction. We get a system of inclusions
G0 G1 G2 ··· .
Set
G = lim Gk .
−→
k

Proposition 4. The group G is infinite and has exactly two conjugacy classes.
Solution. The fact that G is immediate from G0 ,→ G and G0 ∼ = Z. Now we prove
that any x, y ∈ G with x, y 6= e are conjugate to each other. By definition, there
exists some sufficiently large N such that x, y ∈ GN . Then in the G0 construction,
we have imposed the relation
sx,y x s−1
x,y = y ∈ GN +1 .
So x, y are conjugate to each other in GN +1 , and hence they are also conjugate to
each other in G.