If a given permutation in S_n has a given cycle type, describe sgn(sig).

Edellaine
Messages
11
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement


5.4: If sigma in S_n has cycle type n_1,...,n_r, what is sgn(sig)? (sgn is the sign homomorphism)

Homework Equations


sgn(sigma) = 1 if sigma is even. sgn(sigma) = -1 is sigma is odd
cycle type is the length of the cycle type. If n_2 = 2, sigma has two 2-cycles.

The Attempt at a Solution


I know what cycle type is (if n_i = j, there are j cycles of length i), and sgn(sigma) is easy. How would I go about expanding (sig) to find how many two cycles I have, if that's even what I should be doing. It doesn't seem that worthwhile to generalize this for cycle type.

I was thinking of writing sgn(sig) as a product of sgn(sig_i) where (sig_i) is an individual cycle of the product of cycles forming (sig), but I don't think that exactly accounts for multiples.

I'm also not sure how to come up with conditions that will say, depending on r, if sgn(sig) = 1, or sgn(sig) = -1.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I'm not quite following your notation here. But to get the sign you just take (-1)^(number of even length cycles), right?
 
Yup. But since you can write any n-cycle as a product of 2-cycles, how do I account for the cycles of odd length.
 
Cycles of even length break into an odd number of two cycles, cycles of odd length break into an even number. I don't see the problem.
 
Prove $$\int\limits_0^{\sqrt2/4}\frac{1}{\sqrt{x-x^2}}\arcsin\sqrt{\frac{(x-1)\left(x-1+x\sqrt{9-16x}\right)}{1-2x}} \, \mathrm dx = \frac{\pi^2}{8}.$$ Let $$I = \int\limits_0^{\sqrt 2 / 4}\frac{1}{\sqrt{x-x^2}}\arcsin\sqrt{\frac{(x-1)\left(x-1+x\sqrt{9-16x}\right)}{1-2x}} \, \mathrm dx. \tag{1}$$ The representation integral of ##\arcsin## is $$\arcsin u = \int\limits_{0}^{1} \frac{\mathrm dt}{\sqrt{1-t^2}}, \qquad 0 \leqslant u \leqslant 1.$$ Plugging identity above into ##(1)## with ##u...
Back
Top