DISCRETE STRUCTURES AND THEORY OF LOGIC (DSTL)

KCS-303
Unit-4
Permutation and Symmetric Group

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 Permutation
Let S be a non empty finite set, then one-one onto mapping f:
S →S is called permutation.
Let S={a1, a2, a3,…an} be finite set containing n elements
if f : S →S is one-one onto mapping, then f is a permutation
of degree n.
Let f(a1) = b1 , f(a2) = b2 … f(an) = bn
Symbolically a permutation f can be written as:

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 Permutation
Equality of Permutations :
Two permutation f and g are said to be equal,
i.e. f = g iff f(a) = g(a) for every a ∈ S.
Example:

Note: If f is a permutation of degree n, we can write it in

several ways by interchanging the columns, while the
permutation will be same

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 Permutation
Total Number of Permutations :
If S be a set containing n elements, then the number of
arrangement of elements of S are n!
i.e. there are n! permutations of degree n.
Identity Permutation :
If a permutation I of degree n is such that the I image of
every element is the same element,
i.e. I(x) = x for every x ∈ S.

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 Permutation
Product or Composition of two Permutation:
Let S = { 1,2,3 . . .n} and f & g are two permutation on S , i.e.
f : S→ S & g : S→S are one- one & onto mappings then their
compositions
gof : S→S & fog : S→S are also one- one & onto mappings.
Thus the product of two permutations

on S defined as

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 Permutation
Example:

We have

Example:

We have

Note that gf  fg

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 Permutation
Inverse Permutation:
Let S = { a1, a2, a3, . . . ,an} and f be permutation on S,
i.e. f : S →S is one – one onto mapping then f -1 exist . Thus,
every permutation f on set S has unique inverse permutation
denoted by f-1.

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 Permutation
Cyclic Permutation (or Cycle):
A permutation f which moves cyclically a set of elements a 1,

a2, a3, . . ., ar in the sense that

f(a1) = a2 , f(a2) = a3 , f(a3) = a4, . . .f(ar-1) = f(ar) , f(ar) = a1 and

keeps fix the other elements, is called a cycle of length r or r
cycle.
The cycle f is written as –
f = (a1 a2 a3 . . . ar), this is called cycle of length r.
Example:

Can be written in cyclic form as f = (1 2 3 4) and the

length of cycle is 4 8
 Permutation
Disjoint Cycles:
1. Every permutation can be expressed as a product of
cycles
2. The product of disjoint cycles is commutative
Example: If f = (1 6 7) and g = (2 5 3 4) are two distinct
cycles representing the permutation on 7 symbols 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7. Then show that fg = gf
We have and

Now and

Here fg = gf
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 Permutation
Transposition:
A cycle of length two is called transposition .
Ex: (1 3) , (1 2) are transpositions.
Theorem: Every cycle of length n can be expressed as a
product of (n – 1) transpositions
i.e. if f = (a1 a2 a3 …………….. an-1 an) then we can write

f = (a1 an) (a1 an-1) (a1 an-2) ………. (a1 a2)

Example: Express the following permutation as a product of
transpositions

We have f = (1 2 4) (3 5) (6 7) = (1 4) (1 2) (3 5) (6 7)
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 Permutation
Odd and Even Permutations:
A permutation that can be expressed as a product of an even
number of 2-cycles is called an even permutation.
A permutation that can be expressed as the product of an
odd number of 2-cycles is called an odd permutation
Example: Check whether the following permutations are
odd or even

We have f = (1 5) (2 6 3) = (1 5) (2 3) (2 6)
Therefore it is odd permutation

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 Permutation

We have f = (1 6 2 5) (3 4) = (1 5) (1 2) (1 6) (3 4)
Therefore it is even permutation

We have f = (1 6) (2 3 4 5) = (1 6) (2 5) (2 4) (2 3)
Therefore it is even permutation

We have f = (1 2 3)(4 5 6)(7 8) = (1 3)(1 2)(4 6)(4 5)(7 8)

Therefore it is odd permutation

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 Symmetric Group
Symmetric Group:
Let S be a non empty finite set, then one-one onto mapping f:
S →S is called permutation of S.
The set of all permutations is denoted by S n.

i.e. Sn = {f : f is a permutation on S}

Sn forms a group under composition of permutations and is

known as the symmetric group of degree n.
Example: Let us consider S = {1, 2, 3} then the set of all
permutations is:
S3 = {I, f1, f2, f3, f4, f5}
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 Symmetric Group
Where

Composition table for S3

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 Symmetric Group
Note:
1. Clearly we can see that S3 forms a group which is called
the symmetric group.
2. The Order of S3 is 6.
3. S3 is non Abelian group:
Since f1. f2 = f5 and f2. f1 = f4
Hence f4 ≠ f5
This shows f1. f2 ≠ f2. f1
Hence S3 is non Abelian group

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Thank You

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