There is a bijection from the set of double cosets $F g F$ to the set of orbits of $X$ under $F$

136 Views Asked by At

I'm doing Exercise 9(b) in textbook Algebra by Saunders MacLane and Garrett Birkhoff. Could you please verify if it is fine or contains logical mistakes?

enter image description here

If $G$ acts transitively on a set $X$, then the subgroup $F$ fixing a point $x_{0} \in X$ also acts on $X$. Show that there is a bijection from the set of all double cosets $F g F$ to the set of orbits of $X$ under $F$.


My attempt:

Consider a map $FgF \mapsto F(gx_0)$.

First, we prove it's well-defined. Let $g,h \in G$. Then $FgF = FhF \iff gh^{-1}\in F$. Because $F$ is the subgroup fixing $x_0$, we have $gx_0 = h x_0 \iff gh^{-1} \in F$. Hence $FgF = FhF \iff gx_0 = h x_0 \implies F(gx_0) = F(hx_0)$.

Because $G$ acts transitively on $X$, every $x \in X$ can be written as $g x_0$ for some $g \in G$. Hence the map is surjective.

Second, we prove it's injective. Assume $F(gx_0) = F(hx_0)$, which is equivalent to $gx_0$ and $hx_0$ are in the same orbit. This is in turn equivalent to $\exists g' \in F:g' (gx_0) = hx_0$. This implies $(g'g)h^{-1} \in F$. Because $g' \in F$, we have $gh^{-1} \in F$. This implies $FgF = FhF$.


Update: @Anirban Bose pointed out in a comment that the well-definedness part is incorrect. Here is my fix:

Let $g,h \in G$. Then $FgF=FhF\iff g=f_1hf_2$ for some $f_1,f_2 \in F$. It follows from $f_2 \in F$ that $gx_0 = f_1hf_2x_0 = f_1 (h x_0)$. It follows from $f_1 \in F$ that $gx_0$ and $hx_0$ are equivalent under $F$. As a result, $F(gx_0) = F(hx_0)$.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

Here is @Anirban Bose's comment that answers my question. I post it here to remove this question from unanswered list. All credits are given to @Anirban Bose.

Correction : $FgF=FhF\Leftrightarrow g=f_1hf_2$ for some $f_1,f_2\in F$. Accordingly the arguments for well-defined-ness and injectivity must be corrected.