[Math] Group Actions of $S_n$ and $O(n)$

group-actionsgroup-theory

I have been reading up a bit on group actions and whether they are faithful, free and transitive. A question I found states:

Consider the following group actions

1) The symmetric group $S_n$ acting on an n-element set.

2) The orthogonal group $O(n)$ acting on $\mathbb{R}^n$.

3) The orthogonal group $O(n)$ acting on the $(n-1)$-sphere $S^{n-1}$.

Which of these actions is faithful, transitive or free and what are the group orbits?

An explicit action is not specified, but I assumed that we could take the 'obvious' action: 1) I took $S_n$ as permuting the elements of the set and for 2) and 3) I took $O(n)$ as rotations. Is this correct, or can groups only act on a set in one way anyway?

Going with these actions, I thought that 1) would be faithful as the only permutation which leaves a set unchanged is the identity permutation; transitive as you can always find a bijection to send one permutation to another; and free as the only bijection which leaves a permutation unchanged is the identity permutation. The orbit would be all possible permutations of $n$ elements. My problem with this though is that my reasonings for faithful and free seem identical, so I don't think my train of thinking is correct.

For 2) and 3), I also don't see how what they are acting on seems to affect the characteristics of the group action. What kind of things do I need to think about?

Best Answer

Let us remember the definition of faithful, transitive and free:

The action of a group $G$ on a set $X$ is called:

Transitive: if $X$ is non-empty and if for any $x,y\in X$ there exists $g\in G$ such that $g\cdot x = y$.

Faithful (or effective): if for any two distinct $g,h\in G$ there exists $x\in X$ such that $g\cdot x \neq h\cdot x$; or equivalently, if for any $g\neq e\in G$ there exists $x\in X$ such that $g\cdot x \neq x$. Intuitively, in a faithful group action, different elements of $G$ induce different permutations of $X$.

Free: if, given $g,h\in G$, the existence of $x\in X$ with $g\cdot x = h\cdot x$ implies $g = h$. Equivalently: if $g$ is a group element and there exists an $x\in X$ with $g\cdot x = x$ (that is, if $g$ has at least one fixed point), then $g$ is the identity.

Now we can determine your three group actions:

The action of $S_n$ on a set of $n$-elements is as you showed transitive. It is also faithful as you explained, but it is not free, because there are elements on $S_n$ that do have fixed points that are not the identity, for example $1\to 1, 2\to 3, 3\to 4, n-1\to n, n\to 2$. Since the action is transitive the group of orbits is the group of one element.

The action of $O(n)$ on $S^{n-1}$, it is transitive, since there is always a rotation that can send any point of $S^{n-1}$ onto the north pole. For $n>2$, It is not free since for any point on $S^{n-1}$ there are many rotations different from the identity, whose axis of rotation is the line that passes through that point and the origin, and all of these fix that point. It is not faithful neither since any element of $O(n)$ that is not the identity moves $S^{n-1}$, therefore there exists a point on $S^{n-1}$ that is not fixed by the action. Since the action is transitive the group of orbits is the group of one element. The case $n=2$ the action it is transitive, free but not faithful.

The action of $O(n)$ on $\mathbb{R}^n$ is not free since every element of $O(n)$ fixes the origin but is not necessarily the identity. It is not transitive either, since for two elements of $\mathbb{R}^n$ whose length are not equal, you cannot find an element of $O(n)$ that sends one on the other (the elements of $O(n)$ preserve norm). It is not faithful neither since when you restrict the action to $S^{n-1}$ it is not faithful either. Since $\mathbb{R}^n=[0,\infty)\times S^{n-1}$ the set of orbits can be identified with $[0,\infty)$ since when $O(n)$ is restricted to the second factor it is transitive.

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