Show that if $A=\{1, 2,…\}$, then $S_A$ is an infinite group

group-theoryinfinite-groupssolution-verificationsymmetric-groups

I want to show that if $A=\{1, 2,…\}$, then $S_A$ is an infinite group.

My proposed solution:

We consider the element $x=(1, 2,…, i, i+1,…)$ of $S_A$ , where we have used cyclic notation for representing elements of permutation groups, noting that there exists no positive finite integer $n$, such that $|x|=n$, we conclude that the cyclic subgroup of $S_A$ generated by $x$ is an infinite group, thus we conclude that $S_A$ is an infinite group.

Is my solution reasonable?
(This is not a Homework problem, that I want to get solved unfairly )

Best Answer

You can have an infinite cycle, but it needs to be infinite in both directions, as in @Derek Holt's comment. Otherwise not all points are "hit".

Alternative argument:

For any $n\in \Bbb N,$ we have $S_n\le S_\Bbb N\implies \lvert S_\Bbb N\rvert \ge n!.$