Under what circumstances is the action of conjugation by an element $g$ on a group $G$ transitive

group-actionsgroup-theory

My question is as seen in the title. I thought to use the orbit-stablilizer theorem but am not sure if perhaps I've only obtained a sufficient condition. My question is what are the necessary and sufficient conditions for the conjugation action $\psi: G \to$ Aut($G$) defined by $\psi(g) = C_g$ to be transitive?

My attempt is as below:

By the OST, conjugation is transitive if and only if the factor group $G/G_x$ is of the same size (exists a bijection) with $G$ (since $G = Gg$ for any $g \in G$ in a transitive action). Thus there must be as many distinct cosets in $G/G_x$ as elements in $G$. That is, each coset must be of size 1. By the proof of Lagrange's theorem, we know that this means that the subgroup part of each coset, $G_x$, is of size 1 and, since $e \in G_x$, we have $G_x = \{e\}$.

But is this a characterization? Can I go further? I also don't think this result is right seeing as I would've expected there to be just one coset (intuitively based on the idea that a transitive action lets us "reach" any element from any other).

Best Answer

You have proved that $G_x=\{e\}$. But, by definition, $G_x=\{g\in G\mid gxg^{-1}=x\}$, whence $x\in G_x$ (in fact, $xxx^{-1}=x$). Therefore, $x=e$. But this all holds for every $x\in G$, and hence $G=\{e\}$. Namely, for nontrivial $G$, the action of $G$ on itself by conjugation is never transitive.

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