Lecture 6

Plyas theory of counting o summary, exercises, and homeworks

Lecture summary

An n-permutation is a bijective function from {1, . . . , n} to {1, . . . , n}. We write Sn for the set of all n-permutations, and for the composition of permutations. There are 2 equivalent representations of an n-permutation: 1. As a list {a1 , a2 , . . . , an } which enumerates the elements 1, 2, . . . , n in some order. For example, the list {2, 3, 1, 5, 4, 6} represents the permutation that maps 1 2, 2 3, 3 1, 4 5, 5 4, 6 6. 2. As a composition of disjoint cycles (a1 , . . . , ap ) where every such cycle represents the fact that a1 a2 . . . ap a1 . For example, the representation with cycles of the previous permutation is (1, 2, 3)(4, 5)(6). You should be able to convert back and forth between these 2 representations of an n-permutation. The reection of an n-permutation = {a1 , a2 , . . . , an } is the n-permutation {an , . . . , a2 , a1 }. A transposition is an n-permutation that is the composition of a cycle of length 2 with cycles of length 1. For example, (1)(2, 3)(4) is a transposition that transposes elements 3 and 4. An n-permutation is even if it is the composition of an even number of transpositions. Otherwise, the n-permutation is odd. (Sn , ) is a group, called the symmetric group on n elements. Sn has n! elements. A permutation group is any subgroup of Sn . The following permutation groups are of special interest: The cyclic group generated by a permutation Sn is the set = { m | m 0} where 0 = {1, 2, . . . , n}, 1 = , 2 = , 3 = , etc. The cyclic group Cn is the cyclic group generated by the permutation with the cycle representation (1, 2, . . . , n).

 It is easy to check that (Cn , ) is a group. Cn can be identied with the rotational symmetries of a regular polygon with n sides. The dihedral group Dn is the group made of the elements of Cn and their reections: Dn = Cn { | is the reection of some Cn }. It is easy to check that (Dn , ) is a group. Dn has 2 n elements, and it can be identied with the rotational symmetries and the reections through axes of symmetry of a regular polygon with n sides. The alternating group An is the group of all even permutation of Sn . It is easy to check that (An , ) is a group. The number of elements of An is half of those of Sn , that is, n!/2.

1.1

Colorings, Burnsides lemma

A coloring of a set of n elements {1, 2, . . . , n} is a map c : {1, 2, . . . , n} K where K is a nite set of colors. Every coloring c can be represented as a sequence k1 k2 . . . kn where ki = c(i). For example the coloring c : {1, 2, 3, 4} {r, g} which maps 1 r, 2 g, 3 r, 4 r is represented as the sequence rgrr. Given an n-permutation and a set of colorings C, we dene the map : C C by (c) = c if c (i) = c((i)). Thus, if c = c(1)c(2) . . . c(n) then (c) = c((1))c((2)) . . . c((n)). For example, if c = rgrr and = (1, 2, 3, 4) then (c) = grrr. Preliminary remarks: If G is a permutation group then the relation on colorings dened by c1 c2 if there exists G such that c2 = (c1 ) is an equivalence relation. If c1 c2 , we say that c1 and c2 are indistinguishable w.r.t. G. For example, {gggr, ggrg, greg, rggg} consists of colorings which are indistinguishable w.r.t. the permutation group C4 . In general, we are interested to count how many colorings can be distinguished w.r.t. a permutation group G. This number is the number of equivalence classes of . Burnsides lemma gives us a formula to compute number is the number of equivalence classes of . Implicit assumptions from now on:

 C is the set of all possible colorings of n objects with m colors. Note that C has mn elements. G is a permutation group. Useful auxiliary notions for G and c C: Invariant set of in C is C = {c C | (c) = c}. Stabilizer of c in G is Gc = { G | (c) = c}. Equivalence class of c under the relation is c = { (c) | G}. Useful theoretical results: |Gc | |c| = |G| for all c C. Let N be the number of equivalence classes of , that is, N = |C/ |. According to Burnsides Lemma, we have N= 1 |G| |C |.
G

To nd N , we must compute and count the sizes of all invariant sets C .

1.2

Cycle index

The cycle index PG (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) of a group G is a polynomial representation of the number and length of cycles in the permutations of G PG (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) :=
sum of monomials

|G|

where p x11 x22 . . . xnn appears in the sum of monomials if and only if p is the number of permutations in G which have 1 cycles of length 1, 2 cycles of length 2, . . . , and n cycles of length n. (Note that 1 + 2 +. . .+ n = n.) If is a permutation with i cycles of length i for 1 i n then (c) = c i every cycle of consists of elements with the same color |C | = m 1 m 2 . . . m
n

By Burnsides Lemma, N = PG (m, m, . . . , m).

1.3

Polyas enumeration formula

This formula is useful when we consider a more complicated coloring problem: Find the number a(n1 ,n2 ,...,an ) of colorings which are undistinguishable w.r.t. the permutations of a permutation group G, if we are constrained to use exactly n1 times color y1 , exactly n2 times color y2 , . . . , and exactly nm times color ym . (Note that this implies that n1 + n2 + . . . + nm = n.) 3

Pola dened the pattern inventory polynomial y FG (y1 , y2 , . . . , ym ) =

n1 +n2 +...+nm n n n a(n1 ,...,nm ) y1 1 y2 2 . . . ymm

where a(n1 ,...,nm ) is the number dened before. Note that, if we manage to compute FG (y1 , y2 , . . . , ym ), then we can read immediately the number of indistinguishable colorings for all possible distributions of colors (n1 , n2 , . . . , nm ) on n objects. Apparently, computing the polynomial FG is much more dicult than solving the particular coloring problem mentioned at the beginning of this subsection. Plya found a simple way to compute polynomial FG directly: o
m m m 2 yi , . . . , i=1 i=1 n yi

FG (y1 , y2 , . . . , ym ) = PG
i=1

yi ,

Exercises and Homeworks

1. Convert the following permutations from list representation to cycle representation: (a) {1, 2, 7, 8, 6, 3, 9, 10, 4, 5}. (b) {5, 2, 8, 1, 4, 7, 3, 6}. (c) {2, 8, 3, 4, 7, 1, 5, 11, 10, 6, 12, 9}. 2. Convert the following permutations from cycle representation to list representation: (a) (1, 6, 4, 2, 11, 12)(3, 8, 5, 7, 9)(10). (b) (1, 3, 2, 5, 12, 4)(6, 10, 11)(7)(8, 9). 3. Prove the following facts: (a) If : A B and g : B C are injective then g f is injective. (b) If : A B and g : B C are surjective then g f is surjective. (c) If : A B and g : B C are bijective then g f is bijective. 4. Suppose G is a group and g G. Show that g is a subgroup of G. 5. Determine the group of symmetries of the following objects: (a) The nodes of a regular tetrahedron. (b) The nodes of a cube. (c) The nodes of a regular octahedron.

Applications of Burnsides Lemma 1. Show that is an equivalence relation on C. 4

2. Prove that Gc is a subgroup of G. 3. How many dierent necklaces having 5 beads can be formed using 3 different kinds of beads, if we discount: (a) Both ips and rotations? (b) Rotations only? (c) Flips only? 4. Determine the cycle index for the group of symmetries of the faces of a cube, and use this to determine the number of dierent six-sided dice that can be manufactured using m dierent labels for the faces of the dice. Assume that each label may be used any number of times. Plyas Enumeration Formula o 1. Use Plyas enumeration formula to determine the number of six-sided o dice that can be manufactured if each of three dierent labels must be placed on two of the faces. 2. The hydrocarbon benzene has six carbon atoms arranged at the vertices of a regular hexagon, and six hydrogen atoms, with one bonded to each carbon atom. Two molecules are said to be isomers if they are composed of the same number and types of atoms, but have dierent structure. (a) Show that exactly three isomers (ortho-dichlorobenzene, meta-dichlorobenzene, and para-dichlorobenzene) may be constructed by replacing two of the hydrogen atoms of benzene with chlorine atoms. (b) How many isomers may be obtained by replacing two of the hydrogen atoms with chlorine atoms, and two others with bromine atoms? 3. The hydrocarbon naphthalene has ten carbon atoms arranged in a double hexagon as in the gure below, and eight hydrogen atoms attached at each of the positions labeled 1 through 8.

(a) Naphthol is obtained by replacing one of the hydrogen atoms of naphthalene with a hydroxyl group (OH). How many isomers of naphthol are there? (b) Tetramethylnaphthalene is obtained by replacing four of the hydrogen atoms of naphthalene with methyl groups (CH3 ). How many isomers of tetramethylnaphthalene are there?