Transitive, Doubly Transitive

Group Actions, Transitive, Doubly Transitive

Transitive, Doubly Transitive

A group action is transitive if there is only one orbit.  In other words, G maps every point in S to every other point.

The action is doubly transitive if some permutation takes any pair of elements to any other pair.

Assume the action of G on S is transitive, and |S| = p (prime).  If G has a kernel that maps to the identity permutation, mod out by the kernel and call the factor group H.  Now H acts effectively on S.

since the orbit has size p, |H| is divisible by p.  By Macay's theorem, H contains a subgroup Zp.  The only possible permutation with period p is a p cycle.  Thus the action of G includes a p cycle.

If S is divisible by p, G contains an element of order p, whose action on S is one or more disjoint p cycles.