English

A property of alternating groups

Group Theory 2007-05-23 v2

Abstract

We describe an efficient algorithm to write any element of the alternating group A_n as a product of two n-cycles (in particular, we show that any element of A_n can be so written -- a result of E. A. Bertram). An easy corollary is that every element of A_n is a commutator in the symmetric group S_n.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0303036,
  title  = {A property of alternating groups},
  author = {Henry Cejtin and Igor Rivin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0303036},
  year   = {2007}
}