English

Conjugation invariants determine the metacommutation permutation only up to relabelling

Computer Science and Game Theory 2026-08-03 v1 Group Theory

Abstract

Let H\mathcal{H} be the Hurwitz quaternions, pp an odd prime, and QHQ \in \mathcal{H} a prime of norm qpq \neq p. Metacommutation PQ=QPPQ = Q'P' induces a permutation πQ\pi_Q of the p+1p+1 left-associate classes of primes of norm pp. Cohn and Kumar compute its sign and fixed-point count, and Leite and Machiavelo its full cycle structure, by formulas depending only on conjugation-invariant data of QQ (namely qq and trQ\mathrm{tr}\,Q). We prove this is exactly the boundary of what such invariants can carry: no quantity I(Q)I(Q) invariant under unit conjugation determines πQ\pi_Q as a labelled permutation of the intrinsic class set, or even the image of a single specified class. The proof combines an equivariance identity πuQu1=ρuπQρu1\pi_{uQu^{-1}} = \rho_u \pi_Q \rho_u^{-1} with a minimal, fully explicit witness at (p,q)=(3,5)(p,q) = (3,5): the four primes 2+i2+i, 2+j2+j, 2+k2+k, 2i2-i form a single unit-conjugacy orbit, hence agree under every conjugation-invariant function, yet induce four pairwise distinct 44-cycles of the same four classes. We further observe that isomorphisms H/pHM2(Fp)\mathcal{H}/p\mathcal{H} \to M_2(\mathbb{F}_p) form a torsor under PGL2(Fp)\mathrm{PGL}_2(\mathbb{F}_p), so no projective labelling of the classes is canonical, and that by orbit-stabilizer the datum of one destination πQ(C)\pi_Q(C) is exactly a coset gQGCg_Q G_C in PGL2(Fp)/GC\mathrm{PGL}_2(\mathbb{F}_p)/G_C. All sixteen refactorizations in the witness are listed in the appendix and have been verified by machine along two independent routes.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.2608.01610,
  title  = {Conjugation invariants determine the metacommutation permutation only up to relabelling},
  author = {Matthew Fried},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2608.01610},
  year   = {2026}
}

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7 pages