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I want to prove that, if $x^G$ denotes the conjugacy class of $x$ in a finite group $G$ and $H$ is a subgroup of $G$ then $$ |\{g\in G : g^{-1}xg\in H \}|=|x^G\cap H|\cdot |C_G(x)|, $$ where $C_G(x)$ denotes centralizer of $x$ in $G$.

If $x^G\cap H=\emptyset$ then nothing to prove.

But, if $x^G\cap H\neq \emptyset$, I could not see a clever way to get the factor $|C_G(x)|$ in the right side when we try to count number of $g$'s such that $g^{-1}xg\in H$.

Can one help (or suggest any other clever way) to prove above equality?

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3 Answers 3

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Fix $h\in H\cap x^G$. Suppose that $g_1^{-1}xg_1=h=g_2^{-1}xg_2$. Then $g_1g_2^{-1}\in C_G(x)$ or equivalently $g_1=cg_2$ with $c\in C_G(x)$. Hope this helps.

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More generally.

Suppose $G$ acts transitively on a set $\Omega$, and let $x \in G$. Let $H$ be a point stabilizer.

Then you can prove: $$\frac{|x^G \cap H|}{|x^G|} = \frac{|\Omega^x|}{|\Omega|},$$ where $\Omega^x = \{ \alpha \in \Omega : x \cdot \alpha = \alpha\}$, the fixed point set of $X$.

For your question, apply this with $\Omega = G/H$ (left coset action). Then $\Omega^x = \{gH : g^{-1}xg \in H\}$, also $|x^G| = [G:C_G(x)]$ and $|\Omega| = [G:H]$.

So $|x^G \cap H| |C_G(x)| = |\Omega^x| |H|$.

Note that $|\Omega^x | |H| = | \{ g \in G : g^{-1}xg \in H\}|$ to get the result you are asking for.

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  • $\begingroup$ The relation you mention is quite interesting, however you formulate it in a manner which presupposes finiteness on many of the objects involved (specifically that of $\Omega$ and of $\left(G \colon \mathrm{C}_G(x)\right)$. I have managed to obtain a proof of its validity in a slightly more general setting -- that of arbitrary group $\Gamma$ acting transitively on arbitrary set $A$ with fixed element $\alpha \in \Gamma$ such that at least one of the orders $\left \lvert \mathrm{C}_{\Gamma}(\alpha)\right \rvert$ or $\lvert H \rvert$ is strictly less than $\lvert \Gamma \rvert$. $\endgroup$
    – ΑΘΩ
    Commented Nov 16, 2022 at 13:03
  • $\begingroup$ (cont.) And interestingly enough, the proof uses the unconditionally general result presented in my answer above. Would you happen to be aware of a proof not relying on additional cardinal assumptions for the result you mention? $\endgroup$
    – ΑΘΩ
    Commented Nov 16, 2022 at 13:07
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, I think it is true in general that $x^G \times \Omega^x$ is in bijection with $\Omega \times (x^G \cap H)$, and it follows as in the finite case. $\endgroup$
    – spin
    Commented Nov 16, 2022 at 14:28
  • $\begingroup$ For conjugate $x,y$ you have $|\Omega^x| = |\Omega^y|$, so $x^G \times \Omega^x$ is in bijection with $$\bigcup_{g \in x^G} \{g\} \times \Omega^g.$$ On the other hand, this union is equal to $$\bigcup_{\beta \in \Omega} (x^G \cap G_{\beta}) \times \{ \beta\}.$$ By transitivity all stabilizers $G_{\beta}$, $G_{\beta'}$ are $G$-conjugate, so $|x^G \cap G_{\beta}| = |x^G \cap H|$ for all $\beta$. Hence $\cup_{\beta \in \Omega} (x^G \cap G_{\beta}) \times \{ \beta\}$ is in bijection with $\Omega \times (x^G \cap H)$. $\endgroup$
    – spin
    Commented Nov 16, 2022 at 14:33
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for clarifying the situation. Indeed, a very nice double counting argument! $\endgroup$
    – ΑΘΩ
    Commented Nov 17, 2022 at 13:07
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There is a very elegant way to prove a very general statement, in relation to which your problem above occurs as a particular case. Consider an arbitrary group $\Gamma$ (no finiteness required) with a left action $\cdot\ \colon \Gamma \times A \rightarrow A$ on an arbitrary set $A$. Let us adopt the following syntactic (notational) conventions:

  • given arbitrary subset $\Lambda \subseteq \Gamma$ of operators and arbitrary $X \subseteq A$, we write: $$\Lambda X \stackrel{\textrm{def}}{=} \cdot \left[\Lambda \times X\right]=\left\{\lambda x\right\}_{\substack{\lambda \in \Lambda\\x \in X}}$$ to denote the external product of the two subsets (external as it stems from an external operation, the action itself). When either of the two subsets in question is a singleton, we also adopt the abbreviations: $$\lambda X\stackrel{\textrm{def}}{=}\{\lambda\}X$$ for any $\lambda \in \Gamma$ and $X \subseteq A$ respectively $$\Lambda x \stackrel{\textrm{def}}{=}\Lambda \{x\}$$ for any $\Lambda \subseteq \Gamma$ and $x \in A$.
  • given arbitrary subsets $X, Y \subseteq A$ we write: $$\left(Y \colon X\right)_\Gamma \stackrel{\textrm{def}}{=} \left\{\lambda \in \Gamma \mid \lambda X \subseteq Y\right\}$$ to refer to the quotient between the two subsets (the subscript $\Gamma$ serves to specify the action with respect to which the quotient is considered). As in the previous convention, we also adopt the abbreviations: $$\left(Y \colon x\right)_{\Gamma} \stackrel{\textrm{def}}{=} \left(Y \colon \{x\}\right)_{\Gamma}$$ for arbitrary $Y \subseteq A$ and $x \in A$ respectively $$\left(y\ \colon X\right)_{\Gamma} \stackrel{\textrm{def}}{=}\left(\{y\}\colon X\right)_{\Gamma}$$ for arbitrary $X \subseteq A$ and $y \in A$.
  • given arbitrary binary relation $R \in \mathscr{Rel}(A)$ on $A$ together with arbitrary subset $M \subseteq A$, we write $R_{|M} \stackrel{\textrm{def}}{=} R \cap \left(M \times M\right)$ for the restriction to $M$ of relation $R$; if $R \in \mathscr{Eq}(A)$ is an equivalence on $A$ then the restriction $R_{|M} \in \mathscr{Eq}(M)$ is correspondingly an equivalence on $M$. Furthermore, in the particular case when $M$ is saturated with respect to equivalence $R$ - which means that for any given $x \in M$ we automatically have $R\langle x \rangle \subseteq M$, in other words together with any element $M$ contains (includes) the entire $R$-class of that element - the following relation holds: $$M/R_{|M}=\left\{X \in A/R \mid X \subseteq M\right\}=A/R \cap \mathscr{P}(M).$$ This relation means that the $R_{|M}$-classes of $M$ are none other than the $R$-classes (in the ambient set $A$) included in $M$.
  • for arbitrary set $M$ we write $\Delta_M$ for its diagonal and given an arbitrary map $f \colon A \to B$ we denote its canonical equivalence by $\mathrm{Eq}(f)\stackrel{\textrm{def}}{=}\left(f \times f\right)^{-1}\left[\Delta_B\right]$; this equivalence relation can also be described by the (propositional) equivalence: $$\left(\forall x, y\right)\left(x\mathrm{Eq}(f)y \Leftrightarrow x, y \in A \wedge f(x)=f(y)\right).$$
  • given arbitrary group $F$ and subgroup $H \leqslant F$, we shall write $\mathrm{Cg}^F_{\mathrm{s}}(H)$ for the left congruence on $F$ modulo $H$; this is the equivalence relation described by the (propositional) equivalence: $$x\mathrm{Cg}^F_{\mathrm{s}}(H)y \Leftrightarrow x, y \in G \wedge x^{-1}y \in H.$$ We also write $\left(F/H\right)_{\mathrm{s}}\stackrel{\textrm{def}}{=}F/\mathrm{Cg}^F_{\mathrm{s}}(H)$ to denote the quotient set consisting of all left congruence classes with respect to $H$ (in case anyone might be wondering about the subscript $\mathrm{s}$, it is the initial of the word left in both Latin as well as in my mother tongue).

Returning to the general setting of a given left action of $\Gamma$ on $A$, let us fix $x \in A$ and $X \subseteq A$. We shall establish the following:

Proposition. The cardinal relation $\left\lvert \left(X \colon x\right)_{\Gamma}\right\rvert=\left\lvert \Gamma x \cap X\right\rvert \left\lvert \mathrm{Stab}_{\Gamma}(x)\right\rvert$ holds, where the notation $\mathrm{Stab}$ is the traditional one for stabilisers of elements.

Proof : for simplicity let us introduce the notations $\Lambda \stackrel{\textrm{def}}{=} \left(X \colon x\right)_{\Gamma}$, $H \stackrel{\textrm{def}}{=}\mathrm{Stab}_{\Gamma}(x)$ and $R \stackrel{\textrm{def}}{=} \mathrm{Cg}_{\mathrm{s}}^{\Gamma}(H)$. It is clear that for any $\lambda \in \Lambda$ it is the case that $\lambda x \in \Gamma x \cap X$, which enables us to consider the following map: $$\begin{align} \varphi \colon \Lambda &\to \Gamma x \cap X \\ \varphi(\lambda)&=\lambda x. \end{align}$$ The following are immediate observations:

  1. $\varphi$ is surjective
  2. the canonical equivalence of $\varphi$ is the restriction to $\Lambda$ of the left congruence modulo $H$, formally speaking $\mathrm{Eq}\left(\varphi\right)=R_{|\Lambda}$
  3. $\Lambda$ is saturated with respect to $R$, which means explicitly that given any element $\lambda \in \Lambda$ we have $\lambda H \subseteq \Lambda$, i.e the entire left $H$-class of $\lambda$ (with respect to $R$) is included in $\Lambda$.

By virtue of observation 1) together with the fundamental theorem for quotient maps in set theory, we infer that: $$\left\lvert \Gamma x \cap X \right\rvert=\left\lvert \Lambda/\mathrm{Eq}\left(\varphi\right) \right\rvert. \tag{i}$$ By virtue of observation 2) and the above we gather that: $$\left\lvert \Gamma x \cap X \right\rvert=\left\lvert \Lambda/R_{|\Lambda} \right\rvert. \tag{ii}$$ By virtue of observation 3) together with the remark concerning saturated subsets made in one of the above paragraphs, it follows that $\Lambda/R_{|\Lambda} \subseteq \left(\Gamma/H\right)_{\mathrm{s}}$. This entails the fact that: $$\left(\forall \Theta\right)\left(\Theta \in \Lambda/R_{|\Lambda} \Rightarrow \left\lvert \Theta \right\rvert=\left\lvert H\right\rvert\right), \tag{iii}$$ in other words all the equivalence classes in the quotient set $\Lambda/R_{|\Lambda}$ have cardinality equal to that of $H$, since they are all left $H$-congruence classes of $\Gamma$. Taking into account relations $\textrm{(i)-(iii)}$ above we can produce the following relation: $$\left\lvert \Lambda \right\rvert=\left\lvert \bigcup \Lambda/R_{|\Lambda} \right\rvert=\sum_{\Theta \in \Lambda/R_{|\Lambda}}\left\lvert \Theta \right\rvert=\sum_{\Theta \in \Lambda/R_{|\Lambda}} \left\lvert H \right\rvert=\left\lvert \Lambda/R_{|\Lambda} \right\rvert \left\lvert H \right\rvert=\left\lvert \Gamma x \cap X \right\rvert \left\lvert H \right\rvert,$$ none other than the relation we had set out to prove. $\Box$

This general proposition has an obvious analogue referring to the dual case of right actions. Your particular formulation of the problem is the special case when $\Gamma=A$ and $\Gamma$ acts on itself by left (or right) conjugation. The subgroup $H$ is in the role of the generic subset $X \subseteq \Gamma$ in my formulation above (at this point it is worthy of remark that the particular subset $H$ - in your notation - being a subgroup plays absolutely no part in the proof) and the stabiliser of any $x \in \Gamma$ with respect to conjugation (whether left or right, regardless) is precisely the centraliser $\mathrm{C}_{\Gamma}(x)$.

To make one more technical remark, the subset featured in the left-hand term of your formulation of the cardinal relation above is - as you define it - the quotient between $X$ and $x$ with respect to right conjugation, so an application of the right-action version of the general proposition is most straight-forward.

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