From BRYAN@wvnvm.wvnet.edu Tue Nov 8 21:23:01 1994 Return-Path: Received: from WVNVM.WVNET.EDU by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) for /com/archive/cube-lovers id AA18863; Tue, 8 Nov 94 21:23:01 EST Message-Id: <9411090223.AA18863@life.ai.mit.edu> Received: from WVNVM.WVNET.EDU by WVNVM.WVNET.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 5643; Tue, 08 Nov 94 21:22:42 EST Received: from WVNVM.WVNET.EDU (NJE origin BRYAN@WVNVM) by WVNVM.WVNET.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 1945; Tue, 8 Nov 1994 21:22:42 -0500 X-Acknowledge-To: Date: Tue, 8 Nov 1994 21:22:37 -0500 (EST) From: "Jerry Bryan" To: Subject: Re: The real size of cube space In-Reply-To: Message of 11/08/94 at 01:18:00 from , Martin.Schoenert@math.rwth-aachen.de On 11/08/94 at 01:18:00 Martin.Schoenert@math.rwth-aachen.de said: >The way I view this is as follows. The entire cube group C is a >permutation group group on 6*9 points, generated by the six face turns U, >D, L, R, F, B; the three middle slice turns M_U, M_L, M_F; and the >reflection S. This group has a subgroup M of symmetries of the cube (of >order 48), generated by U M_U D', L M_L R', F M_F B', and S. Another >subgroup is G, generated by the six face turns, which has index 48 in G. >G is a normal divisor of C, G is the semidirect product of M and G. The >same is true for GE and GC. I have discussed a similar view of things recently, except that I was not brave enough to include a reflection in the generators. C is normally used to denote the set of twenty-four rotations of the cube (a sub-group of M), so let's call your "entire cube group" big_G instead. My version of big_G was generated by Q plus the slice moves (like yours without the reflection), or alternatively by Q plus C. Your version of big_G is hence the same as the one I discussed except that you added a reflection. C (the rotations C, that is) is a sub-group of both versions of big_G. M is a sub-group of your version of big_G, but not of mine. Your big_G has the obvious advantage of including M as a sub-group. Mine has the advantage (?) of being physically realizable on a real cube. That is, for X in your big_G, rX or Xr (r is a reflection) is also in your big_G. For X in my big_G, rX or Xr is not in big_G, and correspondingly a single reflection is not physically realizable on a real cube. Of course, r'Xr is in big_G in either case, r being in M. Also, cX and Xc are in either version of big_G for all c in C. I tend to think that Singmaster's standard G= is not what people think of when they hold a real cube in their hand. Rather, they tend to think of big_G/C. That is, the cosets of C in big_G are common sensically considered to be equivalent because rotating a real cube in space is "doing nothing". Also, for my version of big_G we have |big_G/C| = |G|. For either version of big_G, we have to re-interpret parity arguments slightly. In Singmaster's G=, we say that even corners occur only with even edges and vice versa. In big_G, a face quarter-turn is odd on the corners and edges, and a slice quarter-turn is odd on the edges and on the centers. Hence, you can have odd corners with even edges and vice versa, but only if the centers are simultaneously odd. Therefore, the rules concerning which configurations of edges and corners can occur together are really preserved, even in big_G. Finally, neither version of big_G is as big as you can go. That is, neither of them includes Singmaster's Supergroup, where different orientations of the otherwise fixed face centers are considered. Also, neither one of them considers Dan Hoey's Eccentric Slabism, wherein invisible inner cubes are considered. > Note that the elements of M are also a autmorphisms of the Cayley >graph. That means that elements of M respects the length of operations. >That is if g_1 and g_2 are elements of G that are in one conjugacy class >under M, then the lenght of the shortest process effecting them is equal. >This follows from the fact that M fixes the set of the generators of G >and their inverses. M is fact the largest subgroup of the outer >autmorphism group with this property, which makes it rather important. This of course is the basis for the large searches I have been able to perform using M-conjugate classes. The only trouble is, I don't even know what a Cayley graph is (but I am working on it), the last course I took in group theory being 25 years ago. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Robert G. Bryan (Jerry Bryan) (304) 293-5192 Associate Director, WVNET (304) 293-5540 fax 837 Chestnut Ridge Road BRYAN@WVNVM Morgantown, WV 26505 BRYAN@WVNVM.WVNET.EDU If you don't have time to do it right today, what makes you think you are going to have time to do it over again tomorrow?