PermutationProduct[a,b,c]
gives the product of permutations a, b, c.
PermutationProduct


PermutationProduct[a,b,c]
gives the product of permutations a, b, c.
Details
- The product of permutations a, b, c is understood to be the permutation resulting from applying a, then b, then c.
- PermutationProduct[g1,g2,…,gn] gives the left-to-right product of n permutations.
- The product of permutations is non-commutative.
- PermutationProduct[g] gives g.
- PermutationProduct[] returns the identity permutation Cycles[{}].
- PermutationProduct[a,b] can be input as ab. The character is entered as
p*
or \[PermutationProduct].
Examples
open all close allBasic Examples (1)
Scope (4)
PermutationProduct works with any number of permutations, of any degree:
SeedRandom[107];
PermutationProduct@@Table[RandomPermutation[10], {7}]Product of a single permutation:
PermutationProduct[Cycles[{{1, 4, 3, 2}}]]Multiplication with the identity permutation:
PermutationProduct[Cycles[{{1, 4, 3, 2}}], Cycles[{}]]This gives the identity permutation:
PermutationProduct[]Generalizations & Extensions (3)
PermutationProduct performs some simplifications with symbolic arguments:
PermutationProduct[a]PermutationProduct[a, InversePermutation[a]]PermutationProduct[a, b, a, a, a, a, InversePermutation[a]]Perform intermediate products:
PermutationProduct[a, b, Cycles[{{1, 2, 3}}], Cycles[{{2, 3}}], c]From the product and inversion in a group, it is possible to define commutation and conjugation as follows. Use this abbreviation:
inv = InversePermutation;commutator[a_, b_] := inv[a]inv[b]abconjugation[a_, b_] := inv[b]abTwo permutations commute if and only if their commutator is the identity:
commutator[Cycles[{{4, 3, 2}, {1, 5, 6}}], Cycles[{{1, 5, 6}, {7, 8}}]]Commutation can be recursively generalized to more arguments:
commutator[a_, b_, c__] := commutator[commutator[a, b], c]Check some well-known commutation relations:
commutator[a, bc] === commutator[a, c]conjugation[commutator[a, b], c]conjugation[commutator[a, inv[b], c], b]conjugation[commutator[b, inv[c], a], c]conjugation[commutator[c, inv[a], b], a] === Cycles[{}]Properties & Relations (5)
Multiplication with the inverse permutation returns the identity:
perm = Cycles[{{1, 7, 2}, {3, 9}}]PermutationProduct[perm, InversePermutation[perm]]PermutationProduct[InversePermutation[perm], perm]Any cycle of length
is equivalent to a product of
transpositions (cycles of length 2) all having the same first point:
PermutationProduct[Cycles[{{3, 5}}], Cycles[{{3, 7}}], Cycles[{{3, 4}}], Cycles[{{3, 9}}]]Multiplication of permutation lists is equivalent to Part but reversing the order:
list1 = {5, 3, 2, 4, 6, 1}
list2 = {2, 1, 3, 5, 6, 4}Part[list1, list2]PermutationProduct[list2, list1]Repeated multiplication of a single permutation can be computed with PermutationPower:
perm = Cycles[{{2, 3, 5}, {1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 15, 11}}];PermutationPower[perm, 4] === PermutationProduct[perm, perm, perm, perm]The product of all elements of a group depends on the order in which the product is computed:
group = PermutationGroup[{Cycles[{{1, 2}}], Cycles[{{1, 3}, {2, 4}}]}]elems = GroupElements[group]PermutationProduct@@elemsPermutationProduct@@Permute[elems, Cycles[{{2, 7}}]]For an Abelian group, the result is unique. In particular, for a cyclic group the result is very simple:
perm = Cycles[{{1, 7, 2, 5, 13, 15, 8}, {4, 11, 14, 9}}];
order = PermutationOrder[perm]elems = GroupElements[PermutationGroup[{perm}]]PermutationProduct@@elemsThe result is simply this power of the generator of the cyclic group:
PermutationPower[perm, order(order - 1) / 2]Possible Issues (1)
PermutationProduct[x] returns x, irrespectively of what x is:
PermutationProduct[I]See Also
Cycles PermutationPower PermutationReplace Permute GroupMultiplicationTable
Characters: \[PermutationProduct]
Tech Notes
Related Guides
History
Text
Wolfram Research (2010), PermutationProduct, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PermutationProduct.html.
CMS
Wolfram Language. 2010. "PermutationProduct." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PermutationProduct.html.
APA
Wolfram Language. (2010). PermutationProduct. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PermutationProduct.html
BibTeX
@misc{reference.wolfram_2026_permutationproduct, author="Wolfram Research", title="{PermutationProduct}", year="2010", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PermutationProduct.html}", note=[Accessed: 13-June-2026]}
BibLaTeX
@online{reference.wolfram_2026_permutationproduct, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={PermutationProduct}, year={2010}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/PermutationProduct.html}, note=[Accessed: 13-June-2026]}