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I am studying a theorem right now in group theory which has 10 lemmas, and there is a part that I didn't understand exactly (which was in the first lemma). On the assumption that the first one is correct (almost) the rest of the proof is clear. The theorem goes like this:

$Theorem:$ Suppose that G is a permutation group on letters $c_{0},...,c_{n-1}$ such that:

$1)$ G is doubly Transitive.

$2)$ Only the identity fixes two letters.

$3)$ At most one element taking $c_{i}$ into $c_{j}$ displaces all letters, or

or ($3')$ n is finite.)

Then the identity and the elements of $G$ displacing all letters form a transitive normal group.

The proof mostly concentrates on the set of permutation of order 2. At first it claims that there is one and only one element of order 2 in $G$ that interchanges a specified pair of letters. It's easy to prove that if there exists one then that's the only one, but what promises that there exists such element of order 2? Since G is doubly transitive I know for sure that there exists a permutation with the cycle (i,j), but it's not necessarily or order 2. The second condition says that there is at most 1 letter that is fixed. And if I understand the third property correctly if a permutation send $c_{i}$ to $c_{j}$ (where the two letters are not necessarily different), if the permutation displaces the rest, then that's the only permutation with that property, and as I see it this doesn't really help as well. It seems like there is something trivial that I am missing. Would be happy if someone clarify. Thank you.

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suppose that you find a permutation $\sigma$ that exchanges $i$ and $j$, then this permutation has order $2$, ottherwise $\sigma^2$ is a permutation that is not the identity and fixes two elements.

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    Well, I just gave myself a facepalm. That was pretty trivial. Thank you for clarifying!2017-01-10
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    haha it happens, no prob happy to help.2017-01-10