Paper 2, Section II, E

Groups | Part IA, 2020

Suppose that ff is a Möbius transformation acting on the extended complex plane. Show that a Möbius transformation with at least three fixed points is the identity. Deduce that every Möbius transformation except the identity has one or two fixed points.

Which of the following statements are true and which are false? Justify your answers, quoting standard facts if required.

(i) If ff has exactly one fixed point then it is conjugate to zz+1z \mapsto z+1.

(ii) Every Möbius transformation that fixes \infty may be expressed as a composition of maps of the form zz+az \mapsto z+a and zλzz \mapsto \lambda z (where aa and λ\lambda are complex numbers).

(iii) Every Möbius transformation that fixes 0 may be expressed as a composition of maps of the form zμzz \mapsto \mu z and z1/zz \mapsto 1 / z (where μ\mu is a complex number).

(iv) The operation of complex conjugation defined by zzˉz \mapsto \bar{z} is a Möbius transformation.

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