A Symmetry Criterion for Conjugacy in Finite Groups (Q4340249)

Few -- if any -- writers of textbooks on group theory seem to have remarked the following elegant criterion for conjugacy of elements in a finite group: two elements \(a\), \(b\) of a finite group \(G\) are conjugated in \(G\) if and only if they are symmetrically situated relative to the main diagonal of the group table. The author then uses this remark (its proof is simple: it is enough to see that \(a\), \(b\) are conjugate iff there exist \(u\), \(v\) in \(G\) such that \(a=uv\) and \(b=vu\)) in order to conclude that if \(a\), \(b\) are distinct conjugate elements in \(G\), then \(|\{(u,v)\in G\times G\mid uv=a\) and \(vu=b\}|=|C_G(a)|\).