Relevant Courses: Math 493

The derived series or commutator series of a group is defined as follows:

  • The zeroth member is the group itself.
  • The member indexed by a successor ordinal is the commutator subgroup of its predecessor.
  • The member indexed by a limit ordinal is the intersection of all previous members.

Solvable

A group is solvable if and only if its derived series terminates at the identity element.