Hirsch length

In mathematics, a polycyclic group is a solvable group that satisfies the maximal condition on subgroups (that is, every subgroup is finitely generated). Polycyclic groups are finitely presented, and this makes them interesting from a computational point of view.

Equivalently, a group G is polycyclic if and only if it admits a subnormal series with cyclic factors, that is a finite set of subgroups, let's say G₀, ..., G_n such that

A metacyclic group is a polycyclic group with n ≤ 2, or in other words an extension of a cyclic group by a cyclic group.

Examples of polycyclic groups include finitely generated abelian groups, finitely generated nilpotent groups, and finite solvable groups. Anatoly Maltsev proved that solvable subgroups of the integer general linear group are polycyclic; and later Louis Auslander (1967) and Swan proved the converse, that any polycyclic group is up to isomorphism a group of integer matrices. The holomorph of a polycyclic group is also such a group of integer matrices.

A group G is said to be strongly polycyclic if it is polycyclic with the added stipulation that each G_i / G_i+1 is infinitely cyclic. Clearly, a strongly polycyclic group is polycyclic. Also, any subgroup of a strongly polycyclic group is strongly polycyclic.

A virtually polycyclic group is a group that has a polycyclic subgroup of finite index, an example of a virtual property. Such a group necessarily has a normal polycyclic subgroup of finite index, and therefore such groups are also called polycyclic-by-finite groups. Although polycyclic-by-finite groups need not be solvable, they still have many of the finiteness properties of polycyclic groups; for example, they satisfy the maximal condition, and they are finitely presented and residually finite.

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