# Alternating group

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In mathematics, an alternating group is the group of even permutations of a finite set. The alternating group on the set {1,...,n} is called the alternating group of degree n, or the alternating group on n letters and denoted by An or Alt(n).

## Contents

### Basic properties

For n > 1, the group An is the commutator subgroup of the symmetric group Sn with index 2 and has therefore n!/2 elements. It is the kernel of the signature group homomorphism sgn : Sn → {1, −1} explained under symmetric group.

The group An is abelian if and only if n ≤ 3 and simple if and only if n = 3 or n ≥ 5. A5 is the smallest non-abelian simple group, having order 60, and the smallest non-solvable group.

The group A4 has a Klein four-group V as a proper normal subgroup, namely the double transpositions {(12)(34), (13)(24), (14)(23)}, and maps to A3 = C3, form the sequence $V \to A_4 \to A_3 = C_3.$ In Galois theory, this map, or rather the corresponding map $S_4 \to S_3,$ corresponds to associating the Lagrange resolvent cubic to a quartic, which allows the quartic polynomial to be solved by radicals, as established by Lodovico Ferrari.