Functorial radicals and non-abelian torsion

Abstract

Radicals appear in many algebraic contents. For modules over a ring, they give rise to pre-torsion and torsion theories, Goldman (5), Lambek (14). In the category of groups, Kurosh, Plotkin and others have introduced radicals (6), (13), (21), but unlike the radicals in module theory these radicals are not necessarily functorial, as for example the nil radical and the Hirsch-Plotkin radical (6). The functorial method in module theory has been extended to abelian categories, Dickson (2), to the category of nilpotent groups, Hilton (8), Warfield (25), and to the category of groups, Plotkin (22), and to general categories, Wiegandt (26), Holcombe and Walker (10).