Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / ii / Paper 1 / 19I / a / Solution

The commutator subgroup, or derived subgroup, isA linear character is afforded by a one-dimensional representation $\rho :G\to {\mathbb{C}}^{\times }$. Since ${\mathbb{C}}^{\times }$ is abelian, every commutator lies in $\ker \rho$, so

Let $\pi :G\to G/G^{\prime }$ be the quotient map. Every irreducible representation of a finite abelian group is one-dimensional, so each irreducible character $\psi$ of the abelianization $G/G^{\prime }$ inflates to the linear character $\psi \circ \pi$ of $G$. Conversely, the containment $G^{\prime }\le \ker \chi$ makes every linear character of $G$ factor uniquely through $G/G^{\prime }$. Thus inflation of a group representation gives a bijection