The derived length of subgroups of the Cremona group

Abstract

We prove that the maximal derived length of a solvable subgroup of the plane Cremona group over $\mathbb C$ is equal to $5$. The main difficulty is the case of subgroups containing loxodromic elements. To treat this case, we prove that the maximal derived length of a finite solvable subgroup is $4$ and establish a centraliser theorem: the centraliser of a finite solvable subgroup of derived length $4$ contains no loxodromic element. The proof of the centraliser theorem relies on Blanc's classification of maximal algebraic subgroups and then uses equivariant Sarkisov theory, orbit estimates, superrigidity, and fixed curves of genus at least two.