2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/60056Given a finitely-generated group G, and a finite group Γ, Philip Hall defined δ_Γto be the number of factor groups of G that are isomorphic to Γ. We show how to compute the Hall invariants by cohomological and combinatorial methods, when G is finitely-presented, and Γbelongs to a certain class of metabelian groups. Key to this approach is the stratification of the character variety by the jumping loci of the cohomology of G, with coefficients in rank 1 local systems over a suitably chosen field \K. Counting relevant torsion points on these "characteristic" subvarieties gives δ_Γ(G). In the process, we compute the distribution of prime-index, normal subgroups K of G according to the dimension of the the first homology group of K with \K coefficients, provided \char\K does not divide the index of K in G. In turn, we use this distribution to count low-index subgroups of G. We illustrate these techniques in the case when G is the fundamental group of the complement of an arrangement of either affine lines in \C^2, or transverse planes in \R^4.34 pages, 3 figuresGroup TheoryCombinatoricsGeometric Topology20J05, 57M05 (primary), 20E07, 52C35 (secondary)text