A von Dyck group is a group with presentation $< a,b | a^m=b^n=(ab)^p=1 >$ with m,n,p natural numbers. Is it known which of these groups are solvable and which are not? Is there a reference for this? Thanks.



von dyck groups and solvability
You might try Generators and Relations for Discrete Groups by Coxeter and Moser. 


Specifically for 1/m + 1/n + 1/p = 1 there are only 3 cases up to permutation, (2,3,6), (2,4,4) and (3,3,3). Map a and b to an appropriate root of unity to get a homomorphism onto C\_6, C\_4, or C\_3, respectively. The kernel of the map is in all three cases isomorphic to Z^2.


