Concerning the semidirect product of groups

The semidirect product of two groups is a construction generalizing that of the direct product of two groups. In many cases, the direct product of two groups will satisfy a given condition only in case both of the original groups satisfy that condition. Conversely, it is often the case that direct factors of a group inherit properties possessed by that group. It is the purpose of this thesis to analyze the semidirect product of two groups and to present results relating the properties of the component groups to those of their semidirect product. This thesis is, for the most part, expository, but the proofs of several known results are cast in a different way than the original proofs. Considerable effort has been made to make the bibliography as complete as possible in regard to research papers concerning splitting extensions of groups and related topics.