Abstract algebra From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the

branch of mathematics. For the Swedish band, see Abstrakt Algebra.

The permutations of Rubik's Cube have a group structure the group is a fundamental concept !ithin abstract algebra" #n algebra, !hich is a broad division of mathematics, abstract algebra is a common name for the sub$area that studies algebraic structures in their o!n right" %uch structures include groups, rings, fields, modules, vector spaces, and algebras" The specific term abstract algebra !as coined at the beginning of the &'th century to distinguish this area from the other parts of algebra" The term modern algebra has also been used to denote abstract algebra" T!o mathematical sub(ect areas that study the properties of algebraic structures vie!ed as a !hole are universal algebra and category theory" )lgebraic structures, together !ith the associated homomorphisms, form categories" Category theory is a po!erful formalism for studying and comparing different algebraic structures" Contents *hide+

, -istory o ,", .arly group theory

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,"& /odern algebra

& 0asic concepts 1 )pplications 2 %ee also 3 References

4 %ources 5 .6ternal links

History[edit] )s in other parts of mathematics, concrete problems and e6amples have played important roles in the development of abstract algebra" Through the end of the nineteenth century, many $$ perhaps most $$ of these problems !ere in some !ay related to the theory of algebraic e7uations" /a(or themes include:

%olving of systems of linear e7uations, !hich led to linear algebra )ttempts to find formulae for solutions of general polynomial e7uations of higher degree that resulted in discovery of groups as abstract manifestations of symmetry )rithmetical investigations of 7uadratic and higher degree forms and diophantine e7uations, that directly produced the notions of a ring and ideal"

8umerous te6tbooks in abstract algebra start !ith a6iomatic definitions of various algebraic structures and then proceed to establish their properties" This creates a false impression that in algebra a6ioms had come first and then served as a motivation and as a basis of further study" The true order of historical development !as almost e6actly the opposite" For e6ample, the hypercomple6 numbers of the nineteenth century had kinematic and physical motivations but challenged comprehension" /ost theories that are no! recogni9ed as parts of algebra started as collections of disparate facts from various branches of mathematics, ac7uired a common theme that served as a core around !hich various results !ere grouped, and finally became unified on a basis of a common set of concepts" )n archetypical e6ample of this progressive synthesis can be seen in the history of group theory" Early group theory[edit] There !ere several threads in the early development of group theory, in modern language loosely corresponding to number theory, theory of equations, and geometry" :eonhard .uler considered algebraic operations on numbers modulo an integer, modular arithmetic, in his generali9ation of Fermat's little theorem" These investigations !ere taken much further by Carl Friedrich ;auss, !ho considered the structure of multiplicative groups of residues mod n and established many properties of cyclic and more general abelian groups that arise in this !ay" #n his investigations of composition of binary 7uadratic forms, ;auss e6plicitly stated the associative la! for the composition of forms, but like .uler before him, he seems to have been more interested in concrete results than in general theory" #n ,<5', :eopold =ronecker gave a definition of an abelian group in the conte6t of ideal class groups of a number field, generali9ing ;auss's !ork but it appears he did not tie his definition !ith previous !ork on groups, particularly permutation groups" #n ,<<&, considering the same 7uestion, -einrich /" Weber reali9ed the connection and gave a similar definition that involved the cancellation property but omitted the e6istence of the inverse element, !hich !as sufficient in his conte6t >finite groups?" @ermutations !ere studied by Joseph$:ouis :agrange in his ,55' paper Rflexions sur la rsolution algbrique des quations Thoughts on the algebraic solution of equations! devoted to solutions of algebraic e7uations, in !hich he introduced :agrange resolvents" :agrange's goal !as to understand !hy e7uations of third and fourth degree admit formulae for solutions, and he identified as key ob(ects permutations of the roots" )n important novel step taken by :agrange in this paper !as the abstract vie! of the roots, i"e" as symbols and not as numbers" -o!ever, he did not consider composition of permutations" %erendipitously, the first edition of .d!ard Waring's "editationes Algebraicae >"editations on Algebra? appeared in the same year, !ith an e6panded version published in ,5<&" Waring proved the main theorem on symmetric functions, and specially considered the relation bet!een the roots of a 7uartic e7uation and its resolvent cubic" "moire sur la rsolution des

quations >"emoire on the Sol#ing of $quations? of )le6andre Aandermonde >,55,? developed the theory of symmetric functions from a slightly different angle, but like :agrange, !ith the goal of understanding solvability of algebraic e7uations" %ronecker claimed in &''' that the study of modern algebra began with this first (a(er of )andermonde. *auchy states quite clearly that )andermonde had (riority o#er +agrange for this remarkable idea, which e#entually led to the study of grou( theory.*,+ @aolo Ruffini !as the first person to develop the theory of permutation groups, and like his predecessors, also in the conte6t of solving algebraic e7uations" -is goal !as to establish the impossibility of an algebraic solution to a general algebraic e7uation of degree greater than four" .n route to this goal he introduced the notion of the order of an element of a group, con(ugacy, the cycle decomposition of elements of permutation groups and the notions of primitive and imprimitive and proved some important theorems relating these concepts, such as if , is a subgrou( of S- whose order is di#isible by - then , contains an element of order -" 8ote, ho!ever, that he got by !ithout formali9ing the concept of a group, or even of a permutation group" The ne6t step !as taken by Bvariste ;alois in ,<1&, although his !ork remained unpublished until ,<24, !hen he considered for the first time !hat is no! called the closure (ro(erty of a group of permutations, !hich he e6pressed as """ if in such a group one has the substitutions % and T then one has the substitution %T" The theory of permutation groups received further far$reaching development in the hands of )ugustin Cauchy and Camille Jordan, both through introduction of ne! concepts and, primarily, a great !ealth of results about special classes of permutation groups and even some general theorems" )mong other things, Jordan defined a notion of isomorphism, still in the conte6t of permutation groups and, incidentally, it !as he !ho put the term grou( in !ide use" The abstract notion of a group appeared for the first time in )rthur Cayley's papers in ,<32" Cayley reali9ed that a group need not be a permutation group >or even finite?, and may instead consist of matrices, !hose algebraic properties, such as multiplication and inverses, he systematically investigated in succeeding years" /uch later Cayley !ould revisit the 7uestion !hether abstract groups !ere more general than permutation groups, and establish that, in fact, any group is isomorphic to a group of permutations" Modern algebra[edit] The end of the ,Cth and the beginning of the &'th century sa! a tremendous shift in the methodology of mathematics" )bstract algebra emerged around the start of the &'th century, under the name modern algebra" #ts study !as part of the drive for more intellectual rigor in mathematics" #nitially, the assumptions in classical algebra, on !hich the !hole of mathematics >and ma(or parts of the natural sciences? depend, took the form of a6iomatic systems" 8o longer satisfied !ith establishing properties of concrete ob(ects, mathematicians started to turn their attention to general theory" Formal definitions of certain algebraic structures began to emerge in the ,Cth century" For e6ample, results about various groups of permutations came to be seen as instances of general theorems that concern a general notion of an abstract grou(" Duestions of structure and classification of various mathematical ob(ects came to forefront" These processes !ere occurring throughout all of mathematics, but became especially pronounced in algebra" Formal definition through primitive operations and a6ioms !ere proposed for many basic algebraic structures, such as groups, rings, and fields" -ence such things as group theory and ring theory took their places in pure mathematics" The algebraic investigations of general fields by .rnst %teinit9 and of commutative and then general rings by Eavid -ilbert, .mil )rtin and .mmy

8oether, building up on the !ork of .rnst =ummer, :eopold =ronecker and Richard Eedekind, !ho had considered ideals in commutative rings, and of ;eorg Frobenius and #ssai %chur, concerning representation theory of groups, came to define abstract algebra" These developments of the last 7uarter of the ,Cth century and the first 7uarter of &'th century !ere systematically e6posed in 0artel van der Waerden's "oderne algebra, the t!o$volume monograph published in ,C1'F,C1, that forever changed for the mathematical !orld the meaning of the !ord algebra from the theory of equations to the theory of algebraic structures" Basic concepts[edit] "ain article. Algebraic structures 0y abstracting a!ay various amounts of detail, mathematicians have created theories of various algebraic structures that apply to many ob(ects" For instance, almost all systems studied are sets, to !hich the theorems of set theory apply" Those sets that have a certain binary operation defined on them form magmas, to !hich the concepts concerning magmas, as !ell those concerning sets, apply" We can add additional constraints on the algebraic structure, such as associativity >to form semigroups? associativity, identity, and inverses >to form groups? and other more comple6 structures" With additional structure, more theorems could be proved, but the generality is reduced" The GhierarchyG of algebraic ob(ects >in terms of generality? creates a hierarchy of the corresponding theories: for instance, the theorems of group theory apply to rings >algebraic ob(ects that have t!o binary operations !ith certain a6ioms? since a ring is a group over one of its operations" /athematicians choose a balance bet!een the amount of generality and the richness of the theory" .6amples of algebraic structures !ith a single binary operation are:

/agmas Duasigroups /onoids %emigroups ;roups

/ore complicated e6amples include:

Rings Fields /odules Aector spaces )lgebras over fields )ssociative algebras :ie algebras :attices

0oolean algebras

Applications[edit] 0ecause of its generality, abstract algebra is used in many fields of mathematics and science" For instance, algebraic topology uses algebraic ob(ects to study topologies" The recently >)s of &''4? proved @oincarH con(ecture asserts that the fundamental group of a manifold, !hich encodes information about connectedness, can be used to determine !hether a manifold is a sphere or not" )lgebraic number theory studies various number rings that generali9e the set of integers" Ising tools of algebraic number theory, )ndre! Wiles proved Fermat's :ast Theorem" #n physics, groups are used to represent symmetry operations, and the usage of group theory could simplify differential e7uations" #n gauge theory, the re7uirement of local symmetry can be used to deduce the e7uations describing a system" The groups that describe those symmetries are :ie groups, and the study of :ie groups and :ie algebras reveals much about the physical system for instance, the number of force carriers in a theory is e7ual to dimension of the :ie algebra, and these bosons interact !ith the force they mediate if the :ie algebra is nonabelian"*&+ See also[edit] Mathematics portal "ain article. /utline of abstract algebra

Coding theory @ublications in abstract algebra

References[edit] ," Jump up &" Jump up Sources[edit]

Aandermonde biography in /ac Tutor -istory of /athematics )rchive" %chumm, 0ruce >&''2?, 0ee( 0own Things, 0altimore: Johns -opkins Iniversity @ress, #%08 '$<',<$5C5,$J

)llenby, R"0"J"T" >,CC,?, Rings, Fields and ,rou(s, 0utter!orth$-einemann, #%08 C5<$'$12'$3222'$& )rtin, /ichael >,CC,?, Algebra, @rentice -all, #%08 C5<$'$<C<5,$3,'$, 0urris, %tanley 8" %ankappanavar, -" @" >,CCC? *,C<,+, A *ourse in 1ni#ersal Algebra ;ilbert, Jimmie ;ilbert, :inda >&''3?, $lements of "odern Algebra, Thomson 0rooksKCole, #%08 C5<$'$312$2'&42$< :ang, %erge >&''&?, Algebra, ;raduate Te6ts in /athematics !"" >Revised third ed"?, 8e! Lork: %pringer$Aerlag, #%08 C5<$'$1<5$C31<3$2, /R ,<5<334 %ethuraman, 0" )" >,CC4?, Rings, Fields, )ector S(aces, and ,rou( Theory. An 2ntroduction to Abstract Algebra #ia ,eometric *onstructibility , 0erlin, 8e! Lork: %pringer$Aerlag, #%08 C5<$'$1<5$C2<2<$3 Whitehead, C" >&''&?, ,uide to Abstract Algebra >&nd ed"?, -oundmills: @algrave, #%08 C5<$'$111$5C225$'

W" =eith 8icholson >&',&? 2ntroduction to Abstract Algebra, 2th edition, John Wiley M %ons #%08 C5<$,$,,<$,1313$< " John R" Eurbin >,CC&? "odern Algebra . an introduction, John Wiley M %ons

E#ternal lin$s[edit] Wikibooks has more on the topic of: Abstract algebra

John 0eachy: Abstract Algebra /n +ine, Comprehensive list of definitions and theorems" .d!in Connell G.lements of )bstract and :inear )lgebra G, Free online te6tbook" Fredrick /" ;oodman: Algebra. Abstract and *oncrete" Judson, Thomas W" >,CC5?, Abstract Algebra. Theory and A((lications )n introductory undergraduate te6t in the spirit of te6ts by ;allian or -erstein, covering groups, rings, integral domains, fields and ;alois theory" Free do!nloadable @EF !ith open$source ;FE: license" *hide+

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Oimg srcPGKKen"!ikipedia"orgK!ikiK%pecial:Central)uto:oginKstartQtypeP,6,G altPGG titlePGG !idthPG,G heightPG,G stylePGborder: none position: absolute G KR Retrieved from Ghttp:KKen"!ikipedia"orgK!Kinde6"phpQtitleP)bstractSalgebraMoldidP3CC41<53'G Categories: )bstract algebra