Undergraduate Algebra (eBook)

Undergraduate Algebra is a text for the standard undergraduate algebra course. It concentrates on the basic structures and results of algebra, discussing groups, rings, modules, fields, polynomials, finite fields, Galois Theory, and other topics. The author has also included a chapter on groups of matrices which is unique in a book at this level. Throughout the book, the author strikes a balance between abstraction and concrete results, which enhance each other. Illustrative examples accompany the general theory. Numerous exercises range from the computational to the theoretical, complementing results from the main text. For the third edition, the author has included new material on product structure for matrices (e.g. the Iwasawa and polar decompositions), as well as a description of the conjugation representation of the diagonal group. He has also added material on polynomials, culminating in Noah Snyder's proof of the Mason-Stothers polynomial abc theorem. About the First Edition: 'The exposition is down-to-earth and at the same time very smooth. The book can be covered easily in a one-year course and can be also used in a one-term course...the flavor of modern mathematics is sprinkled here and there.' Hideyuki Matsumura, Zentralblatt

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This book, together with Linear Algebra, constitutes a curriculum for an algebra program addressed to undergraduates. The separation of the hnear algebra from the other basic algebraic structures fits all existing tendencies affecting undergraduate teaching, and I agree with these tendencies. I have made the present book self contained logically, but it is probably better if students take the linear algebra course before being introduced to the more abstract notions of groups, rings, and fields, and the systematic development of their basic abstract properties. There is of course a little overlap with the book Lin- ear Algebra, since I wanted to make the present book self contained. I define vector spaces, matrices, and linear maps and prove their basic properties. The present book could be used for a one-term course, or a year's course, possibly combining it with Linear Algebra. I think it is important to do the field theory and the Galois theory, more important, say, than to do much more group theory than we have done here. There is a chapter on finite fields, which exhibit both features from general field theory, and special features due to characteristic p. Such fields have become important in coding theory.