Sean Li Math 4340 Notes Spring 2013 Abstract Algebra Lecture 1 1/21/13 Professor: Shankar Sen 505 Malott.

tt. Homework 25% Prelim (in class) 25% Final 50% Collaboration allowed on homework, but say whom you collaborated with. Content. 1. Groups 2. Rings, Fields, Ideals 3. Modules (esp. modules over a PID, principal ideal domain) Text: Dummit and Foote, Abstract Algebra, 3rd edition. History: Where did groups come from? It was developed for the theory of equations, esp. polynomial equations. Notable mathematicians: Lagrange, Galois. The notion of eld also came up in the work of Galois. Initial study of groups concerned permutation groups, automorphisms, and groups of elds. Example: C as a 2-dimensional vector space over R. An automorphism of C is a 1-1 onto map : C C that preserves the operations of C, namely addition and multiplication. So for all x, y C, we have (x + y) = (x) + (y), (xy) = (x)(y). C has only one nontrivial continuous automorphism, complex conjugation, given by (a + bi) = a bi

where a, b R. An automorphism permutes the roots of a polynomial. For example, x2 + 1 = 0 has roots i and i, and the complex conjugate has (i) = i and (i) = i. Denition. A group is a nonempty set G together with an map m : G G G given by (, ) that satises the following axioms: 1. e s.t. e = e = for all G (Existence of identity). 2. ( ) = ( ) for all , , G (Associativity). 3. G, 1 G s.t. 1 = e = 1 (Existence of inverse). Note that the identity is unique. If only axioms 1 and 2 are satised, then G is called a semi-group or monoid. Group Actions. Groups can act on geometric objects, topological objects, and many others. Actions may be composed, i.e. (f g)(x) = f (g(x)). Composition is associative. Denition. Let G be a group and S a set. A group action is a map G S S given by (, s) s S that satises the following axioms. 1. es = s for all s S. 2. , G, ( )s = ( (s)) for all s S. We say that G acts on the set S. Example. Permutations are by denition tied to group actions. The group of permutations on the n-element set is called Sn .

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