Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
under multiplication.
Uniqueness of the identity. Uniqueness of inverses. Inverses of inverse elements. Inverses
of products. Generalized associative law. Right and left cancellation laws.
The order of an element. The multiplication table of a group.
1.2: Dihedral groups D
2n
. Generators and relations for dihedral groups. Group presenta-
tions.
1
2 INTRODUCTION TO ABSTRACT ALGEBRA, SPRING 2014
1.3: Symmetric groups S
n
. Row notation of a permutation. Cycle notation of a permuta-
tion.
Cycle decomposition: any permutation can be written as a product of disjoint cycles
that is unique up to rearrangement and cyclic rotation of cycles. Algorithm for nding the
cycle decomposition of a permutation. Disjoint cycles commute and therefore the order of a
permutation is the least common multiple of the lengths of its cycles.
Additional topic (not in textbook): Presentation of symmetric group using braid relations.
1.4: Denition of a eld F. The general linear group GL
n
(F).
1.5: The quaternion group Q
8
.
1.6: Denition of a homomorphism. Denition of an isomorphism. Properties shared by
isomorphic groups.
Example 1: log : (R
+
, ) (R, +) satises log(xy) = log(x)+log(y) and log(1) = 0.
Example 2: the map f f
1
denes an isomorphism S
A
S
B
when f : A B
is a bijection.
1.7: Group actions. The permutation representation G S
A
associated to a group action.
Examples: S
n
acts on {1, 2, , n}. D
2n
acts on {1, 2, , n}.
For n = 3, the permutation representation of the action of D
6
on {1, 2, 3} denes a iso-
morphism D
6
S
3
.
Chapter 2: Subgroups
2.1: Denition of a subgroup. Subgroup criterion.
2.2: The center Z(G) of a group G. The centralizer C
G
(A) of a subset of a group. The
normalizer N
G
(A) of a subset of a group.
Kernels and stabilizers of group actions.
Actions of G on its underlying set: left multiplication, right multiplication, conjugation.
Centers, centralizers, and normalizers as kernels and stabilizers of the conjugation action.
2.3: Denition of cyclic groups. Any two cyclic groups of the same order are isomorphic.
Number of generators in a cyclic group Z
n
.
COURSE SYLLABUS 3
Additional topic (not in the textbook): Connection between the number of generators in
Z
n
and the number of units in (Z/nZ, ).
2.4: The subgroup generated by a subset of a group. Denition as intersection of all
groups containing subset. Denition as group formed by noncommutative words in elements
of subset. Proof of the equivalence of the two denitions.
The order of the subgroup generated by a subset is independent of the order of its gener-
ators. Examples:
- The subgroup of GL
2
(R) generated by a =
0 1
1 0
and b =
0 2
1/2 0
has innite
order, even though |a| = |b| = 2.
- The symmetric group S
n
has order n! but is generated by the n-cycle (1 2 n) and the
transposition (1 2).
2.5: The lattice of subgroups of a group. Examples: Z
12
and D
8
.
Chapter 3: Quotient groups and homomorphisms
3.1: The kernel of a homomorphism. The kernel is a subgroup. The kernel of a group
action is the kernel of the associated permutation representation.
The set of bers of a group homomorphism forms a group. The bers of a group homo-
morphism are the cosets of the kernel.
The set of cosets G/K of a subgroup K of G forms a group if and only if K is normal.
The kernel of a homomorphism is always a normal subgroup.
Every normal subgroup K G is the kernel of a homomorphism G G/K.
Examples of quotient groups: Z/nZ, D
8
/Z(D
8
)
= V
4
.
3.2: Lagranges theorem: the order of a subgroup of G divides the order of G.
Corollary 1: the order of an element of a group divides the order of the group.
Corollary 2: Any group of prime order is cyclic.
Partial converses to Lagranges theorem: Cauchys theorem, Sylows theorem.
For subgroups A G and B G, the set AB is a subgroup if and only if AB = BA. This
is true if A normalizes B or if B normalizes A. The order of AB.
3.3: First isomorphism theorem. Lifting homomorphisms to quotient groups.
4 INTRODUCTION TO ABSTRACT ALGEBRA, SPRING 2014
Second (diamond) isomorphism theorem. Third isomorphism theorem. Fourth (lattice)
isomorphism theorem.
Example: lattice isomorphism theorem and D
8
/Z(D
8
).
3.4: Cauchys theorem for abelian groups.
Denition of a simple group. Denition of composition series. Jordan-Holder theorem.
Proof of Jordan-H older theorem: existence statement uses existence of a maximal normal
subgroup as induction step, uniqueness statement uses the diamond isomorphism theorem as
induction step.
Chapter 4: Group actions
4.1: Orbits of group actions. Orbits and partitions. Bijection between the orbit of an
element and the quotient of G by stabilizer subgroup.
Transitive group actions. S
n
acts transitively on {1, 2, , n}. Orbits of cyclic subgroups
of S
n
and the cycle decomposition of a permutation.
4.2: Cayleys theorem.
Chapter 5: Direct and semidirect products
5.1: Direct products of groups. Subgroups and quotient groups of direct products.
5.4: Internal direct products.
5.5: Generalization of internal direct products to the case when one subgroup is not
normal. Semidirect products.
Part II - RING THEORY
Chapter 7: Introduction to rings
7.1: Denition of a ring. Commutative rings. Division rings and elds.
Zero divisors. Units. Integral domains. Cancellation property for integral domains. A
nite integral domain is a eld.
Subrings.
7.2: Polynomial rings. Matrix rings. Group rings.
COURSE SYLLABUS 5
7.3: Denition of a ring homomorphism. Denition of a ring isomorphism. The image
and kernel of a ring homomorphism form subrings.
The set of cosets of a subring (considered as an additive subgroup) forms a ring if and only
if the subring is an ideal. Quotient rings and the rst isomorphism theorem for rings.
Second isomorphism theorem for rings. Third isomorphism theorem for rings. Fourth
isomorphism theorem for rings.
Sums and products of ideals.
7.4: The ideal generated by a subset. Principal ideals. Finitely generated ideals.
A commutative ring is a eld if and only if it has no non-trivial ideals. Maximal ideals
and elds. Prime ideals and integral domains.
Chapter 8: Euclidean domains, principal ideal domains, and unique factoriza-
tion domains
8.1: Norms and Euclidean domains. The Euclidean algorithm and greatest common divi-
sors.
Every ideal in a Euclidean domain is principal (it is generated by any element of minimal
norm). Associates and greatest common divisors.
8.2: Denition of a principal ideal domain. Generators of principal ideals and greatest
common divisors. Associates and principal ideals.
Every prime ideal in a principal ideal domain is maximal.
Dedekind-Hasse norms and principal ideal domains.
8.3: Irreducible and prime elements. Any prime element in an integral domain is irre-
ducible. Partial converse: any irreducible element in a principal ideal domain is prime.
Example where the full converse fails: 2 3 = (1 +
5)(1