INTRODUCTION TO ABSTRACT ALGEBRA Elbert A. Walker New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA c1998 by Elbert A. Walker, New Mexico State University. (cid:13) All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a re- trieval system, or transcribed, in any form or by any means(cid:151)electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise(cid:151)without the prior written permission of the author. Revisionof: IntroductiontoAbstractAlgebrabyElbertA.Walker; c1987byRandom (cid:13) House, Inc. TM This document was produced by Scienti(cid:133)c WorkPlace . Contents 1 Sets 1 1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Sets and Subsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.3 Mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.4 Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 1.5 Equivalence Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 1.6 The Integers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 2 Groups 25 2.1 De(cid:133)nitions and Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 2.2 Subgroups and Cosets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 2.3 Homomorphisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 2.4 Permutation Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 2.5 The Groups S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 n 2.6 Direct Products and Semi-direct Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 2.7 Finite Abelian Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 3 Vector Spaces 79 3.1 De(cid:133)nitions and Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 3.2 Homomorphisms of Vector Spaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 3.3 Linear Independence and Bases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 3.4 Dual Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 4 Rings and Modules 111 4.1 De(cid:133)nitions and Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 4.2 Homomorphisms and Quotient Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 4.3 Field of Quotients of an Integral Domain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 4.4 Principal Ideal Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 4.5 Polynomial Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 4.6 Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 4.7 Modules over Principal Ideal Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 iii iv CONTENTS 5 Linear Transformations 169 5.1 Linear Transformations and Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 5.2 The Rational Canonical Form for Matrices. . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 5.3 EigenvectorsandEigenvalues;theJordanCanonicalForm[Eigenvectors and Eigenvalues] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 5.4 Determinants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 5.5 Equivalence of Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 5.6 Euclidean Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 6 Fields 237 6.1 Sub(cid:133)elds and Extension Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 6.2 Splitting Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 6.3 Galois Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 6.4 Solvability by Radicals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 7 Topics from Group Theory 269 7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 7.2 The Jordan-H(cid:246)lder Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 7.3 The Sylow Theorems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 7.4 Solvable and Nilpotent Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 7.5 The Wedderburn Theorem for Finite Division Rings . . . . . . . 280 7.6 The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 8 Topics in Ring Theory 283 8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 8.2 Unique Factorization Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 8.3 The Hilbert Basis Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 8.4 The Lasker-Noether Decomposition Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . 291 8.5 Semisimple Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 Appendix: Zorn(cid:146)s Lemma 305 Bibliography 311 Preface In teaching a beginning course in abstract algebra, one must suppress the urge to cover a lot of material and to be as general as possible. The di¢ culties in teaching such a course are pedagogical, not mathematical. The subject matter isabstract,yetitmustbekeptmeaningfulforstudentsmeetingabstractnessfor perhaps the (cid:133)rst time. It is better for a student to know what a theorem says than to be able to quote it, produce a proof of it detail by detail, and not have the faintest notion of what it(cid:146)s all about. However, careful attention must be paid to rigor, and sloppy thinking and incoherent writing cannot be tolerated. But rigor should be (cid:135)avored with understanding. Understanding the content of a theorem is as important as being able to prove it. I have tried to keep these things in mind while writing this book. Thespeci(cid:133)csubjectmatterchosenhereisstandard, andthearrangementof topics is not particularly bizarre. In an algebra course, I believe one should get onwithalgebraassoonaspossible. ThisiswhyIhavekeptChapter1toabare minimum. Ididn(cid:146)twanttoincludeitatall, butthematerialthereisabsolutely essentialforChapter2,andthestudents(cid:146)knowledgeofitisapttobeabithazy. Other bits of (cid:147)set theory(cid:148)will be expounded upon as the need arises. Zorn(cid:146)s Lemma and some of its applications are discussed in the Appendix. Groups are chosen as the (cid:133)rst algebraic system to study for several reasons. The notion is needed in subsequent topics. The axioms for a group are simpler thanthosefortheothersystemstobestudied. Suchbasicnotionsashomomor- phisms and quotient systems appear in their simplest and purest forms. The student can readily recognize many old friends as abstract groups in concrete disguise. The (cid:133)rst topic slated for a thorough study is that of vector spaces. It is this material that is most universally useful, and it is important to present it as soon as is practical. In fact, the arrangement of Chapters 3 through 5 is a compromise between mathematical e¢ ciency and getting the essentials of linear algebra done. Chapter 4 is where it is because its results are beautifully applicable in Chapter 5 and contain theorems one would do anyway. Besides, there are some nice applications of Chapter 3 in Chapter 4. Chapter 6 is basic and should not be slighted in favor of 7 or 8. A feature of Chapter 7 is an algebraic proof of the fundamental theorem of algebra. Therearemanyexercisesinthisbook. Mathematicsisnotaspectatorsport, and is best learned by doing. The exercises are provided so that students can testtheirknowledgeofthematerialinthebodyofthetext,practiceconcocting proofs on their own, and pick up a few additional facts. vi CONTENTS There is no need here to extol the virtues of the abstract approach, and the importance of algebra to the various areas of mathematics. They are well known to the professional, and will become fully appreciated by the student only through experience. Elbert A. Walker Las Cruces, New Mexico March, 1986 Chapter 1 Sets 1.1 Introduction The purpose of this book is to present some of the basic properties of groups, rings, (cid:133)elds, and vector spaces. However, some preliminaries are necessary. There are some facts about sets, mappings, equivalence relations, and the like thatwillbeusedthroughoutthetext,andwhichareindispensable. Thischapter presents those facts. It is not meant to be an introduction to (cid:147)set theory.(cid:148)The amount of material is kept to a minimum (cid:151) just what is needed to get started on algebra. Afewfundamentalfactsconcerningtheintegerswillbeassumed. Theseare spelled out in Section 1.6. 1.2 Sets and Subsets Our approach to sets is the naive or intuitive one. An axiomatic approach to sets here would lead us too far a(cid:133)eld and would contribute nothing toward the understanding of the basic properties of a (cid:133)eld, for example. By the word set, we mean any collection of objects. The objects in the collection are called the elements of the set. Sets will usually be denoted by capital letters. If s is an element of a set S, we write s S, and if s is not an 2 element of S, we write s = S. For any object s, either s S or s = S. For the 2 2 2 set Z of all integers, we have 5 Z, but 1=2 = Z. A set is determined by its (cid:0) 2 2 elements. That is, two sets are the same if they have the same elements. Thus two sets S and T are equal, written S = T, if s S implies s T, and t T 2 2 2 implies t S. 2 To specify a set, we must tell what its elements are, and this may be done in various ways. One way is just to write out an ordinary sentence which does that. For example, we could say (cid:147)S is the set whose elements are the integers 1, 2, and 3.(cid:148) A shorthand has been developed for this sort of thing, however. S = 1;2;3 means that S is the set whose elements are 1, 2, and 3. Thus, f g 1 2 CHAPTER 1. SETS one way to de(cid:133)ne a set is to list its elements and put braces around the list. If S is a big set, this procedure can be cumbersome. For example, it would be tiresome to describe the set of positive integers less that 1,000,000 in this way. The sentence we have just written would be more e¢ cient. However, there is a convention that is universally used that is most convenient. Suppose S is a set, andthatitisthesetofallelementsswhichsatisfysomepropertyP. Then S = s:s satis(cid:133)esproperty P meansthatS isthesetofallelementsswhich f g enjoy property P. For example, S = n : n is an integer, 0 < n < 1;000;000 f g is the set of all positive integers less than 1;000;000. Here, property P is the propertyofbeingapositiveintegerlessthan1;000;000. Ifwealreadyknewthat Z was the set of integers, we could write S = n : n Z, 0 < n < 1;000;000 . f 2 g This is sometimes written S = n Z : 0 < n < 1;000;000 . The set of even f 2 g integers could be written in any of the following ways: a. n Z:n is even , f 2 g b. n:n is an even integer , f g c. 2n:n Z , or f 2 g d. n:n=2m for some m Z . f 2 g The letter Z will be used throughout this book to denote the set of integers. Suppose S and T are sets. If every element of S is an element of T, then S is a subset of T. This is denoted S T, or T S. Note that S T does (cid:26) (cid:27) (cid:26) not rule out the possibility that S = T. The symbol S $ T means S T and (cid:26) S =T,butwewillnothavemuchoccasiontousethislatternotation. IfS $T, 6 then S is a proper subset of T. Note that S = T implies both S T and (cid:26) T S. Also, if S T and T S, then S =T. Thus, S =T if and only if both (cid:26) (cid:26) (cid:26) S T and T S. (cid:26) (cid:26) It is convenient to allow the possibility that a set have no elements. Such a set is called the empty set. There is only one such, since, if S and T are both empty, then S T and T S, so S = T. The empty set is denoted . It has (cid:26) (cid:26) ; the property that S for any set S. ;(cid:26) There are various ways to make new sets from old. For example, given sets S and T, there are various ways to associate with them a third set. The more common ones are listed below. De(cid:133)nition 1.2.1 Let S and T be sets. a. S T = x:x S or x T . This is the union of S and T. [ f 2 2 g b. S T = x:x S and x T . This is the intersection of S and T. \ f 2 2 g c. S T = x : x S and x = T . This is the di⁄erence S minus T, or n f 2 2 g the complement of T in S. 1.2. SETS AND SUBSETS 3 For example, if R denotes the set of real numbers, S = x R:0

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