2024-05-17
Algebra-I
00

§17 Modules

§17.1 Modules

Just as groups act on sets, rings act on Abelian groups. When a ring acts on an Abelian group, that Abelian group is called a module over the ring.

When a group acts on a set, it must act by bijections, and therefore it must preserve properties such as the cardinality of the set. But when a ring acts on an Abelian group, it respects the additive structure inside the Abelian group. This is condition (1) in the definition below.

In this setting, we will build all the definitions of module algebra in much the same way as we did for groups.

Definition 17.1 Let RR be a ring and let MM be an Abelian group. A left action of RR on MM is a function

R×MM,(r,m)rm\begin{aligned} R\times M&\to M,\\ (r,m)&\mapsto rm \end{aligned}

such that for all r,sRr,s\in R and m,mMm,m^{\prime}\in M:

(1) r(m+m)=rm+rmr(m+m^{\prime})=rm+rm^{\prime}.

(2) (r+s)m=rm+sm(r+s)m=rm+sm.

(3) s(rm)=(sr)ms(rm)=(sr)m.

(4) 1m=m1m=m.

Once a left action of RR on MM is specified, we call MM a left RR-module.

2024-05-16
Algebra-I
00

§16 Fields

§16.1 Basic Concepts of Fields

Definition 16.1 A commutative ring is called a field if

R{0}R-\{0\}

is a group under multiplication.

2024-05-15
Algebra-I
00

§15 Ideals and Quotient Rings

§15.1 Ideals

You might think as follows: if SRS\subset R is a “normal” subring, then R/SR/S should be some kind of ring. This is a blind analogy with groups. However, this analogy is wrong.

Definition 15.1 Let RR be a commutative ring. A subset IRI\subset R is called an ideal if

(1) II is a subgroup under addition, and

(2) xIx\in I implies rxIrx\in I for every rRr\in R.

2024-05-14
Algebra-I
00

§14 Rings

§14.1 Definition of a Ring

Definition 14.1 A monoid is a group without inverses. That is, a monoid is a set MM together with a function

:M×MM\cdot:M\times M\to M

which has an identity element and is associative. We call a monoid commutative if

ab=baab=ba

for all a,bMa,b\in M.

2024-05-13
Algebra-I
00

§13 Sylow Theorems

§13.1 Counting

We have already seen that the orbit-stabilizer theorem can answer some nontrivial questions. For example: how large is the symmetry group of a tetrahedron?

Recall that the theorem says that for any group GG acting on a set XX, and any element xXx\in X, there is a bijection

G/GxOx.G/G_x\cong\mathcal{O}_x.

In particular, if GG is finite, then

Ox=G/Gx.|\mathcal{O}_x| = |G|/|G_x|.

Counting theorems of this kind are extremely useful in mathematics. They are like a “layup” in basketball—the easiest way to score. Once you reduce a difficult problem to a counting problem, you have made progress.