An Introduction To Homological Algebra

The landscape of homological algebra has evolved over the last half-century into a fundamental tool for the working mathematician. This book provides a unified account of homological algebra as it exists today. The historical connection with topology, regular local rings, and semi-simple Lie algebras are also described. This book is suitable for second or third year graduate students. The first half of the book takes as its subject the canonical topics in homological algebra: derived functors, Tor and Ext, projective dimensions and spectral sequences. Homology of group and Lie algebras illustrate these topics. Intermingled are less canonical topics, such as the derived inverse limit functor lim1, local cohomology, Galois cohomology, and affine Lie algebras. The last part of the book covers less traditional topics that are a vital part of the modern homological toolkit: simplicial methods, Hochschild and cyclic homology, derived categories and total derived functors. By making these tools more accessible, the book helps to break down the technological barrier between experts and casual users of homological algebra.

Homological algebra, because of its fundamental nature, is relevant to many branches of pure mathematics, including number theory, geometry, group theory and ring theory. Professor Northcott's aim is to introduce homological ideas and methods and to show some of the results which can be achieved. The early chapters provide the results needed to establish the theory of derived functors and to introduce torsion and extension functors. The new concepts are then applied to the theory of global dimensions, in an elucidation of the structure of commutative Noetherian rings of finite global dimension and in an account of the homology and cohomology theories of monoids and groups. A final section is devoted to comments on the various chapters, supplementary notes and suggestions for further reading. This book is designed with the needs and problems of the beginner in mind, providing a helpful and lucid account for those about to begin research, but will also be a useful work of reference for specialists. It can also be used as a textbook for an advanced course.

Graduate mathematics students will find this book an easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to the subject. Rotman’s book gives a treatment of homological algebra which approaches the subject in terms of its origins in algebraic topology. In this new edition the book has been updated and revised throughout and new material on sheaves and cup products has been added. The author has also included material about homotopical algebra, alias K-theory. Learning homological algebra is a two-stage affair. First, one must learn the language of Ext and Tor. Second, one must be able to compute these things with spectral sequences. Here is a work that combines the two.

First Published in 2018. This book grew out of a course of lectures given to third year undergraduates at Oxford University and it has the modest aim of producing a rapid introduction to the subject. It is designed to be read by students who have had a first elementary course in general algebra. On the other hand, it is not intended as a substitute for the more voluminous tracts such as Zariski-Samuel or Bourbaki. We have concentrated on certain central topics, and large areas, such as field theory, are not touched. In content we cover rather more ground than Northcott and our treatment is substantially different in that, following the modern trend, we put more emphasis on modules and localization.

In this chapter we are largely influenced in our choice of material by the demands of the rest of the book. However, we take the view that this is an opportunity for the student to grasp basic categorical notions which permeate so much of mathematics today, including, of course, algebraic topology, so that we do not allow ourselves to be rigidly restricted by our immediate objectives. A reader totally unfamiliar with category theory may find it easiest to restrict his first reading of Chapter II to Sections 1 to 6; large parts of the book are understandable with the material presented in these sections. Another reader, who had already met many examples of categorical formulations and concepts might, in fact, prefer to look at Chapter II before reading Chapter I. Of course the reader thoroughly familiar with category theory could, in principal, omit Chapter II, except perhaps to familiarize himself with the notations employed. In Chapter III we begin the proper study of homological algebra by looking in particular at the group ExtA(A, B), where A and Bare A-modules. It is shown how this group can be calculated by means of a projective presentation of A, or an injective presentation of B; and how it may also be identified with the group of equivalence classes of extensions of the quotient module A by the submodule B.

Homological algebra first arose as a language for describing topological prospects of geometrical objects. As with every successful language it quickly expanded its coverage and semantics, and its contemporary applications are many and diverse. This modern approach to homological algebra, by two leading writers in the field, is based on the systematic use of the language and ideas of derived categories and derived functors. Relations with standard cohomology theory (sheaf cohomology, spectral sequences, etc.) are described. In most cases complete proofs are given. Basic concepts and results of homotopical algebra are also presented. The book addresses people who want to learn about a modern approach to homological algebra and to use it in their work.

This introduction to some basic ideas in algebraic topology is devoted to the foundations and applications of homology theory. After the essentials of singular homology and some important applications are given, successive topics covered include attaching spaces, finite CW complexes, cohomology products, manifolds, Poincare duality, and fixed point theory. This second edition includes a chapter on covering spaces and many new exercises.

This book can be understood as a model for teaching commutative algebra, and takes into account modern developments such as algorithmic and computational aspects. As soon as a new concept is introduced, the authors show how the concept can be worked on using a computer. The computations are exemplified with the computer algebra system Singular, developed by the authors. Singular is a special system for polynomial computation with many features for global as well as for local commutative algebra and algebraic geometry. The book includes a CD containing Singular as well as the examples and procedures explained in the book.