An Invitation To General Algebra And Universal Constructions

Rich in examples and intuitive discussions, this book presents General Algebra using the unifying viewpoint of categories and functors. Starting with a survey, in non-category-theoretic terms, of many familiar and not-so-familiar constructions in algebra (plus two from topology for perspective), the reader is guided to an understanding and appreciation of the general concepts and tools unifying these constructions. Topics include: set theory, lattices, category theory, the formulation of universal constructions in category-theoretic terms, varieties of algebras, and adjunctions. A large number of exercises, from the routine to the challenging, interspersed through the text, develop the reader's grasp of the material, exhibit applications of the general theory to diverse areas of algebra, and in some cases point to outstanding open questions. Graduate students and researchers wishing to gain fluency in important mathematical constructions will welcome this carefully motivated book.

Category theory reveals commonalities between structures of all sorts. This book shows its potential in science, engineering, and beyond.

Starting with the most basic notions, Universal Algebra: Fundamentals and Selected Topics introduces all the key elements needed to read and understand current research in this field. Based on the author’s two-semester course, the text prepares students for research work by providing a solid grounding in the fundamental constructions and concepts of universal algebra and by introducing a variety of recent research topics. The first part of the book focuses on core components, including subalgebras, congruences, lattices, direct and subdirect products, isomorphism theorems, a clone of operations, terms, free algebras, Birkhoff’s theorem, and standard Maltsev conditions. The second part covers topics that demonstrate the power and breadth of the subject. The author discusses the consequences of Jónsson’s lemma, finitely and nonfinitely based algebras, definable principal congruences, and the work of Foster and Pixley on primal and quasiprimal algebras. He also includes a proof of Murskiĭ’s theorem on primal algebras and presents McKenzie’s characterization of directly representable varieties, which clearly shows the power of the universal algebraic toolbox. The last chapter covers the rudiments of tame congruence theory. Throughout the text, a series of examples illustrates concepts as they are introduced and helps students understand how universal algebra sheds light on topics they have already studied, such as Abelian groups and commutative rings. Suitable for newcomers to the field, the book also includes carefully selected exercises that reinforce the concepts and push students to a deeper understanding of the theorems and techniques.

The volume is based on a course, ``Geometric Models for Noncommutative Algebras'' taught by Professor Weinstein at Berkeley. Noncommutative geometry is the study of noncommutative algebras as if they were algebras of functions on spaces, for example, the commutative algebras associated to affine algebraic varieties, differentiable manifolds, topological spaces, and measure spaces. In this work, the authors discuss several types of geometric objects (in the usual sense of sets with structure) that are closely related to noncommutative algebras. Central to the discussion are symplectic and Poisson manifolds, which arise when noncommutative algebras are obtained by deforming commutative algebras. The authors also give a detailed study of groupoids (whose role in noncommutative geometry has been stressed by Connes) as well as of Lie algebroids, the infinitesimal approximations to differentiable groupoids. Featured are many interesting examples, applications, and exercises. The book starts with basic definitions and builds to (still) open questions. It is suitable for use as a graduate text. An extensive bibliography and index are included.

This undergraduate textbook promotes an active transition to higher mathematics. Problem solving is the heart and soul of this book: each problem is carefully chosen to demonstrate, elucidate, or extend a concept. More than 300 exercises engage the reader in extensive arguments and creative approaches, while exploring connections between fundamental mathematical topics. Divided into four parts, this book begins with a playful exploration of the building blocks of mathematics, such as definitions, axioms, and proofs. A study of the fundamental concepts of logic, sets, and functions follows, before focus turns to methods of proof. Having covered the core of a transition course, the author goes on to present a selection of advanced topics that offer opportunities for extension or further study. Throughout, appendices touch on historical perspectives, current trends, and open questions, showing mathematics as a vibrant and dynamic human enterprise. This second edition has been reorganized to better reflect the layout and curriculum of standard transition courses. It also features recent developments and improved appendices. An Invitation to Abstract Mathematics is ideal for those seeking a challenging and engaging transition to advanced mathematics, and will appeal to both undergraduates majoring in mathematics, as well as non-math majors interested in exploring higher-level concepts. From reviews of the first edition: Bajnok’s new book truly invites students to enjoy the beauty, power, and challenge of abstract mathematics. ... The book can be used as a text for traditional transition or structure courses ... but since Bajnok invites all students, not just mathematics majors, to enjoy the subject, he assumes very little background knowledge. Jill Dietz, MAA Reviews The style of writing is careful, but joyously enthusiastic.... The author’s clear attitude is that mathematics consists of problem solving, and that writing a proof falls into this category. Students of mathematics are, therefore, engaged in problem solving, and should be given problems to solve, rather than problems to imitate. The author attributes this approach to his Hungarian background ... and encourages students to embrace the challenge in the same way an athlete engages in vigorous practice. John Perry, zbMATH

In a manner accessible to beginning undergraduates, An Invitation to Modern Number Theory introduces many of the central problems, conjectures, results, and techniques of the field, such as the Riemann Hypothesis, Roth's Theorem, the Circle Method, and Random Matrix Theory. Showing how experiments are used to test conjectures and prove theorems, the book allows students to do original work on such problems, often using little more than calculus (though there are numerous remarks for those with deeper backgrounds). It shows students what number theory theorems are used for and what led to them and suggests problems for further research. Steven Miller and Ramin Takloo-Bighash introduce the problems and the computational skills required to numerically investigate them, providing background material (from probability to statistics to Fourier analysis) whenever necessary. They guide students through a variety of problems, ranging from basic number theory, cryptography, and Goldbach's Problem, to the algebraic structures of numbers and continued fractions, showing connections between these subjects and encouraging students to study them further. In addition, this is the first undergraduate book to explore Random Matrix Theory, which has recently become a powerful tool for predicting answers in number theory. Providing exercises, references to the background literature, and Web links to previous student research projects, An Invitation to Modern Number Theory can be used to teach a research seminar or a lecture class.

Lectures in General Algebra is a translation from the Russian and is based on lectures on specialized courses in general algebra at Moscow University. The book starts with the basics of algebra. The text briefly describes the theory of sets, binary relations, equivalence relations, partial ordering, minimum condition, and theorems equivalent to the axiom of choice. The text gives the definition of binary algebraic operation and the concepts of groups, groupoids, and semigroups. The book examines the parallelism between the theory of groups and the theory of rings; such examinations show the convenience of constructing a single theory from the results of group experiments and ring experiments which are known to follow simple corollaries. The text also presents algebraic structures that are not of binary nature. From this parallelism arise other concepts, such as that of the lattices, complete lattices, and modular lattices. The book then proves the Schmidt-Ore theorem, and also describes linear algebra, as well as the Birkhoff-Witt theorem on Lie algebras. The text also addresses ordered groups, the Archimedean groups and rings, and Albert's theorem on normed algebras. This book can prove useful for algebra students and for professors of algebra and advanced mathematicians.

Hyperidentities are important formulae of second-order logic, and research in hyperidentities paves way for the study of second-order logic and second-order model theory.This book illustrates many important current trends and perspectives for the field of hyperidentities and their applications, of interest to researchers in modern algebra and discrete mathematics. It covers a number of directions, including the characterizations of the Boolean algebra of n-ary Boolean functions and the distributive lattice of n-ary monotone Boolean functions; the classification of hyperidentities of the variety of lattices, the variety of distributive (modular) lattices, the variety of Boolean algebras, and the variety of De Morgan algebras; the characterization of algebras with aforementioned hyperidentities; the functional representations of finitely-generated free algebras of various varieties of lattices and bilattices via generalized Boolean functions (De Morgan functions, quasi-De Morgan functions, super-Boolean functions, super-De Morgan functions, etc); the structural results for De Morgan algebras, Boole-De Morgan algebras, super-Boolean algebras, bilattices, among others.While problems of Boolean functions theory are well known, the present book offers alternative, more general problems, involving the concepts of De Morgan functions, quasi-De Morgan functions, super-Boolean functions, and super-De Morgan functions, etc. In contrast to other generalized Boolean functions discovered and investigated so far, these functions have clearly normal forms. This quality is of crucial importance for their applications in pure and applied mathematics, especially in discrete mathematics, quantum computation, quantum information theory, quantum logic, and the theory of quantum computers.