Book Description

Great book! The author's teaching experinece shows in every chapter. --Efim Zelmanov, University of California, San Diego Vinberg has written an algebra book that is excellent, both as a classroom text or for self-study. It is plain that years of teaching abstract algebra have enabled him to say the right thing at the right time. --Irving Kaplansky, MSRI This is a comprehensive text on modern algebra written for advanced undergraduate and basic graduate algebra classes. The book is based on courses taught by the author at the Mechanics and Mathematics Department of Moscow State University and at the Mathematical College of the Independent University of Moscow. The unique feature of the book is that it contains almost no technically difficult proofs. Following his point of view on mathematics, the author tried, whenever possible, to replace calculations and difficult deductions with conceptual proofs and to associate geometric images to algebraic objects. Another important feature is that the book presents most of the topics on several levels, allowing the student to move smoothly from initial acquaintance to thorough study and deeper understanding of the subject. Presented are basic topics in algebra such as algebraic structures, linear algebra, polynomials, groups, as well as more advanced topics like affine and projective spaces, tensor algebra, Galois theory, Lie groups, associative algebras and their representations. Some applications of linear algebra and group theory to physics are discussed. Written with extreme care and supplied with more than 200 exercises and 70 figures, the book is also an excellent text for independent study.