2019–20–A

Prof. Nadya Gurevich

Course topics

  • Groups as symmetries. Examples: cyclic, dihedral, symmetric and matrix groups.
  • Homomorphism. Subgroups and normal subgroups. Quotient groups. Lagrange’s theorem. The isomorphism theorems. Direct products of groups.
  • Actions of groups on sets. Cayley’s theorem.
  • Group automorphisms.
  • Sylow’s theorems. Application: classification of groups of small order.
  • Composition series and Jordan–Hoelder theorem. Solvable groups.
  • Classification of finite abelian groups, finitely-generated abelian groups.
  • Symmetric group and alternating group. The alternating group is simple.
  • Rings, maximal and prime ideals, integral domain, quotient ring. Homomorphism theorems.
  • Multilinear algebra: Quotient spaces. Tensor products of vector spaces. Action of $S_n$ on tensor powers. Exterior and symmetric algebras. Multilinear forms and determinant.
  • Optional topics: group of symmetries of platonic solids, free groups, semidirect products, representation theory of finite groups.

University course catalogue: 201.1.7031