Bøger i Algebra and Applications serien

The Curves The Point of View of Max Noether Probably the oldest references to the problem of resolution of singularities are found in Max Noether's works on plane curves [cf. [148], [149]]. And probably the origin of the problem was to have a formula to compute the genus of a plane curve. The genus is the most useful birational invariant of a curve in classical projective geometry. It was long known that, for a plane curve of degree n having l m ordinary singular points with respective multiplicities ri, i E {1, . . . , m}, the genus p of the curve is given by the formula = (n - l)(n - 2) _ ~ "e;r. (r. _ 1) P 2 2 L. . ,. ** . Of course, the problem now arises: how to compute the genus of a plane curve having some non-ordinary singularities. This leads to the natural question: can we birationally transform any (singular) plane curve into another one having only ordinary singularities? The answer is positive. Let us give a flavor (without proofs) 2 on how Noether did it * To solve the problem, it is enough to consider a special kind of Cremona trans- formations, namely quadratic transformations of the projective plane. Let ~ be a linear system of conics with three non-collinear base points r = {Ao, AI, A }, 2 and take a projective frame of the type {Ao, AI, A ; U}.

This book offers an original introduction to the representation theory of algebras, suitable for beginning researchers in algebra. It includes many results and techniques not usually covered in introductory books, some of which appear here for the first time in book form. The exposition employs methods from linear algebra (spectral methods and quadratic forms), as well as categorical and homological methods (module categories, Galois coverings, Hochschild cohomology) to present classical aspects of ring theory under new light. This includes topics such as rings with several objects, the Harada-Sai lemma, chain conditions, and Auslander-Reiten theory. Noteworthy and significant results covered in the book include the Brauer-Thrall conjectures, Drozd's theorem, and criteria to distinguish tame from wild algebras. This text may serve as the basis for a second graduate course in algebra or as an introduction to research in the field of representation theory of algebras. The originality of the exposition and the wealth of topics covered also make it a valuable resource for more established researchers.

A principal ingredient in the proof of the Moonshine Theorem, connecting the Monster group to modular forms, is the infinite dimensional Lie algebra of physical states of a chiral string on an orbifold of a 26 dimensional torus, called the Monster Lie algebra. It is a Borcherds-Kac-Moody Lie algebra with Lorentzian root lattice; and has an associated automorphic form having a product expansion describing its structure. Lie superalgebras are generalizations of Lie algebras, useful for depicting supersymmetry - the symmetry relating fermions and bosons. Most known examples of Lie superalgebras with a related automorphic form such as the Fake Monster Lie algebra whose reflection group is given by the Leech lattice arise from (super)string theory and can be derived from lattice vertex algebras. The No-Ghost Theorem from dual resonance theory and a conjecture of Berger-Li-Sarnak on the eigenvalues of the hyperbolic Laplacian provide strong evidence that they are of rank at most 26. The aim of this book is to give the reader the tools to understand the ongoing classification and construction project of this class of Lie superalgebras and is ideal for a graduate course. The necessary background is given within chapters or in appendices.

Algebraic K-theory encodes important invariants for several mathematical disciplines, spanning from geometric topology and functional analysis to number theory and algebraic geometry. As is commonly encountered, this powerful mathematical object is very hard to calculate. Apart from Quillen's calculations of finite fields and Suslin's calculation of algebraically closed fields, few complete calculations were available before the discovery of homological invariants offered by motivic cohomology and topological cyclic homology. This book covers the connection between algebraic K-theory and Bökstedt, Hsiang and Madsen's topological cyclic homology and proves that the difference between the theories are ¿locally constant¿. The usefulness of this theorem stems from being more accessible for calculations than K-theory, and hence a single calculation of K-theory can be used with homological calculations to obtain a host of ¿nearby¿ calculations in K-theory. For instance, Quillen's calculation of the K-theory of finite fields gives rise to Hesselholt and Madsen's calculations for local fields, and Voevodsky's calculations for the integers give insight into the diffeomorphisms of manifolds. In addition to the proof of the full integral version of the local correspondence between K-theory and topological cyclic homology, the book provides an introduction to the necessary background in algebraic K-theory and highly structured homotopy theory; collecting all necessary tools into one common framework. It relies on simplicial techniques, and contains an appendix summarizing the methods widely used in the field. The book is intended for graduate students and scientists interested in algebraic K-theory, and presupposes a basic knowledge of algebraic topology.

Deligne-Lusztig theory aims to study representations of finite reductive groups by means of geometric methods, and particularly l-adic cohomology. Many excellent texts present, with different goals and perspectives, this theory in the general setting. This book focuses on the smallest non-trivial example, namely the group SL2(Fq), which not only provides the simplicity required for a complete description of the theory, but also the richness needed for illustrating the most delicate aspects.The development of Deligne-Lusztig theory was inspired by Drinfeld's example in 1974, and Representations of SL2(Fq) is based upon this example, and extends it to modular representation theory. To this end, the author makes use of fundamental results of l-adic cohomology. In order to efficiently use this machinery, a precise study of the geometric properties of the action of SL2(Fq) on the Drinfeld curve is conducted, with particular attention to the construction of quotients by various finite groups.At the end of the text, a succinct overview (without proof) of Deligne-Lusztig theory is given, as well as links to examples demonstrated in the text. With the provision of both a gentle introduction and several recent materials (for instance, Rouquier's theorem on derived equivalences of geometric nature), this book will be of use to graduate and postgraduate students, as well as researchers and lecturers with an interest in Deligne-Lusztig theory.

In the 1970's, James developped a ``characterictic-free'' approach to the representation theory of the symmetric group on n letters, where Specht modules and certain bilinear forms on them play a crucial role. In this framework, we obtain a natural parametrization of the irreducible representations, but it is a major open problem to find explicit formulae for their dimensions when the ground field has positive characteristic.In a wider context, this problem is a special case of the problem of determining the irreducible representations of Iwahori--Hecke algebras at roots of unity. These algebras arise naturally in the representation theory of finite groups of Lie type, but they can be defined abstractly, as certain deformations of group algebras of finite Coxeter groups where the deformation depends on one or several parameters. One of the main aims of this book is to classify the irreducible representations of these Iwahori-Hecke algebras algebras at roots of unity. For this purpose, we develop an analogue of James' ``characterictic-free'' approach to the representation theory of Iwahori-Hecke algebras in general. The framework is provided by the Kazhdan-Lusztig theory of cells and the Graham-Lehrer theory of cellular algebras. When working over a ground field of characteristic zero, we also determine the dimensions of the irreducible representations, either by purely combinatorial algorithms (for algebras of classical type) or by explicit computations and tables (for algebras of exceptional type). The methods rely in an essential way on the ideas and results originating with the Lascoux-Leclerc-Thibon conjecture, which links Iwahori-Hecke algebras at roots of unity with the theory of canonical and crystal bases for the Fock space representations of certain affine Lie algebras. Thus, the main results of this book are obtained by an interaction of several branches of mathematics: Fock spaces and affine Lie algebras, the combinatorics of crystal bases, the theory of Kazhdan-Lusztig bases and cells, and computational methods.

The theory of algebraic function fields over finite fields has its origins in number theory. However, after Goppa`s discovery of algebraic geometry codes around 1980, many applications of function fields were found in different areas of mathematics and information theory. This book presents survey articles on some of these new developments. The topics focus on material which has not yet been presented in other books or survey articles.

Group cohomology has a rich history that goes back a century or more. Its origins are rooted in investigations of group theory and num­ ber theory, and it grew into an integral component of algebraic topology. In the last thirty years, group cohomology has developed a powerful con­ nection with finite group representations. Unlike the early applications which were primarily concerned with cohomology in low degrees, the in­ teractions with representation theory involve cohomology rings and the geometry of spectra over these rings. It is this connection to represen­ tation theory that we take as our primary motivation for this book. The book consists of two separate pieces. Chronologically, the first part was the computer calculations of the mod-2 cohomology rings of the groups whose orders divide 64. The ideas and the programs for the calculations were developed over the last 10 years. Several new features were added over the course of that time. We had originally planned to include only a brief introduction to the calculations. However, we were persuaded to produce a more substantial text that would include in greater detail the concepts that are the subject of the calculations and are the source of some of the motivating conjectures for the com­ putations. We have gathered together many of the results and ideas that are the focus of the calculations from throughout the mathematical literature.

Let FG be the group ring of a group G over a field F. Write U(FG) for the group of units of FG. It is an important problem to determine the conditions under which U(FG) satisfies a group identity. In the mid 1990s, a conjecture of Hartley was verified, namely, if U(FG) satisfies a group identity, and G is torsion, then FG satisfies a polynomial identity. Necessary and sufficient conditions for U(FG) to satisfy a group identity soon followed. Since the late 1990s, many papers have been devoted to the study of the symmetric units; that is, those units u satisfying u* = u, where * is the involution on FG defined by sending each element of G to its inverse. The conditions under which these symmetric units satisfy a group identity have now been determined. This book presents these results for arbitrary group identities, as well as the conditions under which the unit group or the set of symmetric units satisfies several particular group identities of interest.

The specialization theory of quadratic and symmetric bilinear forms over fields and the subsequent generic splitting theory of quadratic forms were invented by the author in the mid-1970's. They came to fruition in the ensuing decades and have become an integral part of the geometric methods in quadratic form theory. This book comprehensively covers the specialization and generic splitting theories. These theories, originally developed mainly for fields of characteristic different from 2, are explored here without this restriction. In this book, a quadratic form ¿ over a field of characteristic 2 is allowed to have a big quasilinear part QL(¿) (defined as the restriction of ¿ to the radical of the bilinear form associated to ¿), while in most of the literature QL(¿) is assumed to have dimension at most 1. Of course, in nature, quadratic forms with a big quasilinear part abound.In addition to chapters on specialization theory, generic splitting theory and their applications, the book's finalchapter contains research never before published on specialization with respect to quadratic places and will provide the reader with a glimpse towards the future.

The ?rst aim of this work is to present the main results and methods of the theory of Noetherian semigroup algebras. These general results are then applied and illustrated in the context of certain interesting and important concrete classes of algebras that arise in a variety of areas and have been recently intensively studied. One of the main motivations for this project has been the growing int- est in the class of semigroup algebras (and their deformations) and in the application of semigroup theoretical methods. Two factors seem to be the cause for this. First, this ?eld covers several important classes of algebras that recently arise in a variety of areas. Furthermore, it provides methods to construct a variety of examples and tools to control their structure and properties, that should be of interest to a broad audience in algebra and its applications. Namely, this is a rich resource of constructions not only for the noncommutative ring theorists (and not only restricted to Noetherian rings) but also to researchers in semigroup theory and certain aspects of group theory. Moreover, because of the role of new classes of Noetherian algebras in the algebraic approach in noncommutative geometry, algebras of low dimension (in terms of the homological or the Gelfand-Kirillov - mension) recently gained a lot of attention. Via the applications to the Yang-Baxter equation, the interest also widens into other ?elds, most - tably into mathematical physics.

Introducing the representation theory of groups and finite dimensional algebras, first studying basic non-commutative ring theory, this book covers the necessary background on elementary homological algebra and representations of groups up to block theory.

This book outlines a vast array of techniques and methods regarding model categories, without focussing on the intricacies of the proofs. In particular, it collects a highly scattered literature into a single volume. The book is aimed at anyone who uses, or is interested in using, model categories to study homotopy theory.

This monograph provides a comprehensive introduction to the Kazhdan-Lusztig theory of cells in the broader context of the unequal parameter case. Serving as a useful reference, the present volume offers a synthesis of significant advances made since Lusztig's seminal work on the subject was published in 2002.

This monograph presents a new model of mathematical structures called weak n-categories. These structures find their motivation in a wide range of fields, from algebraic topology to mathematical physics, algebraic geometry and mathematical logic.While strict n-categories are easily defined in terms associative and unital composition operations they are of limited use in applications, which often call for weakened variants of these laws. The author proposes a new approach to this weakening, whose generality arises not from a weakening of such laws but from the very geometric structure of its cells; a geometry dubbed weak globularity. The new model, called weakly globular n-fold categories, is one of the simplest known algebraic structures yielding a model of weak n-categories. The central result is the equivalence of this model to one of the existing models, due to Tamsamani and further studied by Simpson. This theory has intended applications to homotopy theory, mathematical physics and to long-standing open questions in category theory.As the theory is described in elementary terms and the book is largely self-contained, it is accessible to beginning graduate students and to mathematicians from a wide range of disciplines well beyond higher category theory. The new model makes a transparent connection between higher category theory and homotopy theory, rendering it particularly suitable for category theorists and algebraic topologists. Although the results are complex, readers are guided with an intuitive explanation before each concept is introduced, and with diagrams showing the interconnections between the main ideas and results.

This monograph provides a comprehensive introduction to the Kazhdan-Lusztig theory of cells in the broader context of the unequal parameter case. Serving as a useful reference, the present volume offers a synthesis of significant advances made since Lusztig's seminal work on the subject was published in 2002.

In this monograph, the authors develop a new theory of p-adic cohomology for varieties over Laurent series fields in positive characteristic, based on Berthelot's theory of rigid cohomology.

This book explores the problem of nonsimply connected homotopy in the first nontrivial cases and presents a systematic rehabilitation of Hilbert's method of syzygies in the context of non-simply connected homotopy theory.

Here is a comprehensive treatment of the main results and methods of the theory of Noetherian semigroup algebras. These results are applied and illustrated in the context of important classes of algebras that arise in a variety of areas and have recently been intensively studied.

The usefulness of this theorem stems from being more accessible for calculations than K-theory, and hence a single calculation of K-theory can be used with homological calculations to obtain a host of 'nearby' calculations in K-theory.

This book offers a classification of the Normalized Integral Table Algebras (Fusion Rings) generated by a faithful non-real element of degree 3. It links a number of the algebras to the polynomial irreducible representations of the group SL3(C).

The first half of this book develops the standard group theoretic techniques for studying polycyclic groups and their basic properties. The second half focuses specifically on the ring theoretic properties of polycyclic groups and their applications.

This monograph presents combinatorial and numerical issues on integral quadratic forms as originally obtained in the context of representation theory of algebras and derived categories. Some of these beautiful results remain practically unknown to students and scholars, and are scattered in papers written between 1970 and the present day. Besides the many classical results, the book also encompasses a few new results and generalizations.The material presented will appeal to a wide group of researchers (in representation theory of algebras, Lie theory, number theory and graph theory) and, due to its accessible nature and the many exercises provided, also to undergraduate and graduate students with a solid foundation in linear algebra and some familiarity on graph theory.

Group rings play a central role in the theory of representations of groups and are very interesting algebraic objects in their own right. In their study, many branches of algebra come to an interplay. This book takes the reader from beginning to research level. It is suitable for mathematicians working in the area of group rings.