Math 817, Groups and Rings, Fall 2009

Math 817 is a graduate algebra course with an emphasis on groups and rings. Lectures are 10:30 - 12:20, Tuesdays and Thursdays in the PIMS seminar room, TASC2 8500.

Announcements

• Graded written projects are in your departmental mailboxes. Have a nice break.
• Graded Assignment 6s are in your departmental mailboxes.
• All projects received.
• Assignment 6 solutions.
• Typo on Assignment 6 corrected.
• The last question on Assignment 6 has been cut; we just didn't get far enough. You will get no benefit from handing it in, but you will definitely solidify your knowledge by doing it.
• Assignment 5 solutions.
• Assignment 6 posted.
• Assignment 5 posted.
• Assignment 4 solutions.
• Tensor products can be found in many references. The appropriate chapter of Knapp's Basic Algebra is one which you can download.
• Assignment 4 posted.
• Assignment 3 solutions.
• Assignment 2 solutions.
• For our brief intro to category theory I'll follow the notation of this book. I don't suggest printing it out because it is over 500 pages and we will cover only a dozen or so, but it's nice in that it has lots of examples for every definition. In content I'll be closer to sections 7.2 and 7.3 of Rotman Advanced modern algebra.
• Assignment 3 posted.
• Question 1a on Assignment 2 has been corrected in the linked version.
• Assignment 2 posted.
• Some rather terse Assignment 1 solutions.
• A reference on combinatorial group theory. We'll do only a few simple things which you could find in any text or set of notes on the subject, but this set of notes is free and seems nice.
• Assignment 1 posted.
• Office hours: Wednesdays 1-3pm, my office, SC K 10508. Please also feel free to email me with questions or to set up another time to meet in person.
• Topics and other useful information.
• The class has moved to the more blackboard-friendly PIMS seminar room, TASC2 8500. Someone will drop by the old room Thursday to catch anyone who hasn't heard.
• Regular lectures will actually begin Thursday September 17, but we are still meeting on September 10.
• We will meet Thursday September 10 to decide amongst us what topics to cover and how you will be evaluated. Regular lectures will begin Tuesday September 15.

Assignments

1. Assignment 1 due October 1 in class. Solutions.
2. Assignment 2 due October 15 in class. Solutions.
3. Assignment 3 due October 22 in class. Solutions.
4. Assignment 4 due November 5 in class. Solutions.
5. Assignment 5 due November 19 in class. Solutions.
6. Assignment 6 due December 3 in class. Solutions.

Information

Outline (in pdf format). Topics and other useful information.

Instructor:

Karen Yeats

Office:

SC K 10508

Email:

karen_yeats at sfu.ca

Office Hours:

Wednesdays 1-3, SC K 10508.

Lectures:

10:30-12:20 Tuesdays and Thursdays TASC2 8500

Textbook:

Algebra: A graduate course by I. Martin Isaacs. You can all get free membership to the AMS for being math grad students (and hence a discount on the book). New students probably won't be able to get their memberships processed fast enough to take advantage of this; even still the price is cheaper than what the bookstore would have charged you. The older edition published by Brooks/Cole is also fine.