Multilinear algebra has important applications in many different areas of mathematics but is usually learned in a rather haphazard fashion. The aim of this book is to provide a readable and systematic account of multilinear algebra at a level suitable for graduate students. Professor Northcott gives a thorough treatment of topics such as tensor, exterior, Grassmann, Hopf and co-algebras and ends each chapter with a section entitled 'Comments and Exercises'. The comments contain convenient summaries and discussion of the content whilst the exercises provide an opportunity to test understanding and add extra material. Complete solutions are provided for those exercises that are particularly important or used later in the book. The volume as a whole is based on advanced lectures given by the author at the University of Sheffield.

This volume provides a clear and self-contained introduction to important results in the theory of rings and modules. Assuming only the mathematical background provided by a normal undergraduate curriculum, the theory is derived by comparatively direct and simple methods. It will be useful to both undergraduates and research students specialising in algebra. In his usual lucid style the author introduces the reader to advanced topics in a manner which makes them both interesting and easy to assimilate. As the text gives very full explanations, a number of well-ordered exercises are included at the end of each chapter. These lead on to further significant results and give the reader an opportunity to devise his own arguments and to test his understanding of the subject.

Ideal theory is important not only for the intrinsic interest and purity of its logical structure but because it is a necessary tool in many branches of mathematics. In this introduction to the modern theory of ideals, Professor Northcott assumes a sound background of mathematical theory but no previous knowledge of modern algebra. After a discussion of elementary ring theory, he deals with the properties of Noetherian rings and the algebraic and analytical theories of local rings. In order to give some idea of deeper applications of this theory the author has woven into the connected algebraic theory those results which play outstanding roles in the geometric applications.

Based on a series of lectures given at Sheffield during 1971 72, this text is designed to introduce the student to homological algebra avoiding the elaborate machinery usually associated with the subject. This book presents a number of important topics and develops the necessary tools to handle them on an ad hoc basis. The final chapter contains some previously unpublished material and will provide additional interest both for the keen student and his tutor. Some easily proven results and demonstrations are left as exercises for the reader and additional exercises are included to expand the main themes. Solutions are provided to all of these. A short bibliography provides references to other publications in which the reader may follow up the subjects treated in the book. Graduate students will find this an invaluable course text as will those undergraduates who come to this subject in their final year.

In these notes, first published in 1980, Professor Northcott provides a self-contained introduction to the theory of affine algebraic groups for mathematicians with a basic knowledge of communicative algebra and field theory. The book divides into two parts. The first four chapters contain all the geometry needed for the second half of the book which deals with affine groups. Alternatively the first part provides a sure introduction to the foundations of algebraic geometry. Any affine group has an associated Lie algebra. In the last two chapters, the author studies these algebras and shows how, in certain important cases, their properties can be transferred back to the groups from which they arose. These notes provide a clear and carefully written introduction to algebraic geometry and algebraic groups.

An important part of homological algebra deals with modules possessing projective resolutions of finite length. This goes back to Hilbert's famous theorem on syzygies through, in the earlier theory, free modules with finite bases were used rather than projective modules. The introduction of a wider class of resolutions led to a theory rich in results, but in the process certain special properties of finite free resolutions were overlooked. D. A. Buchsbaum and D. Eisenbud have shown that finite free resolutions have a fascinating structure theory. This has revived interest in the simpler kind of resolution and caused the subject to develop rapidly. This Cambridge Tract attempts to give a genuinely self-contained and elementary presentation of the basic theory, and to provide a sound foundation for further study. The text contains a substantial number of exercises. These enable the reader to test his understanding and they allow the subject to be developed more rapidly. Each chapter ends with the solutions to the exercises contained in it.