Introduction to Abstract Algebra, Second Edition presents abstract algebra as the main tool underlying discrete mathematics and the digital world. It avoids the usual groups first/rings first dilemma by introducing semigroups and monoids, the multiplicative structures of rings, along with groups. This new edition of a widely adopted textbook covers applications from biology, science, and engineering. It offers numerous updates based on feedback from first edition adopters, as well as improved and simplified proofs of a number of important theorems. Many new exercises have been added, while new study projects examine skewfields, quaternions, and octonions. The first three chapters of the book show how functional composition, cycle notation for permutations, and matrix notation for linear functions provide techniques for practical computation. These three chapters provide a quick introduction to algebra, sufficient to exhibit irrational numbers or to gain a taste of cryptography. Chapters four through seven cover abstract groups and monoids, orthogonal groups, stochastic matrices, Lagrange's theorem, groups of units of monoids, homomorphisms, rings, and integral domains. The first seven chapters provide basic coverage of abstract algebra, suitable for a one-semester or two-quarter course. Each chapter includes exercises of varying levels of difficulty, chapter notes that point out variations in notation and approach, and study projects that cover an array of applications and developments of the theory. The final chapters deal with slightly more advanced topics, suitable for a second-semester or third-quarter course. These chapters delve deeper into the theory of rings, fields, and groups. They discuss modules, including vector spaces and abelian groups, group theory, and quasigroups. This textbook is suitable for use in an undergraduate course on abstract algebra for mathematics, computer science, and education majors, along with students from other STEM fields.

Collecting results scattered throughout the literature into one source, An Introduction to Quasigroups and Their Representations shows how representation theories for groups are capable of extending to general quasigroups and illustrates the added depth and richness that result from this extension. To fully understand representation theory, the first three chapters provide a foundation in the theory of quasigroups and loops, covering special classes, the combinatorial multiplication group, universal stabilizers, and quasigroup analogues of abelian groups. Subsequent chapters deal with the three main branches of representation theory-permutation representations of quasigroups, combinatorial character theory, and quasigroup module theory. Each chapter includes exercises and examples to demonstrate how the theories discussed relate to practical applications. The book concludes with appendices that summarize some essential topics from category theory, universal algebra, and coalgebras. Long overshadowed by general group theory, quasigroups have become increasingly important in combinatorics, cryptography, algebra, and physics. Covering key research problems, An Introduction to Quasigroups and Their Representations proves that you can apply group representation theories to quasigroups as well.

This book is an introduction to the theory and application of modes - structures that capture the common underlying algebra of convex sets, affine spaces and certain ordered sets. Modes appear in many branches of mathematics, particularly geometry and combinatorics, and have been used in computer science, economics, physics, and biology. The initial stage of the theory was set out in the authors' research monograph Modal Theory (published in 1985). The present book provides a more complete theory, the result of research conducted during the subsequent 15 years. It contains a clear introduction to selected topics from universal algebra, category theory and model theory, and the foundations of the theory of modes, as well as more advanced topics leading to the forefront of current research in the field.The authors have included a wide range of exercises, usually placed at the end of the section, and indexed alphabetically. Some exercises are simply designed to familiarize readers with the notation and concepts. Others are more difficult, extending the content of the sections in which they appear, and providing a foretaste of further research.