This textbook gives a detailed and comprehensive presentation of linear algebra based on an axiomatic treatment of linear spaces. For this fourth edition some new material has been added to the text, for instance, the intrinsic treatment of the classical adjoint of a linear transformation in Chapter IV, as well as the discussion of quaternions and the classifica tion of associative division algebras in Chapter VII. Chapters XII and XIII have been substantially rewritten for the sake of clarity, but the contents remain basically the same as before. Finally, a number of problems covering new topics-e.g. complex structures, Caylay numbers and symplectic spaces - have been added. I should like to thank Mr. M. L. Johnson who made many useful suggestions for the problems in the third edition. I am also grateful to my colleague S. Halperin who assisted in the revision of Chapters XII and XIII and to Mr. F. Gomez who helped to prepare the subject index. Finally, I have to express my deep gratitude to my colleague J. R. Van stone who worked closely with me in the preparation of all the revisions and additions and who generously helped with the proof reading."

This textbook gives a detailed and comprehensive presentation of linear algebra based on an axiomatic treatment of linear spaces. For this fourth edition some new material has been added to the text, for instance, the intrinsic treatment of the classical adjoint of a linear transformation in Chapter IV, as well as the discussion of quaternions and the classifica tion of associative division algebras in Chapter VII. Chapters XII and XIII have been substantially rewritten for the sake of clarity, but the contents remain basically the same as before. Finally, a number of problems covering new topics-e.g. complex structures, Caylay numbers and symplectic spaces - have been added. I should like to thank Mr. M. L. Johnson who made many useful suggestions for the problems in the third edition. I am also grateful to my colleague S. Halperin who assisted in the revision of Chapters XII and XIII and to Mr. F. Gomez who helped to prepare the subject index. Finally, I have to express my deep gratitude to my colleague J. R. Van stone who worked closely with me in the preparation of all the revisions and additions and who generously helped with the proof reading.

This book is a revised version of the first edition and is intended as a Linear Algebra sequel and companion volume to the fourth edition of (Graduate Texts in Mathematics 23). As before, the terminology and basic results of Linear Algebra are frequently used without refer nce. In particular, the reader should be familiar with Chapters 1-5 and the first part of Chapter 6 of that book, although other sections are occasionally used. In this new version of Multilinear Algebra, Chapters 1-5 remain essen tially unchanged from the previous edition. Chapter 6 has been completely rewritten and split into three (Chapters 6, 7, and 8). Some of the proofs have been simplified and a substantial amount of new material has been added. This applies particularly to the study of characteristic coefficients and the Pfaffian. The old Chapter 7 remains as it stood, except that it is now Chapter 9. The old Chapter 8 has been suppressed and the material which it con tained (multilinear functions) has been relocated at the end of Chapters 3, 5, and 9. The last two chapters on Clifford algebras and their representations are completely new. In view of the growing importance of Clifford algebras and the relatively few references available, it was felt that these chapters would be useful to both mathematicians and physicists."

dienen auch dazu, in Kapitel IV zu einer koordinatenfreien Definition der Orientierung in einem linearen Raume zu kommen. Den Ausgangs punkt der Tensoralgebra (Kapitel V) bildet wieder der Begriff des Paares dualer Raume. Hierdurch wird es moglich, aIle Operationen mit TensoreI)., insbesondere die Verjiingung, ohne Bezugnahme auf die Komponenten einzufUhren. Mit Kapitel VI beginnt die Theorie der metrischen linearen Raume, wobei zunachst ein positiv-definites Skalarprodukt fUr die Langen messung zugrunde gelegt wird. Hieran schliel3t sich in Kapitel VII die Besprechung der langentreuen und selbstadjungierten Abbildungen und deren Eigenwerttheorie. In Kapitel VIII werden zunachst die symmetrischen bilinearen Funktionen aIlgemein untersucht und schlie- lich diejenigen Eigenschaften des Euklidischen Raumes hervorgehoben, die sich auf Raume mit indefiniter Metrik iibertragen lassen. Kapitel IX bringt dann die Klassifikation der Flachen zweiter Ordnung in affiner und metrischer Hinsicht. Die Dbertragung der metrischen Begriffe auf komplexe line are Raume findet sich in Kapitel X. Das letzte - elfte - Kapitel fiihrt wieder zu den linearen Raumen ohne Skalarprodukt zuriick. Es gehOrt also logisch eigentlich zwischen Kapitel V und VI, wiirde an dieser Stelle jedoch in gewisser Hinsicht die Einheitlichkeit storen, da die hier behandelte Theorie der Zerlegung in irreduzible invariante Unterraume beziiglich einer linearen Selbst abbildung nicht unbedingt zu einer allgemeinen Kenntnis der linearen Algebra gehort. Entsprechend der Grundidee des ganzen Buches werden die irreduziblen Unterraume nicht aus der Matrix mittels ihrer Elementarteiler konstruiert, sondern vielmehr aus der Abbildung selbst. Die Normalformen der Matrix ergeben sich dann unmittelbar aus dem Zerlegungssatz."