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PHD Requirements
PHD Requirements
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http://www.math.buffalo.edu/gr_reqts_phd.html
PhD Requirements
Graduate
Programs
The
City
Contents:
Departmental Regulations
Syllabus for the First Qualifying Examination
Syllabus for the Second Qualifying Examination
January 1992 . Updated April 1997, March 2002, Feb. 2004, Sept. 2005, Aug. 2007
Deficiency
A student is considered to have a deficiency if in his first semester as a graduate student at
SUNYAB he officially enrolls in and completes Math 519 (introductory algebra) or Math
531 (introductory real variables).
The student should base his decision on whether to take these courses on advice from the
Director of Graduate Studies and on evaluation of his knowledge in algebra and analysis by
the relevant area committees.
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the institutions where he studied, his proficiency in English (TOEFL), etc. It will be clear
from what follows that such students will have to fulfill various requirements more quickly
than normally admitted students.
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Doctoral Committee
During the semester in which he completes the Second Qualifying Examination, each
student will select a major professor, who is a member of the graduate faculty, in
consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies. The latter and the major professor will
then choose the student's doctoral committee, consisting of at least three members of the
faculty with the major professor as chairman.
Admission to Candidacy
The student's doctoral committee will set the requirements for admission to candidacy.
These are subject to the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies and may include, but
are not restricted to, any of the following: an oral examination on "research level" material, a
project, a series of lectures on "research level" mathematics, or a written qualifying
examination in another department. These requirements must be satisfied by the end of the
sixth semester of graduate work.
Language Requirements
None.
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Vector spaces, matrices, linear independence, spanning sets, bases, dimension, inner
product spaces, orthogonality, linear transformations (vector space homomorphisms),
kernels (null spaces), range, rank, eigenvalues (characteristic values), eigenvectors
(characteristic vectors), minimal polynomial, diagonalization, Jordan canonical form,
nilpotence.
References:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Analysis
A. Real Analysis
1. Semi-continuous functions. Measures, -algebras, measurable sets and functions,
Borel sets, measure spaces. Lebesgue measure and integration, Lusin's theorem,
Egoroff's theorem, Vitali-Caratheodory theorem.
2. Lp spaces, bounded linear functionals on Lp. Elementary Hilbert space theory,
subspaces, representation theorems, orthonormal systems. Elementary Banach space
theory including Baire's theorem, uniform boundedness principle, open mapping
theorem, Hahn-Banach theorem.
3. Radon-Nikodym Theorem. Product measures, Fubini's Theorem. Functions of
bounded variation and absolutely continuous functions.
References:
1. Rudin, Real and Complex Analysis (Chapters 1-8)
2. Royden, Real Analysis
B. Complex Analysis
1. Complex numbers, analytic functions, Cauchy Riemann equations, relation between
harmonic and analytic functions.
2. Complex integration, Cauchy integral theorem and formulas, Morera's theorem,
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Algebra
1. Groups. symmetry groups, homomorphism theorems, Sylow theorems, group actions
on sets.
2. Rings. various examples (e.g., rings of continuous or analytic functions), unique
factorization domains, Gauss' lemma, Eisenstein criterion, Noetherian rings, Artinian
rings, Semi-simple rings, Wedderburn-Artin theorems, group rings, Maschke's
theorem.
3. Modules. tensor products, exterior powers, projective and injective modules,
Nakayama's lemma, modules over principal ideal domains, modules over semi-simple
rings, group representations Jordan and rational canonical forms, Cayley-Hamilton
theorem, determinants.
4. Fields. field extensions, finite multiplicative subgroups of a field, structure of finite
fields, irreducibility of the cyclotomic polynomials, Galois theory, algebraic closure,
transcendental extensions.
5. Category theory. representable functors, adjoint functors, universal properties,
Yoneda's lemma.
References:
1. E. Artin, Galois Theory
2. S. Lang, Algebra
3. N. Jacobson, Basic Algebra I and II
Geometry/Topology
A. Algebraic Topology
1. Homotopy, fundamental group, covering spaces, Van Kampen's theorem
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B. Differential Geometry
1. Theory of curves and surfaces in R3 , Gauss-Bonnet theorem in dimension 2
2. Manifolds, implicit and inverse function theorems
3. Tangent bundles, vector fields and Lie derivatives, Frobenius theorem
4. Differential forms, Stokes' theorem, de Rham cohomology
Suggested References:
1. O'Neill, Elementary Differential Geometry
2. Spivak, A Comprehensive Introduction to Differential Geometry, vol. I
Differential Equations
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The
City
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