The permutations of the Rubik's Cube

form a group, a fundamental concept

within abstract algebra.

Algebraic structures, with their associated homomorphisms, form

mathematical categories. Category theory is a formalism that allows a
unified way for expressing properties and constructions that are similar
for various structures.

Universal algebra is a related subject that studies types of algebraic

structures as single objects. For example, the structure of groups is a
single object in universal algebra, which is called the variety of groups.
History

As in other parts of mathematics, concrete problems and examples have

played important roles in the development of abstract algebra. Through
the end of the nineteenth century, many – perhaps most – of these
problems were in some way related to the theory of algebraic equations.
Major themes include:

Solving of systems of linear equations, which led to linear algebra

Attempts to find formulas for solutions of general polynomial

equations of higher degree that resulted in discovery of groups as
abstract manifestations of symmetry

Arithmetical investigations of quadratic and higher-degree forms and

diophantine equations, that directly produced the notions of a ring and
ideal.

Numerous textbooks in abstract algebra start with axiomatic definitions of

various algebraic structures and then proceed to establish their
properties. This creates a false impression that in algebra axioms had
come first and then served as a motivation and as a basis of further study.
The true order of historical development was almost exactly the opposite.
For example, the hypercomplex numbers of the nineteenth century had
kinematics and physical motivations but challenged comprehension. Most
theories that are now recognized as parts of algebra started as collections
of disparate facts from various branches of mathematics, acquired a
common theme that served as a core around which various results were
grouped, and finally became unified on a basis of a common set of
concepts. An archetypical example of this progressive synthesis can be
seen in the history of group theory.

Early group theory

There were several threads in the early development of group theory, in

modern language loosely corresponding to number theory, theory of
equations, and geometry.

Leonhard Euler considered algebraic operations on numbers modulo an

integer—modular arithmetic—in his generalization of Fermat's little
theorem. These investigations were taken much further by Carl Friedrich
Gauss, who considered the structure of multiplicative groups of residues
mod n and established many properties of cyclic and more general
abelian groups that arise in this way. In his investigations of composition
of binary quadratic forms, Gauss explicitly stated the associative law for
the composition of forms, but like Euler before him, he seems to have
been more interested in concrete results than in general theory. In 1870,
Leopold Kronecker gave a definition of an abelian group in the context of
ideal class groups of a number field, generalizing Gauss's work; but it
appears he did not tie his definition with previous work on groups,
particularly permutation groups. In 1882, considering the same question,
Heinrich M. Weber realized the connection and gave a similar definition
that involved the cancellation property but omitted the existence of the
inverse element, which was sufficient in his context (finite groups).
Permutations were studied by Joseph-Louis Lagrange in his 1770 paper
Réflexions sur la résolution algébrique des équations (Thoughts on the
algebraic solution of equations) devoted to solutions of algebraic
equations, in which he introduced Lagrange resolvents. Lagrange's goal
was to understand why equations of third and fourth degree admit
formulas for solutions, and he identified as key objects permutations of
the roots. An important novel step taken by Lagrange in this paper was
the abstract view of the roots, i.e. as symbols and not as numbers.
However, he did not consider composition of permutations.
Serendipitously, the first edition of Edward Waring's Meditationes
Algebraicae (Meditations on Algebra) appeared in the same year, with an
expanded version published in 1782. Waring proved the fundamental
theorem of symmetric polynomials, and specially considered the relation
between the roots of a quartic equation and its resolvent cubic. Mémoire
sur la résolution des équations (Memoire on the Solving of Equations) of
Alexandre Vandermonde (1771) developed the theory of symmetric
functions from a slightly different angle, but like Lagrange, with the goal
of understanding solvability of algebraic equations.

Kronecker claimed in 1888 that the study of modern algebra

began with this first paper of Vandermonde. Cauchy states
quite clearly that Vandermonde had priority over Lagrange
for this remarkable idea, which eventually led to the study
of group theory.[1]
Paolo Ruffini was the first person to develop the theory of permutation
groups, and like his predecessors, also in the context of solving algebraic
equations. His goal was to establish the impossibility of an algebraic
solution to a general algebraic equation of degree greater than four. En
route to this goal he introduced the notion of the order of an element of
a group, conjugacy, the cycle decomposition of elements of permutation
groups and the notions of primitive and imprimitive and proved some
important theorems relating these concepts, such as

if G is a subgroup of S5 whose order is divisible by 5 then G

contains an element of order 5.

However, he got by without formalizing the concept of a group, or even

of a permutation group.
The next step was taken by Évariste Galois in
1832, although his work remained unpublished until 1846, when he
considered for the first time what is now called the closure property of a
group of permutations, which he expressed as

if in such a group one has the substitutions S and T then one

has the substitution ST.

The theory of permutation groups received further far-reaching

development in the hands of Augustin Cauchy and Camille Jordan, both
through introduction of new concepts and, primarily, a great wealth of
results about special classes of permutation groups and even some
general theorems. Among other things, Jordan defined a notion of
isomorphism, still in the context of permutation groups and, incidentally,
it was he who put the term group in wide use.

The abstract notion of a group appeared for the first time in Arthur
Cayley's papers in 1854. Cayley realized that a group need not be a
permutation group (or even finite), and may instead consist of matrices,
whose algebraic properties, such as multiplication and inverses, he
systematically investigated in succeeding years. Much later Cayley would
revisit the question whether abstract groups were more general than
permutation groups, and establish that, in fact, any group is isomorphic to
a group of permutations.

Modern algebra

The end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century saw a shift in
the methodology of mathematics. Abstract algebra emerged around the
start of the 20th century, under the name modern algebra. Its study was
part of the drive for more intellectual rigor in mathematics. Initially, the
assumptions in classical algebra, on which the whole of mathematics (and
major parts of the natural sciences) depend, took the form of axiomatic
systems. No longer satisfied with establishing properties of concrete
objects, mathematicians started to turn their attention to general theory.
Formal definitions of certain algebraic structures began to emerge in the
19th century. For example, results about various groups of permutations
came to be seen as instances of general theorems that concern a general
notion of an abstract group. Questions of structure and classification of
various mathematical objects came to forefront.

These processes were occurring throughout all of mathematics, but

became especially pronounced in algebra. Formal definition through
primitive operations and axioms were proposed for many basic algebraic
structures, such as groups, rings, and fields. Hence such things as group
theory and ring theory took their places in pure mathematics. The
algebraic investigations of general fields by Ernst Steinitz and of
commutative and then general rings by David Hilbert, Emil Artin and
Emmy Noether, building up on the work of Ernst Kummer, Leopold
Kronecker and Richard Dedekind, who had considered ideals in
commutative rings, and of Georg Frobenius and Issai Schur, concerning
representation theory of groups, came to define abstract algebra. These
developments of the last quarter of the 19th century and the first quarter
of 20th century were systematically exposed in Bartel van der Waerden's
Moderne Algebra, the two-volume monograph published in 1930–1931
that forever changed for the mathematical world the meaning of the word
algebra from the theory of equations to the theory of algebraic structures.

Basic concepts

By abstracting away various amounts of detail, mathematicians have

defined various algebraic structures that are used in many areas of
mathematics. For instance, almost all systems studied are sets, to which
the theorems of set theory apply. Those sets that have a certain binary
operation defined on them form magmas, to which the concepts
concerning magmas, as well those concerning sets, apply. We can add
additional constraints on the algebraic structure, such as associativity (to
form semigroups); identity, and inverses (to form groups); and other more
complex structures. With additional structure, more theorems could be
proved, but the generality is reduced. The "hierarchy" of algebraic objects
(in terms of generality) creates a hierarchy of the corresponding theories:
for instance, the theorems of group theory may be used when studying
rings (algebraic objects that have two binary operations with certain
axioms) since a ring is a group over one of its operations. In general there
is a balance between the amount of generality and the richness of the
theory: more general structures have usually fewer nontrivial theorems
and fewer applications.

Algebraic structures between magmas

and groups. For example, monoids are
semigroups with identity.

Examples of algebraic structures with a single binary operation are:

Magma

Quasigroup

Monoid
 Semigroup

Group

Examples involving several operations include:

Ring

Field

Module

Vector space

Algebra over a field

Associative algebra

Lie algebra

Lattice

Boolean algebra

Applications

Because of its generality, abstract algebra is used in many fields of

mathematics and science. For instance, algebraic topology uses algebraic
objects to study topologies. The Poincaré conjecture, proved in 2003,
asserts that the fundamental group of a manifold, which encodes
information about connectedness, can be used to determine whether a
manifold is a sphere or not. Algebraic number theory studies various
number rings that generalize the set of integers. Using tools of algebraic
number theory, Andrew Wiles proved Fermat's Last Theorem.
In physics, groups are used to represent symmetry operations, and the
usage of group theory could simplify differential equations. In gauge
theory, the requirement of local symmetry can be used to deduce the
equations describing a system. The groups that describe those
symmetries are Lie groups, and the study of Lie groups and Lie algebras
reveals much about the physical system; for instance, the number of force
carriers in a theory is equal to the dimension of the Lie algebra, and these
bosons interact with the force they mediate if the Lie algebra is
nonabelian.[2]

See also

Coding theory

Group theory

List of publications in abstract algebra

References

1. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Alexandre-Théophile

Vandermonde" (https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/V
andermonde.html) , MacTutor History of Mathematics archive,
University of St Andrews

2. Schumm, Bruce (2004), Deep Down Things (https://archive.org/detail

s/deepdownthingsbr00schu) , Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, ISBN 0-8018-7971-X
Sources

Allenby, R. B. J. T. (1991), Rings, Fields and Groups, Butterworth-

Heinemann, ISBN 978-0-340-54440-2

Artin, Michael (1991), Algebra, Prentice Hall, ISBN 978-0-89871-510-1

Burris, Stanley N.; Sankappanavar, H. P. (1999) [1981], A Course in

Universal Algebra (http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~snburris/htdocs/ual
g.html)

Gilbert, Jimmie; Gilbert, Linda (2005), Elements of Modern Algebra,

Thomson Brooks/Cole, ISBN 978-0-534-40264-8

Lang, Serge (2002), Algebra, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, vol. 211

(Revised third ed.), New York: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-0-387-95385-
4, MR 1878556 (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=187855
6)

Sethuraman, B. A. (1996), Rings, Fields, Vector Spaces, and Group Theory:

An Introduction to Abstract Algebra via Geometric Constructibility (http
s://archive.org/details/ringsfieldsvecto0000seth) , Berlin, New York:
Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-0-387-94848-5

Whitehead, C. (2002), Guide to Abstract Algebra (2nd ed.), Houndmills:

Palgrave, ISBN 978-0-333-79447-0

W. Keith Nicholson (2012) Introduction to Abstract Algebra, 4th edition,

John Wiley & Sons ISBN 978-1-118-13535-8 .

John R. Durbin (1992) Modern Algebra : an introduction, John Wiley &

Sons
External links

Wikibooks has more on the topic of: Abstract algebra

Charles C. Pinter (1990) [1982] A Book of Abstract Algebra (https://www.

math.umd.edu/~jcohen/402/Pinter%20Algebra.pdf) , second edition,
from University of Maryland