Bücher von N. Jacobson

The present volume completes the series of texts on algebra which the author began more than ten years ago. The account of field theory and Galois theory which we give here is based on the notions and results of general algebra which appear in our first volume and on the more elementary parts of the second volume, dealing with linear algebra. The level of the present work is roughly the same as that of Volume II. In preparing this book we have had a number of objectives in mind. First and foremost has been that of presenting the basic field theory which is essential for an understanding of modern algebraic number theory, ring theory, and algebraic geometry. The parts of the book concerned with this aspect of the subject are Chapters I, IV, and V dealing respectively with finite dimen- sional field extensions and Galois theory, general structure theory of fields, and valuation theory. Also the results of Chapter IlIon abelian extensions, although of a somewhat specialized nature, are of interest in number theory. A second objective of our ac- count has been to indicate the links between the present theory of fields and the classical problems which led to its development.

The present volume is the first of three that will be published under the general title Lectures in Abstract Algebra. These vol- umes are based on lectures which the author has given during the past ten years at the University of North Carolina, at The Johns Hopkins University, and at Yale "e;University. The general plan of the work IS as follows: The present first volume gives an introduction to abstract algebra and gives an account of most of the important algebraIc concepts. In a treatment of this type it is impossible to give a comprehensive account of the topics which are introduced. Nevertheless we have tried to go beyond the foundations and elementary properties of the algebraic sys- tems. This has necessitated a certain amount of selection and omission. We feel that even at the present stage a deeper under- standing of a few topics is to be preferred to a superficial under- standing of many. The second and third volumes of this work will be more special- ized in nature and will attempt to give comprehensive accounts of the topics which they treat. Volume II will bear the title Linear Algebra and will deal with the theorv of vectQ!_JlP. -a. ces. . . . . Volume III, The Theory of Fields and Galois Theory, will be con- cerned with the algebraic structure offieras and with valuations of fields. All three volumes have been planned as texts for courses.

Volume I covers the period 1910 to 1947, the year I moved to Yale, Volume II covers the period 1947 to 1965 when I became Chairman of the Department at Yale and Volume III covers the period from 1965 to 1989, which goes beyond my assumption of an emeritus status in 1981.

Volume I covers the period 1910 to 1947, the year I moved to Yale, Volume II covers the period 1947 to 1965 when I became Chairman of the Department at Yale and Volume III covers the period from 1965 to 1989, which goes beyond my assumption of an emeritus status in 1981.

This volume presents a set of models for the exceptional Lie algebras over algebraically closed fieldsof characteristic O and over the field of real numbers