Math 333 Abstract Algebra - Fall 2007

Time and location:

The class meets on MTW-F 12:00- 12:50 am in Keyes 103

Office hours:

Offic hours are Mon 11:00-11:50, Wed 11:00-11:50 in my office in MUDD 409

What to do if you want my help outside class and office hours: organizing a study group

Books:

There is no textbook for this class. Instead, there is a literature list:

1) I grew up with Serge Lang's Algebra book. It is very clearly written, but quite abstract and very dense. Lang's book is great to quickly look up concepts.

2) Another popular textbook is Michael Artin's Algebra book.

3) Many people like the book called "Abstract Algebra" by Dummit and Foote, because it has a great selection of examples and applications.

All of these books will (soon) be on reserve in the library.

4) Wikipedia also has a lot of entries about algebra.

Homework:

Homework is due on Fridays. Assignements will be completed as group projects in groups of three. There might be written exams testing your understanding of the homework problems.

Exams:

There will be one oral final exam.

Term project:

A description of possible term projects.

Grades: to be announced

Schedule

Date	Summary	Assignments	Suggested reading
09/05	Administrative issues. Groups and abelian groups.	Problem set 1, due Wednesday, September 12.	If you feel like it, I recommend to refresh your knowledge of equivalence relations and of permutations.
09/07	First lemmas. Cyclic groups. The general linear group.
09/10	Homomorphisms.
09/12	Bijections. The symmetric group. Subgroups.	Problem set 2, due Monday, September 24. (Extended until we finish discussing the problems)
rest of September	Discussion and presentation of last weeks group work.
10/01	The kernel of a group homomorphism. Fields.	Problem set 3, due Friday, October 5.
10/03 - 10/10	Some consequences of the field axioms. The characteristic of a field.	Problem set 4, due Thursday, October 18.

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