MA535 On-Line Materials -- Algebra

This page contains materials related to the course MA535, Algebra.

Course Description

This year in MA535, we will cover Chapters 3--14 of the text by Dummit and Foote with a few omissions and shortcuts. The course will assume an undergraduate knowledge of group theory, ring theory and field theory and will cover these topics in more detail than our undergraduate MA3823 and MA3825. Special attention will be given to Modules and Galois Theory. Most of the homework will be proofs. A talented graduate student with no prior course in abstract algebra should be able to pick up the preliminary material on their own. Chapters 1,2,6,7 - which are covered at the undergraduate level at WPI - will be briefly reviewed in class.

A student who has not studied algebra at the undergraduate level should purchase the text early and study Chapters 1 and 2 first.

Text: Abstract Algebra, Third Edition by David Dummit and Richard Foote John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2004, pp. 1--932.

Work Course syllabus: in PDF format. Assignment 1 (due Tues Sept 8): in PDF format. Assignment 2 (due Tues Sept 22): in PDF format. Assignment 3 (due Thurs Oct 1): in PDF format.

Play Some propaganda: Dr. Spencer's mantra, in PDF format; an opinionated article on doing university-level math, in PDF format. Examples of categories in mathematics Basic definitions for understanding the subgroup lattice