Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471163406 ISBN 13: 9780471163404

Publisher: Wiley-Interscience, 1997

An authoritative, full-year course on both group theory andordinary character theory--essential tools for mathematics and thephysical sciences

One of the few treatments available combining both group theory andcharacter theory, Groups and Characters is an effective generaltextbook on these two fundamentally connected subjects. Presumingonly a basic knowledge of abstract algebra as in a first-yeargraduate course, the text opens with a review of backgroundmaterial and then guides readers carefully through several of themost important aspects of groups and characters, concentratingmainly on finite groups.

Challenging yet accessible, Groups and Characters features:
* An extensive collection of examples surveying many differenttypes of groups, including Sylow subgroups of symmetric groups,affine groups of fields, the Mathieu groups, and symplectic groups
* A thorough, easy-to-follow discussion of Polya-Redfieldenumeration, with applications to combinatorics
* Inclusive explorations of the transfer function and normalcomplements, induction and restriction of characters, Cliffordtheory, characters of symmetric and alternating groups, Frobeniusgroups, and the Schur index
* Illuminating accounts of several computational aspects of grouptheory, such as the Schreier-Sims algorithm, Todd-Coxeter cosetenumeration, and algorithms for generating character tables
As valuable as Groups and Characters will prove as a textbook formathematicians, it has broader applications. With chapters suitablefor use as independent review units, along with a full bibliographyand index, it will be a dependable general reference for chemists,physicists, and crystallographers.

From the Publisher:

A lively and thorough textbook for graduate courses and general reference that illuminates the interdependence between group theory and representative/character theory. It includes an entire chapter of challenging and fully detailed examples, and there are exercises throughout the text that help readers prove for themselves its well-articulated points.

About the Author:

LARRY C. GROVE is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Arizona He is the author of Algebra and coauthor of Finite Reflection Groups.