Group extensionIn mathematics, a group extension is a general means of describing a group in terms of a particular normal subgroup and quotient group. If and are two groups, then is an extension of by if there is a short exact sequence If is an extension of by , then is a group, is a normal subgroup of and the quotient group is isomorphic to the group . Group extensions arise in the context of the extension problem, where the groups and are known and the properties of are to be determined.
Lie algebra extensionIn the theory of Lie groups, Lie algebras and their representation theory, a Lie algebra extension e is an enlargement of a given Lie algebra g by another Lie algebra h. Extensions arise in several ways. There is the trivial extension obtained by taking a direct sum of two Lie algebras. Other types are the split extension and the central extension. Extensions may arise naturally, for instance, when forming a Lie algebra from projective group representations. Such a Lie algebra will contain central charges.
Schur multiplierIn mathematical group theory, the Schur multiplier or Schur multiplicator is the second homology group of a group G. It was introduced by in his work on projective representations. The Schur multiplier of a finite group G is a finite abelian group whose exponent divides the order of G. If a Sylow p-subgroup of G is cyclic for some p, then the order of is not divisible by p. In particular, if all Sylow p-subgroups of G are cyclic, then is trivial.
Field extensionIn mathematics, particularly in algebra, a field extension is a pair of fields such that the operations of K are those of L restricted to K. In this case, L is an extension field of K and K is a subfield of L. For example, under the usual notions of addition and multiplication, the complex numbers are an extension field of the real numbers; the real numbers are a subfield of the complex numbers. Field extensions are fundamental in algebraic number theory, and in the study of polynomial roots through Galois theory, and are widely used in algebraic geometry.
Perfect groupIn mathematics, more specifically in group theory, a group is said to be perfect if it equals its own commutator subgroup, or equivalently, if the group has no non-trivial abelian quotients (equivalently, its abelianization, which is the universal abelian quotient, is trivial). In symbols, a perfect group is one such that G(1) = G (the commutator subgroup equals the group), or equivalently one such that Gab = {1} (its abelianization is trivial). The smallest (non-trivial) perfect group is the alternating group A5.
Representation theory of finite groupsThe representation theory of groups is a part of mathematics which examines how groups act on given structures. Here the focus is in particular on operations of groups on vector spaces. Nevertheless, groups acting on other groups or on sets are also considered. For more details, please refer to the section on permutation representations. Other than a few marked exceptions, only finite groups will be considered in this article. We will also restrict ourselves to vector spaces over fields of characteristic zero.
Group representationIn the mathematical field of representation theory, group representations describe abstract groups in terms of bijective linear transformations of a vector space to itself (i.e. vector space automorphisms); in particular, they can be used to represent group elements as invertible matrices so that the group operation can be represented by matrix multiplication. In chemistry, a group representation can relate mathematical group elements to symmetric rotations and reflections of molecules.
Prime numberA prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways of writing it as a product, 1 × 5 or 5 × 1, involve 5 itself. However, 4 is composite because it is a product (2 × 2) in which both numbers are smaller than 4.
Prime number theoremIn mathematics, the prime number theorem (PNT) describes the asymptotic distribution of the prime numbers among the positive integers. It formalizes the intuitive idea that primes become less common as they become larger by precisely quantifying the rate at which this occurs. The theorem was proved independently by Jacques Hadamard and Charles Jean de la Vallée Poussin in 1896 using ideas introduced by Bernhard Riemann (in particular, the Riemann zeta function).
Commutator subgroupIn mathematics, more specifically in abstract algebra, the commutator subgroup or derived subgroup of a group is the subgroup generated by all the commutators of the group. The commutator subgroup is important because it is the smallest normal subgroup such that the quotient group of the original group by this subgroup is abelian. In other words, is abelian if and only if contains the commutator subgroup of . So in some sense it provides a measure of how far the group is from being abelian; the larger the commutator subgroup is, the "less abelian" the group is.
Alternating groupIn mathematics, an alternating group is the group of even permutations of a finite set. The alternating group on a set of n elements is called the alternating group of degree n, or the alternating group on n letters and denoted by A_n or Alt(n). For n > 1, the group An is the commutator subgroup of the symmetric group Sn with index 2 and has therefore n!/2 elements. It is the kernel of the signature group homomorphism sgn : Sn → explained under symmetric group. The group An is abelian if and only if n ≤ 3 and simple if and only if n = 3 or n ≥ 5.
Field (mathematics)In mathematics, a field is a set on which addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are defined and behave as the corresponding operations on rational and real numbers do. A field is thus a fundamental algebraic structure which is widely used in algebra, number theory, and many other areas of mathematics. The best known fields are the field of rational numbers, the field of real numbers and the field of complex numbers.
Abelian groupIn mathematics, an abelian group, also called a commutative group, is a group in which the result of applying the group operation to two group elements does not depend on the order in which they are written. That is, the group operation is commutative. With addition as an operation, the integers and the real numbers form abelian groups, and the concept of an abelian group may be viewed as a generalization of these examples. Abelian groups are named after early 19th century mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
Mersenne primeIn mathematics, a Mersenne prime is a prime number that is one less than a power of two. That is, it is a prime number of the form Mn = 2n − 1 for some integer n. They are named after Marin Mersenne, a French Minim friar, who studied them in the early 17th century. If n is a composite number then so is 2n − 1. Therefore, an equivalent definition of the Mersenne primes is that they are the prime numbers of the form Mp = 2p − 1 for some prime p. The exponents n which give Mersenne primes are 2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 31, .
Representation theory of the symmetric groupIn mathematics, the representation theory of the symmetric group is a particular case of the representation theory of finite groups, for which a concrete and detailed theory can be obtained. This has a large area of potential applications, from symmetric function theory to quantum chemistry studies of atoms, molecules and solids. The symmetric group Sn has order n!. Its conjugacy classes are labeled by partitions of n.
Characteristic (algebra)In mathematics, the characteristic of a ring R, often denoted char(R), is defined to be the smallest number of times one must use the ring's multiplicative identity (1) in a sum to get the additive identity (0). If this sum never reaches the additive identity the ring is said to have characteristic zero. That is, char(R) is the smallest positive number n such that: if such a number n exists, and 0 otherwise.
P-groupIn mathematics, specifically group theory, given a prime number p, a p-group is a group in which the order of every element is a power of p. That is, for each element g of a p-group G, there exists a nonnegative integer n such that the product of pn copies of g, and not fewer, is equal to the identity element. The orders of different elements may be different powers of p. Abelian p-groups are also called p-primary or simply primary. A finite group is a p-group if and only if its order (the number of its elements) is a power of p.
Characteristic subgroupIn mathematics, particularly in the area of abstract algebra known as group theory, a characteristic subgroup is a subgroup that is mapped to itself by every automorphism of the parent group. Because every conjugation map is an inner automorphism, every characteristic subgroup is normal; though the converse is not guaranteed. Examples of characteristic subgroups include the commutator subgroup and the center of a group. A subgroup H of a group G is called a characteristic subgroup if for every automorphism φ of G, one has φ(H) ≤ H; then write H char G.
Prime-counting functionIn mathematics, the prime-counting function is the function counting the number of prime numbers less than or equal to some real number x. It is denoted by pi(x) (unrelated to the number pi). Prime number theorem Of great interest in number theory is the growth rate of the prime-counting function. It was conjectured in the end of the 18th century by Gauss and by Legendre to be approximately where log is the natural logarithm, in the sense that This statement is the prime number theorem.
Quadratic fieldIn algebraic number theory, a quadratic field is an algebraic number field of degree two over , the rational numbers. Every such quadratic field is some where is a (uniquely defined) square-free integer different from and . If , the corresponding quadratic field is called a real quadratic field, and, if , it is called an imaginary quadratic field or a complex quadratic field, corresponding to whether or not it is a subfield of the field of the real numbers.
