Adjoint functorsIn mathematics, specifically , adjunction is a relationship that two functors may exhibit, intuitively corresponding to a weak form of equivalence between two related categories. Two functors that stand in this relationship are known as adjoint functors, one being the left adjoint and the other the right adjoint. Pairs of adjoint functors are ubiquitous in mathematics and often arise from constructions of "optimal solutions" to certain problems (i.e.
Projective moduleIn mathematics, particularly in algebra, the class of projective modules enlarges the class of free modules (that is, modules with basis vectors) over a ring, by keeping some of the main properties of free modules. Various equivalent characterizations of these modules appear below. Every free module is a projective module, but the converse fails to hold over some rings, such as Dedekind rings that are not principal ideal domains.
Torsion-free moduleIn algebra, a torsion-free module is a module over a ring such that zero is the only element annihilated by a regular element (non zero-divisor) of the ring. In other words, a module is torsion free if its torsion submodule is reduced to its zero element. In integral domains the regular elements of the ring are its nonzero elements, so in this case a torsion-free module is one such that zero is the only element annihilated by some non-zero element of the ring.
Module (mathematics)In mathematics, a module is a generalization of the notion of vector space in which the field of scalars is replaced by a ring. The concept of module generalizes also the notion of abelian group, since the abelian groups are exactly the modules over the ring of integers. Like a vector space, a module is an additive abelian group, and scalar multiplication is distributive over the operation of addition between elements of the ring or module and is compatible with the ring multiplication.
Finitely generated moduleIn mathematics, a finitely generated module is a module that has a finite generating set. A finitely generated module over a ring R may also be called a finite R-module, finite over R, or a module of finite type. Related concepts include finitely cogenerated modules, finitely presented modules, finitely related modules and coherent modules all of which are defined below. Over a Noetherian ring the concepts of finitely generated, finitely presented and coherent modules coincide.
D-moduleIn mathematics, a D-module is a module over a ring D of differential operators. The major interest of such D-modules is as an approach to the theory of linear partial differential equations. Since around 1970, D-module theory has been built up, mainly as a response to the ideas of Mikio Sato on algebraic analysis, and expanding on the work of Sato and Joseph Bernstein on the Bernstein–Sato polynomial. Early major results were the Kashiwara constructibility theorem and Kashiwara index theorem of Masaki Kashiwara.
Category of modulesIn algebra, given a ring R, the category of left modules over R is the whose are all left modules over R and whose morphisms are all module homomorphisms between left R-modules. For example, when R is the ring of integers Z, it is the same thing as the . The category of right modules is defined in a similar way. One can also define the category of bimodules over a ring R but that category is equivalent to the category of left (or right) modules over the enveloping algebra of R (or over the opposite of that).
Finite setIn mathematics, particularly set theory, a finite set is a set that has a finite number of elements. Informally, a finite set is a set which one could in principle count and finish counting. For example, is a finite set with five elements. The number of elements of a finite set is a natural number (possibly zero) and is called the cardinality (or the cardinal number) of the set. A set that is not a finite set is called an infinite set.
Commutative ringIn mathematics, a commutative ring is a ring in which the multiplication operation is commutative. The study of commutative rings is called commutative algebra. Complementarily, noncommutative algebra is the study of ring properties that are not specific to commutative rings. This distinction results from the high number of fundamental properties of commutative rings that do not extend to noncommutative rings. A ring is a set equipped with two binary operations, i.e. operations combining any two elements of the ring to a third.
Representable functorIn mathematics, particularly , a representable functor is a certain functor from an arbitrary into the . Such functors give representations of an abstract category in terms of known structures (i.e. sets and functions) allowing one to utilize, as much as possible, knowledge about the category of sets in other settings. From another point of view, representable functors for a category C are the functors given with C. Their theory is a vast generalisation of upper sets in posets, and of Cayley's theorem in group theory.
Commutative algebraCommutative algebra, first known as ideal theory, is the branch of algebra that studies commutative rings, their ideals, and modules over such rings. Both algebraic geometry and algebraic number theory build on commutative algebra. Prominent examples of commutative rings include polynomial rings; rings of algebraic integers, including the ordinary integers ; and p-adic integers. Commutative algebra is the main technical tool in the local study of schemes.
Functor categoryIn , a branch of mathematics, a functor category is a category where the objects are the functors and the morphisms are natural transformations between the functors (here, is another object in the category). Functor categories are of interest for two main reasons: many commonly occurring categories are (disguised) functor categories, so any statement proved for general functor categories is widely applicable; every category embeds in a functor category (via the Yoneda embedding); the functor category often has nicer properties than the original category, allowing certain operations that were not available in the original setting.
Hereditarily finite setIn mathematics and set theory, hereditarily finite sets are defined as finite sets whose elements are all hereditarily finite sets. In other words, the set itself is finite, and all of its elements are finite sets, recursively all the way down to the empty set. A recursive definition of well-founded hereditarily finite sets is as follows: Base case: The empty set is a hereditarily finite set. Recursion rule: If a1,...,ak are hereditarily finite, then so is {a1,...,ak}.
FunctorIn mathematics, specifically , a functor is a mapping between . Functors were first considered in algebraic topology, where algebraic objects (such as the fundamental group) are associated to topological spaces, and maps between these algebraic objects are associated to continuous maps between spaces. Nowadays, functors are used throughout modern mathematics to relate various categories. Thus, functors are important in all areas within mathematics to which is applied.
Noncommutative ringIn mathematics, a noncommutative ring is a ring whose multiplication is not commutative; that is, there exist a and b in the ring such that ab and ba are different. Equivalently, a noncommutative ring is a ring that is not a commutative ring. Noncommutative algebra is the part of ring theory devoted to study of properties of the noncommutative rings, including the properties that apply also to commutative rings. Sometimes the term noncommutative ring is used instead of ring to refer to an unspecified ring which is not necessarily commutative, and hence may be commutative.
Dedekind-infinite setIn mathematics, a set A is Dedekind-infinite (named after the German mathematician Richard Dedekind) if some proper subset B of A is equinumerous to A. Explicitly, this means that there exists a bijective function from A onto some proper subset B of A. A set is Dedekind-finite if it is not Dedekind-infinite (i.e., no such bijection exists). Proposed by Dedekind in 1888, Dedekind-infiniteness was the first definition of "infinite" that did not rely on the definition of the natural numbers.
Verdier dualityIn mathematics, Verdier duality is a cohomological duality in algebraic topology that generalizes Poincaré duality for manifolds. Verdier duality was introduced in 1965 by as an analog for locally compact topological spaces of Alexander Grothendieck's theory of Poincaré duality in étale cohomology for schemes in algebraic geometry. It is thus (together with the said étale theory and for example Grothendieck's coherent duality) one instance of Grothendieck's six operations formalism.
Flat moduleIn algebra, flat modules include free modules, projective modules, and, over a principal ideal domain, torsion free modules. Formally, a module M over a ring R is flat if taking the tensor product over R with M preserves exact sequences. A module is faithfully flat if taking the tensor product with a sequence produces an exact sequence if and only if the original sequence is exact. Flatness was introduced by in his paper Géometrie Algébrique et Géométrie Analytique.
Category (mathematics)In mathematics, a category (sometimes called an abstract category to distinguish it from a ) is a collection of "objects" that are linked by "arrows". A category has two basic properties: the ability to compose the arrows associatively and the existence of an identity arrow for each object. A simple example is the , whose objects are sets and whose arrows are functions. is a branch of mathematics that seeks to generalize all of mathematics in terms of categories, independent of what their objects and arrows represent.
Yoneda lemmaIn mathematics, the Yoneda lemma is arguably the most important result in . It is an abstract result on functors of the type morphisms into a fixed object. It is a vast generalisation of Cayley's theorem from group theory (viewing a group as a miniature category with just one object and only isomorphisms). It allows the of any into a (contravariant set-valued functors) defined on that category. It also clarifies how the embedded category, of representable functors and their natural transformations, relates to the other objects in the larger functor category.