Groups and Characters

An authoritative, full-year course on both group theory and ordinary character theory--essential tools for mathematics and the physical sciences<br> <br> One of the few treatments available combining both group theory and character theory, Groups and Characters is an effective general textbook on these two fundamentally connected subjects. Presuming only a basic knowledge of abstract algebra as in a first-year graduate course, the text opens with a review of background material and then guides readers carefully through several of the most important aspects of groups and characters, concentrating mainly on finite groups.<br> <br> Challenging yet accessible, Groups and Characters features: <br> * An extensive collection of examples surveying many different types of groups, including Sylow subgroups of symmetric groups, affine groups of fields, the Mathieu groups, and symplectic groups <br> * A thorough, easy-to-follow discussion of Polya-Redfield enumeration, with applications to combinatorics <br> * Inclusive explorations of the transfer function and normal complements, induction and restriction of characters, Clifford theory, characters of symmetric and alternating groups, Frobenius groups, and the Schur index <br> * Illuminating accounts of several computational aspects of group theory, such as the Schreier-Sims algorithm, Todd-Coxeter coset enumeration, and algorithms for generating character tables<br> <br> <br> As valuable as Groups and Characters will prove as a textbook for mathematicians, it has broader applications. With chapters suitable for use as independent review units, along with a full bibliography and index, it will be a dependable general reference for chemists, physicists, and crystallographers.