people’s democratic republic of algeria ministry of higher education and scientific research

University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene

Department of Mathematics

English and Latex project

Abstract Algebra

presented by:
Hadil Bencheikh Le Hocine
191931063311

08 April 2023
Contents
1 introduction 1

2 groups 2

3 Rings 3

4 Fields 3

5 Polynomial rings 3

6 Finite fields 4

1 introduction
The term abstract algebra was coined in the early 20th century to distinguish it from older parts of algebra, and more
specifically from elementary algebra, the use of variables to represent numbers in computation and reasoning. Presently,
the term ”abstract algebra” is typically used for naming courses in mathematical education, and is rarely used in advanced
mathematics.
Algebraic structures, with their associated homomorphisms, form mathematical categories. Category theory is a for-
malism that allows a unified way for expressing properties and constructions that are similar for various structures.
Universal algebra is a related subject that studies types of algebraic structures as single objects. For example, the struc-
ture of groups is a single object in universal algebra, which is called the variety of groups.

1
2 groups
Definition 2.1. A group (G, ∗) consists of a set G with a binary operation ∗ on G satisfying the following three axioms

1. The group operation is associative. That is: a ∗ (b ∗ c) = (a ∗ b) ∗ c for all a, b, c ∈ G.

2. There is an element 1 ∈ G, called the identity element,such that a ∗ 1 = 1 ∗ a = a for all a ∈ G

3. For each a ∈ G there exists an element a−1 ∈ G, called the inverse of a, such that a ∗ a−1 = a−1 ∗ a = 1
A group G is abelian (or commutative) if, furthermore,
4. a ∗ b = b ∗ a for all a, b ∈ G.

Note that multiplicative group notation has been used for the group operation. If the group operation is addition, then
the group is said to be an additive group, the identity element is denoted by 0, and the inverse of a is denoted −a.

Definition 2.2. A group G is finite if |G| is finite. The number of elements in a finite group is called its order.
Example 1. The set of integers Z with the operation of addition forms a group. The identity element is 0 and the inverse
of an integer a is the integer −a
Definition 2.3. A non-empty subset H of a group G is a subgroup of G if H is itself a group with respect to the operation
of G. If H is a subgroup of G and H ̸= G, then H is called a proper subgroup of G.

Definition 2.4. A group G is cyclic if there is an element α ∈ G such that for each b ∈ G there is an integer i with
b = αi Such an element α is called a generator of G.
fact 1. If G is a group and a ∈ G, then the set of all powers of a forms a cyclic subgroup of G, called the subgroup
generated by a, and denoted by ⟨a⟩

Definition 2.5. Let G be a group and a ∈ G. The order of a is defined to be the least positive integer t such that at = 1,
provided that such an integer exists. If such at does not exist, then the order of a is defined to be ∞ .
fact 2. Let G be a group, and let a ∈ G be an element of finite order t. Then | < a > |, the size of the subgroup generated
by a, is equal to t.

fact 3 (Lagrange’s theorem). If G is a finite group and H is a subgroup of G, then |H| divides |G|. Hence, if a ∈ G, the
order of a divides |G|.
fact 4. Every subgroup of a cyclic group G is also cyclic. In fact, if G is a cyclic group of order n, then for each positive
divisor d of n, G contains exactly one subgroup of order d.
fact 5. Let G be a group.

1. If the order of a ∈ G is t, then the order of ak is t/ pgcd(t, k)

2. If G is a cyclic group of order n and d|n, then G has exactly ϕ(d) elements of order d. In particular, G has ϕ(n)
generators.
Example 2. Consider the multiplicative group Z∗19 = {1, 2, ..., 18} of order 18. The group is cyclic , and a generator is
α = 2. The subgroups of Z∗19 , and their generators, are listed in the Table

subgroup generators order

{1} 1 1
{1, 18} 18 2
{1, 7, 11} 7 , 11 3
{1, 7, 8, 11, 12, 18} 8 , 12 6
{1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 16, 17} 4 , 5 ,6 , 9 , 16 , 17 9
{1, 2, 13, ......, 18} 2 , 3 , 10 , 13 , 14 , 15 18

2
3 Rings
Definition 3.1. A ring (R, +, *) consists of a set R with two binary operations arbitrarily denoted + (addition) and *
(multiplication) on R, satisfying the following axioms.

1. (R, +) is an abelian group with identity denoted 0.

2. The operation ∗ is associative. That is, a ∗ (b ∗ c) = (a ∗ b) ∗ c for all a, b, c ∈R.

3. There is a multiplicative identity denoted 1, with 1 ̸= 0, such that 1 ∗ a = a ∗ 1 = a for all a ∈ R.
4. The operation * is distributive over +. That is,a ∗ (b + c) = (a ∗ b) + (a ∗ c) and (b + c) ∗ a = (b ∗ a) + (c ∗ a) for
all a, b, c ∈ R.

The ring is a commutative ring if a ∗ b = b ∗ a for all a, b ∈R.

Example 3. The set of integers Z with the usual operations of addition and multiplication is a commutative ring.

Example 4. The set Zn with addition and multiplication performed modulo n is a commutative ring.
Definition 3.2. An element a of a ring R is called a unit or an invertible element if there is an element b ∈ R such that
a ∗ b = 1.
fact 6. The set of units in a ring R forms a group under multiplication, called the group of units of R

Example 5. The group of units of the ring Zn is Z∗ n

4 Fields
Definition 4.1. A field is a commutative ring in which all non-zero elements have multiplicative inverses.
m times
z }| {
Definition 4.2. The characteristic of a field is 0 if 1 + 1 + .... +P1 is never equal to 0 for any m ≥ 1. Otherwise, the
m
characteristic of the field is the least positive integer m such that i=1 1 equals 0.
Example 6. The set of integers under the usual operations of addition and multiplication is not a field, since the only
non-zero integers with multiplicative inverses are 1 and -1. However, the rational numbers Q, the real numbers R, and
the complex numbers C form fields of characteristic 0 under the usual operations.
fact 7. Zn is a field (under the usual operations of addition and multiplication modulo n) if and only if n is a prime
number. If n is prime, then Zn has characteristic n.
fact 8. If the characteristic m of a field is not 0, then m is a prime number.

Definition 4.3. A subset F of a field E is a subfield of E if F is itself a field with respect to the operations of E. If this is
the case, E is said to be an extension field of F.

5 Polynomial rings
Definition 5.1. If R is a commutative ring, then a polynomial in the indeterminate x over the ring R is an expression
of the form
f (x) = an xn + ... + a2 x2 + a1 x + a0
where each ai ∈ Rand n ≥ 0. The element ai is called the coefficient of xi in f(x). The largest integer m for which
am ̸= 0 is called the degree of f(x), denoted deg f(x); am is called the leading coefficient of f(x). If f (x) = a0 (a constant
polynomial) and a0 ̸= 0, then f(x) has degree 0. If all the coefficients of f(x) are 0, then f(x) is called the zero polynomial
and its degree, for mathematical convenience, is defined to be -∞. The polynomial f(x) is said to be monic if its leading
coefficient is equal to 1.
Definition 5.2. If R is a commutative ring, the polynomial ring R[x] is the ring formed by the set of all polynomials in the
indeterminate x having coefficients from R. The two operations are the standard polynomial addition and multiplication,
with coefficient arithmetic performed in the ring R.

3
Example 7 (polynomial ring). Let f (x) = x3 + x + 1 and g(x) = x2 + x be elements of the polynomial ring Z2 [x].
Working in Z2 [x],
f (x) + g(x) = x3 + x2 + 1
and
f (x).g(x) = x5 + x4 + x3 + x
For the remainder of this section, F will denote an arbitrary field. The polynomial ring F[x] has many properties in
common with the integers (more precisely, F[x] and Z are both Euclidean domains, however, this generalization will
not be pursued here). These similarities are investigated further.
Definition 5.3. Let f (x) ∈ F [x] be a polynomial of degree at least 1. Then f(x) is said to be irreducible over F if it
cannot be written as the product of two polynomials in F[x], each of positive degree.
Definition 5.4 (division algorithm for polynomials). If g(x), h(x) ∈ F [x], with h(x) ̸= 0, then ordinary polynomial
long division of g(x) by h(x) yields polynomials q(x) and r(x) ∈ F [x] such that
g(x) = q(x)h(x) + r(x), where deg r(x) < degh(x).
Moreover, q(x) and r(x) are unique. The polynomial q(x) is called the quotient, while r(x)is called the remainder. The
remainder of the division is sometimes denoted g(x) mod h(x), and the quotient is sometimes denoted g(x) div h(x)
Example 8 (polynomial division). Consider the polynomials g(x) = x4 + x5 + x3 + x2 + x + 1 and h(x) = x4 + x3 + 1
in Z2 [x]. Polynomial long division of g(x) by h(x) yields
g(x) = x2 h(x) + (x3 + x + 1).
Hence g(x) mod h(x) = x3 + x + 1 and g(x) div h(x) = x2 .
Definition 5.5. If g(x), h(x) ∈ F [x] then h(x) divides g(x), written h(x)|g(x), if g(x) mod h(x)=0. Let f(x) be a fixed
polynomial in F[x]. As with the integers , one can define congruences of polynomials in F[x] based on division by f(x)
Definition 5.6. If g(x),h(x) ∈ F [x], then g(x) is said to be congruent to h(x) modulo f(x) if f(x) divides g(x) − h(x).
This is denoted by g(x) ≡ h(x) (mod f(x)).
fact 9 (properties of congruences). For all g(x), h(x), g1 (x), h1 (x), s(x) ∈ F [x], the following are true.

1. g(x) ≡ h(x) (mod f(x)) if and only if g(x) and h(x) leave the same remainder upon division by f(x).
2. (reflexivity) g(x) ≡ g(x) (mod f(x)).
3. (symmetry) Ifg(x) ≡ h(x) (mod f(x)), then h(x) ≡ g(x) (mod f(x)).
4. (transitivity) If g(x) ≡ h(x) (mod f(x)) and h(x) ≡ s(x) (mod f(x)), then g(x) ≡ s(x) (mod f(x)).
5. If g(x) ≡ g1 (x) (mod f(x)) and h(x) ≡ h1(x) (mod f(x)), then g(x) + h(x) ≡ g1(x) + h1(x) (mod f(x)) and
g(x)h(x) ≡ g1(x)h1(x) (mod f(x)).

Let f(x) be a fixed polynomial in F[x]. The equivalence class of a polynomial g(x) ∈ F [x] is the set of all polynomials in
F[x] congruent to g(x) modulo f(x). From properties (2), (3), and (4) above, it can be seen that the relation of congruence
modulo f(x) partitions F[x] into equivalence classes. If g(x) ∈ F [x], then long division by f(x) yields unique polynomials
q(x), r(x) ∈ F [x] such that g(x) = q(x)f (x) + r(x), where deg r(x) < degf (x). Hence every polynomial g(x)
is congruent modulo f(x) to a unique polynomial of degree less than deg f(x). The polynomial r(x) will be used as
representative of the equivalence class of polynomials containing g(x).
Definition 5.7. F [x]/(f (x)) denotes the set of (equivalence classes of) polynomials in F[x] of degree less than n =
degf (x). Addition and multiplication are performed modulo f(x).
fact 10. F [x]/(f (x)) is a commutative ring
fact 11. If f(x) is irreducible over F, then F [x]/(f (x)) is a field.

6 Finite fields
Definition 6.1. A finite field is a field F which contains a finite number of elements. The order of F is the number of
elements in F.
fact 12. 1. If F is a finite field, then F contains pm elements for some prime p and integer m ≥ 1.

4
 2. For every prime power order pm , there is a unique (up to isomorphism) finite field of order pm . This field is
denoted by Fpm , or sometimes by GF(pm ) .
Informally speaking, two fields are isomorphic if they are structurally the same, although the representation of their
field elements may be different. Note that if p is a prime then Zp is a field, and hence every field of order p is isomorphic
to Zp. Unless otherwise stated, the finite field Fp will henceforth be identified with Zp
fact 13. If Fq is a finite field of order q = pm , p a prime, then the characteristic of Fq is p. Moreover, Fq contains a copy
of Zp as a subfield. Hence Fq can be viewed as an extension field of Zp of degree m.

fact 14 ((subfields of a finite field)). Let Fq be a finite field of order q = pm . Then every subfield of Fq has order pn , for
some n that is a positive divisor of m. Conversely, if n is a positive divisor of m, then there is exactly one subfield of Fq
n
of order pn ; an element a ∈Fq is in the subfield Fpn if and only if ap = a.
Definition 6.2. The non-zero elements of Fq form a group under multiplication called the multiplicative group of Fq,
denoted by F∗ q.
fact 15. F∗ q is a cyclic group of order q − 1. Hence aq = a for all a ∈ F
Definition 6.3. A generator of the cyclic group F∗ q is called a primitive element or generator of Fq.
fact 16. If a, b ∈ Fq, a finite field of characteristic p, then
t t t
(a + b)p = ap + bp