Galois Theory for Beginners: A Historical Perspective

Writing for advanced undergraduates and early graduate students, Bewersdorff includes the material necessary to understand groups and fields within his text. With concrete examples he begins with cubic equations, turning to complex numbers, biquadratic equations, equations of degree n and their properties, including plausibility and proof, the search for additional solution formulas, equations that can be reduced in degree, including the decomposition of integer polynomials and Eisenstein's irreducibilty criterion, the construction of regular polygons, the Galois group of an equation, and algebraic structures and Galois theory, including groups and fields, the fundamental theorem, and Artin's version of the fundamental theory. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)