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(7) Division rings. A division ring is a nonzero ring with identity such that every element has a two-sided inverse under multiplication. A commutative division ring is just a eld. The ring H of quaternions is the only explicit noncommutative division ring that we have encountered so far. It is an associative algebra over R. More generally, if A is a division ring, then we can easily check that the center K of A is a eld and that A is an associative algebra over K.2 (8) Tensor, symmetric, and exterior algebras. If E is a vector space over a eld K, Chapter VI dened the tensor, symmetric, and exterior algebras of E over K, as well as the polynomial algebra on E in the case that E is nite-dimensional. These are all associative algebras with identity. Symmetric algebras and polynomial algebras are commutative. None of these algebras will be discussed further in this chapter. (9) A eld of 4 elements. This was constructed in Section IV.4. Further nite elds beyond the eld of 4 elements and the elds F p = Z/ pZ with p prime will be constructed in Chapter IX. (10) Algebraic number elds Q[]. These were discussed in Sections IV.1 and IV.4. In dening Q[], we assume that is a complex number and that there exists an integer n > 0 such that the complex numbers 1, , 2 , . . . , n are linearly dependent over Q. The set Q[] is dened to be the subset of C obtained by substitution of into all members of Q[X ]. It coincides with the linear span over Q of 1, , 2 , . . . , n1 . Proposition 4.1 shows that it is closed under the arithmetic operations, including passage to multiplicative inverses of nonzero elements, and it is therefore a subeld of C. This example ties in with the notion of minimal polynomial in Chapter V because the members of Q[X ] with as a root are all multiples of one nonzero such polynomial that exhibits the linear dependence. We return to this example occasionally later in this chapter, particularly in Sections 711, and then we treat it in more detail in Chapter IX. (11) Algebraic integers in a number eld Q[]. Algebraic integers were dened in Section VII.5 as the roots in C of monic polynomials in Z[X ], and they were shown to form a commutative ring with identity. The set of algebraic integers in Q[] is therefore a commutative ring with identity, and it plays somewhat the same role for Q[] that Z plays for Q. We discuss this example further in Sections 711. (12) Integral group rings. If G is a group, then we can make the free abelian group ZG on the elements of G into a ring by dening multiplication to be i m i gi j nj hj = i, j (m i n j )(gi h j ) when the m i and n j are in Z and the gi and h j are in G. It is immediate that the result is a ring with identity, and ZG
2 Use of the term division algebra requires some care. Some mathematicians understand division algebras to be associative, and others do not. The real algebra O of octonions, as dened in Problems 5256 at the end of Chapter VI, is not associative, but it does have division.

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is called the integral group ring of G. The group G is embedded as a subgroup of the group (ZG) of units of ZG, each element of g being identied with a sum (g) = m i gi in which the only nonzero term is 1g. The ring ZG has the universal mapping property illustrated in Figure 8.1 and described as follows: whenever : G R is a group homomorphism of G into the group R of units of a ring R, then there exists a unique ring homomorphism : ZG R such that = . The existence of as a homomorphism of additive groups follows from the universal mapping property of free abelian groups, and then one readily checks that respects multiplication.3 G R

ZG

FIGURE 8.1. Universal mapping property of the integral group ring of G. (13) Quotient rings. If R is a ring and I is a two-sided ideal, then we saw in Section IV.4 that the additive quotient R/I has a natural multiplication that makes it into a ring called a quotient ring of R. This in effect was the construction that obtained the ring Z/mZ from the ring Z. (14) Direct product of rings. If {Rs | s S} is a nonempty set of rings, then a direct product sS Rs is a ring whose additive group is any direct product of the underlying additive groups and whose multiplication is given in entryby-entry fashion. The resulting ring and the associated ring homomorphisms ps0 : sS Rs Rs0 amount to the product functor for the category of rings; if each Rs has an identity, the result amounts also to the product functor for the category of rings with identity. We give further examples of rings near the end of this section after we have dened modules and given some examples. Informally a module is a vector space over a ring. But let us be more precise. If R is a ring, then a left R module4 M is an abelian group with the additional structure of a scalar multiplication R M M such that (i) r (r m) = (rr )m for r and r in R and m in M,
3 Universal mapping properties are discussed systematically in Problems 1822 at the end of Chapter VI. The subject of such a property, here the pair (Z G, ), is always unique up to canonical isomorphism in a given category, but its existence has to be proved. 4 Many algebra books write R-module, using a hyphen. However, when R is replaced by an expression, particularly in applications of the theory, the hyphen is often dropped. For an example, see module in Halls The Theory of Groups. The present book omits the hyphen in all cases in order to be consistent.

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(ii) (r + r )m = r m + r m and r (m + m ) = r m + r m if r and r are in R and m and m are in M. In addition, if R has an identity, we say that M is unital if (iii) 1m = m for all m in M. One may also speak of right R modules. For these the scalar multiplication is usually written as mr with m in M and r in R, and the expected analogs of (i) and (ii) are to hold. When R is commutative, it is immaterial which side is used for the scalar multiplication, and one speaks simply of an R module. Let R be a ring, and let M and N be two left R modules. A homomorphism of left R modules, or more briey an R homomorphism, is an additive group homomorphism : M N such that (r m) = r (m) for all r in R. Then we can form a category for xed R in which the objects are the left R modules and the morphisms are the R homomorphisms from one left R module to another. Similarly the right R modules, along with the corresponding kind of R homomorphisms, form a category. If R has an identity, then the unital R modules form a subcategory in each case. These categories are fundamental to the subject of homological algebra, which we take up in Advanced Algebra. EXAMPLES OF MODULES. (1) Vector spaces. If R is a eld, the unital R modules are exactly the vector spaces over R. (2) Abelian groups. The unital Z modules are exactly the abelian groups. Scalar multiplication is given in the expected way: If n is a positive integer, the product nx is the n-fold sum of x with itself. If n = 0, the product nx is 0. If n < 0, the product nx is ((n)x). (3) Vector spaces as unital modules for the polynomial ring K[X ]. Let V be a nite-dimensional vector space over the eld K, and x L be in EndK (V ). Then V becomes a unital K[X ] module under the denition A(X )v = A(L)(v) whenever A(X ) is a polynomial in K[X ]; here A(L) is the member of EndK (V ) dened as in Section V.3. In Section 6 in this chapter we shall see that some of the deeper results in the theory of a single linear transformation, as developed in Chapter V, follow from the theory of unital K[X ] modules that will emerge from the present chapter. (4) Modules in the context of algebraic number elds. Let Q[] be a subeld of C as in Example 10 of rings earlier in this section. It is assumed that the Q vector space Q[] is nite-dimensional. Let L be the member of EndQ (Q[]) given as left multiplication by on Q[]. As in the previous example, Q[] becomes a unital Q[X ] module. Chapter V denes a minimal polynomial for L, as well as a characteristic polynomial. These objects play a role in the study

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to be carried out in Chapter IX of elds like Q[]. If is an algebraic integer as in Example 11 of rings earlier in this section, then we can get more rened information by replacing Q by Z in the above analysis; this technique plays a role in the theory to be developed in Sections 711. (5) Rings and their quotients. If R is a ring, then R is a left R module and also a right R module. If I is a two-sided ideal in I , then the quotient ring R/I , as dened in Proposition 4.20, is a left R module and also a right R module. These modules are automatically unital if R has an identity. Later in this section we shall consider quotients of R by one-sided ideals. (6) Spaces of rectangular matrices. If R is a ring, then the space Mmn (R) of m-by-n matrices with entries in R is an abelian group under addition and becomes a left R module when multiplication by the scalar r is dened as left multiplication by r in each entry. Also, if we put S = Mm (R), then Mmn (R) is a left S module under the usual denition of matrix multiplication: (sv)i j = n sik vk j , where k=1 s is in S and v is in Mmn (R). (7) Direct product of R modules. If S is a nonempty set and {Ms }sS is a corresponding system of left R modules, then a direct product sS Ms is obtained as an additive group by forming any direct product of the underlying additive groups of the Ms s and dening scalar multiplication by members of R to be scalar multiplication in each coordinate. The associated abelian-group homomorphisms ps0 : sS Ms Ms0 become R homomorphisms under this denition of scalar multiplication on the direct product. Direct product amounts to the product functor for the category of left R modules; we omit the easy verication, which makes use of the corresponding fact about abelian groups. As in the case of abelian groups, we can speak of an external direct product as the result of a construction that starts with the product of the sets Ms , and we can speak of recognizing a direct product as internal when the Ms s are contained in the direct product and the restriction of each ps to Ms is the identity function. (8) Direct sum of R modules. If S is a nonempty set and {Ms }sS is a corresponding system of left R modules, then a direct sum sS Ms is obtained as an additive group by forming any direct sum of the underlying additive groups of the Ms s and dening scalar multiplication by members of R to be scalar multiplication in each coordinate. The associated abelian-group homomorphisms i s0 : Ms0 sS Ms become R homomorphisms under this denition of scalar multiplication on the direct sum. Direct sum amounts to the coproduct functor for the category of left R modules; we omit the easy verication, which makes use of the corresponding fact about abelian groups. As in the case of abelian groups, we can speak of an external direct sum as the result of a construction that starts with a subset of the product of the sets Ms , and we can speak of recognizing a