B.L.

van der Waerden A History of Algebra

 B.L. van der Waerden

A History of Algebra
From al-Khwärizml to Emmy Noether

With 28 Figures

Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH

 Prof. Dr. Bartel Leenert van der Waerden
Mathematisches Institut der Universität Zürich

Mathematics Subject Classification (1980):

Ol-XX, lO-XX, l2-XX, l4-XX, l6-XX, l7-XX, 20-XX, 22-XX

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Waerden, B.L. van der (Bartel Leenert), 1903-
A history of algebra.
Bibliography: p. Includes index.
I. Algebra - History. I. Title.
QAI5l.W343 1985 512'.009 85-2820

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ISBN 978-3-642-51601-6 ISBN 978-3-642-51599-6 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-51599-6

© by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1985

Originally published by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg in 1985.

2141/3140-543210
 Preface

The present volume is self-contained, but it is apart of a larger projecL In

an earlier volume, entitled "Geometry and Algebra in Ancient Civilizations", I
have presented my view on the prehistory of algebra and geometry from the
neolithical period to Brahmagupta (7th century A.D.). The present volume
deals with the historical period from al-KhwarizmI, the earliest author of an
"Algebra", to Emmy Noether.
In this book I shall restrict myself to three subjects, namely Part One:
Algebraic Equations; Part Two: Groups; Part Three: Algebras.
My warrnest thanks go out to all those who helped me by reading parts of
the manuscript and suggesting essential improvements: Wyllis Bandler
(Tallahassee, Florida), Robert Burn (Cambridge, England), Max Deuring t
(Göttingen), Jean Dieudonne (Paris), Raffaella Franci (Siena), Hans
FreudenthaI (Utrecht), Thomas Hawkins (Boston), Erwin Neuenschwander
(Zürich), Laura Toti Rigatelli (Siena), Warren Van Egmond (München).
In her usual careful way, Miss Annemarie Fellmann has typed the manu-
script. She has also drawn the figures and helped me, together with Erwin
Neuenschwander, in reading the proof sheets. Many thanks to both and to the
editorial staff and the production department of the Springer-Verlag for their
nice cooperation.

Zürich, March 1985 B.L. van der Waerden

 Table of Contents

Part One. Algebraic Equations

Chapter 1. Three Muslimic Authors 3

Part A. AI-Khwärizmi . . . 3
1. The Man and his W ork . 3
2. Al-jabr and al-muqabala 4
3. On Mensuration . . . 5
4. On the Jewish Calendar 7
5. On Legacies . . . . . 7
6. The Solution of Quadratic Equations 7
7. The Geography . . . . 9
8. On Hindu Numerals . . 9
9. The Astronomical Tables 9
10. The "Sindhind" . . . . 10
11. The "Method of the Persians" 11
12. AI-Khwärizmi's Sources 13
Part B. Tabit ben Qurra 15
The Sabians . . . . . 15
The Life of Tabit ben Qurra 16
On the Motion of the Eighth Sphere 17
Geometrical Verification of the Solution of Quadratic Equations 18
On Amicable Numbers . 21
Part C. Omar Khayyam 24
The Algebra of Omar Khayyam 24
Omar Khayyam on Ratios 29

Chapter 2. Algebra in Italy 32

Part A. From Leonardo da Pisa to Luca Pacioli 32
The Connection Between Trade and Civilization in Medieval Italy 32
Life and Work of Fibonacci 33
1. The "Liber Abbaci" . . . 35
2. The" Practica geometriae" 39
3. The Book "Flos" . . . . 40
4. The Letter to Theodorus . 40
5. The "Liber quadratorum" 40
VIII Table of Contents

Three Florentine Abbaeists 42

1. Maestro Benedetto 42
2. Maestro Biaggio 43
3. Antonio Mazzinghi 44
Two Anonymous Manuscripts 45
Luca Pacioli . . . . . . . 46
Part B. Master Dardi of Pisa 47
Part C. The Solution of Cubic and Biquadratic Equations 52
Scipione deI Ferro . . 52
Tartaglia and Cardano 54
Lodovico Ferrari 56
Rafael Bombelli . . . 59
Chapter 3. From Viete to Descartes 63
Fran~ois Viete 63
Simon Stevin . . 68
Pierre de Fermat 69
Rene Descartes 72
Chapter 4. The Predecessors of Galois 76
Waring 76
Vandermonde 77
Lagrange 79
Malfatti 81
Ruffini 83
Cauchy 85
Abel . 85
Chapter 5. Carl Friedrich Gauss 89
The Cydotomic Equation 89
The "Fundamental Theorem" 94
The First Proof . 95
The Second Proof . . 97
The Third Proof 99
Chapter 6. Evariste Galois 103
The Work of Galois 103
The Duel . . . . . 104
The Memoir of 1831 105
Galois Fields . . . 109
The Publication of Galois' Papers 112
Hermite, Puiseux, and Serret 112
Enrico Betti ........ . 114
The Second Posthumous Memoir of Galois 115
Chapter 7. Camille Jordan 117
Jordan's Traite 117
On Groups of Motions 118
 Table of Contents IX

On Congruences .......... . 121

Transitive and Primitive Groups of Substitutions 121
Series of Composition . . . . . . . 121
Linear Substitutions . . . . . . . . 122
Jordan's Presentation of Galois Theory 124
Geometrical Applications ..... 125
The 28 Double Tangents of a Plane Quartic 128
Application of Galois Theory to Transcendental Functions 131
On Solvable Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Part Two. Groups

Chapter 8. Early Group Theory 137

Part A. Groups of Substitutions . . 137
Early Theorems Concerning Subgroups of Sn 137
Mathieu . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Sylow . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Part B. Groups of Transformations 140
Non-Euclidean Geometry .... 141
Felix Klein and Sophus Lie . . . . 144
Felix Klein on Finite Groups of Fractional Linear Transformations 145
Sophus Lie . . . . . . 146
Part C. Abstract Groups 147
Leonhard Euler . . 147
Carl Friedrich Gauss 148
Ernst Schering 149
Leopold Kronecker 149
Arthur Cayley 150
Walter von Dyck 152
Heinrich Weber . 153
Part D. The Structure of Finite Groups 154
OUo Hölder . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Finite Linear Groups 158
Chapter 9. Lie Groups and Lie Algebras 160
Part A. Lie Groups . . . . 160
Lie's Theory . . . . 160
Infinitesimal Transformations 162
Three Fundamental Theorems 163
Part B. Lie Aigebras 165
Sophus Lie and Friedrich Engel 166
Wilhelm Killing . . . . 166
Elie Cartan . . . . . . 168
The Characteristic Roots 168
X Table of Contents

Semi-Simple Lie Groups 170

Weyl's Group (S) 172
Real Simple Lie Algebras 173

Part Three. Algebras

Chapter 10. The Discovery of Algebras 177

Complex Numbers ...... . 177
Hamilton's Discovery of Quaternions 179
The Leap into the Fourth Dimension 181
Octonions . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Product Formulae for Sums of Squares 184
Geometrical Applications of Quaternions 185
The Arithmetic of Quaternions 186
Biquaternions . . . 188
Full Matrix Algebras ... . 189
Group Algebras . . ... . 190
Grassmann's Ca1culus of Extensions 191
Clifford Aigebras and Rotations in n Dimensions 192
Dirac's Theory of the Spinning Electron 194
Spinors in n Dimensions 195
Chevalley's Generalization 197
Generalized Quaternions 197
Crossed Products 199
Cyc1ic Aigebras . . . . 200

Chapter 11. The Structure of Algebras 202

General Notions and Notations 202
Benjamin Peirce . . . . . . . . 203
Eduard Study . . . . . . . . . 204
Gauss, Weierstrass and Dedekind 204
Georg Scheffers 205
Theodor Molien . . . 206
Elie Cartan . . . . . 208
Mac1agan Wedderburn 210
Emil Artin . . . . . 210
Emmy Noether and her School 211
Nathan Jacobson . . . . . . 211
Normal Simple Aigebras . . . 212
The Structure of Division Aigebras 213
1. Division Algebras over IR. 214
2. Finite Skew Fields 214
3. Normal Simple Aigebras over a P-adic Field 214
4. Division Algebras over an Algebraic Number Field 215
 Table of Contents XI

Chapter 12. Group Characters 218

Part A. Characters of Abelian Groups . . 218
Genera and Characters of Quadratic Forms 218
Duality in Abelian Groups . . . . . . . 221
Part B. Characters of Finite Groups . . . 223
Dedekind's Introduction of the Group Determinant 223
Frobenius on the Group Determinant 225
Frobenius on Commuting Matrices 229
The Letter of April 17, 1896 . . . . 231
The Letter of April 26 . . . . . . . 233
Frobenius' Paper "Über Gruppencharaktere" 234
The Proof of e= fand the Factorization of the Group Determinant 236
Chapter 13. Representations of Finite Groups and Algebras 237
Heinrich Maschke . . . . . . . . . . 238
Issai Schur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Representations of the Symmetrie Group . . . . . . . 240
The Representation of Groups by Projective Transformations 243
Emmy Noether . . . . . . . . 244
1. Group-Theoretical F oundations 244
2. Non-Commutative Ideal Theory 245
3. Modules and Representations 246
4. Representations of Groups and Algebras 248
Chapter 14. Representations of Lie Groups and Lie Algebras 252
Cartan's Theory . . . . 252
The Global Method . . 253
The Infinitesimal Method 254
Hermann Weyl 257
lohn von Neumann 261

Index . . . . . . . . 265