Course: MAS 4304 / MAS 5311 — Intro to Abstract Algebra I
Department: Department of Mathematical Sciences
Credit Hours: 3
CRN: 11305 / 10759
Prerequisites: Mathematical maturity appropriate to fourth-year undergraduate or first-year graduate student status
Lecture Times: MWF 2:00 pm – 3:20 pm
Class Location: Sanson Life Sciences (SC-1) 178
Instructor: Zvi Rosen
Email address: rosenz@fau.edu
Office: Science Building (SE-43), Room 224
Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday 12:30–1:30 pm
Graduate Teaching Assistant: Matthew Trang
TA Email: ttrang2019@fau.edu
This course introduces groups, rings, and fields, with an emphasis on the interplay among these structures that culminates in classical results such as Galois theory. In the two-semester sequence, the first semester focuses on group theory and ring theory, developing both theory and examples/counterexamples and practicing careful mathematical communication.
From the FAU Catalog: (MAS 4304) Basic structures of abstract and linear algebra, such as groups, rings and ideals, polynomials and factorization, vector spaces and modules, linear transformations, and classical Galois theory of fields. (MAS 5311) Groups, subgroups, and homomorphisms, the Sylow theorems, the structure theorem for finite abelian groups, elementary theory of fields and polynomial rings, and the fundamental theorem of Galois theory.
Most course business will be handled on the Canvas site. This is an in-person course taught in a flipped classroom format: readings and short video lectures are assigned before class, followed by a brief lecture and in-class problem solving.