Ebook: A First Course in Noncommutative Rings

One of my favorite graduate courses at Berkeley is Math 251, a one-semester course in ring theory offered to second-year level graduate students. I taught this course in the Fall of 1983, and more recently in the Spring of 1990, both times focusing on the theory of noncommutative rings. This book is an outgrowth of my lectures in these two courses, and is intended for use by instructors and graduate students in a similar one-semester course in basic ring theory. Ring theory is a subject of central importance in algebra. Historically, some of the major discoveries in ring theory have helped shape the course of development of modern abstract algebra. Today, ring theory is a fer­ tile meeting ground for group theory (group rings), representation theory (modules), functional analysis (operator algebras), Lie theory (enveloping algebras), algebraic geometry (finitely generated algebras, differential op­ erators, invariant theory), arithmetic (orders, Brauer groups), universal algebra (varieties of rings), and homological algebra (cohomology of rings, projective modules, Grothendieck and higher K-groups). In view of these basic connections between ring theory and other branches of mathemat­ ics, it is perhaps no exaggeration to say that a course in ring theory is an indispensable part of the education for any fledgling algebraist. The purpose of my lectures was to give a general introduction to the theory of rings, building on what the students have learned from a stan­ dard first-year graduate course in abstract algebra.

MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS "This is a textbook for graduate students who have had an introduction to abstract algebra and now wish to study noncummutative rig theory...there is a feeling that each topic is presented with specific goals in mind and that the most efficient path is taken to achieve these goals. The author received the Steele prize for mathematical exposition in 1982; the exposition of this text is also award-wining caliber. Although there are many books in print that deal with various aspects of ring theory, this book is distinguished by its quality and level of presentation and by its selection of material....This book will surely be the standard textbook for many years to come. The reviewer eagerly awaits a promised follow-up volume for a second course in noncummutative ring theory."