Skew Fields
Theory of General Division Rings

This work offers a comprehensive account of skew fields and related mathematics.

P. M. Cohn (Author)

9780521432177, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 July 1995

520 pages
24 x 16.2 x 3.1 cm, 0.915 kg

Review of the hardback: 'This is a tremendous piece of work, whose importance will grow for many years.' Bulletin of the London Mathematic Society

Non-commutative fields (also called skew fields or division rings) have not been studied as thoroughly as their commutative counterparts, and most accounts have hitherto been confined to division algebras - that is skew fields finite dimensional over their centre. Based on the author's LMS lecture note volume Skew Field Constructions, the present work offers a comprehensive account of skew fields. The axiomatic foundation, and a precise description of the embedding problem, is followed by an account of algebraic and topological construction methods, in particular, the author's general embedding theory is presented with full proofs, leading to the construction of skew fields. The powerful coproduct theorem of G. M. Bergman is proved here, as well as the properties of the matrix reduction functor, a useful but little-known construction providing a source of examples and counter-examples. The construction and basic properties of existentially closed skew fields are given, leading to an example of a model class with an infinite forcing companion which is not axiomatizable.

Preface
From the preface to Skew Field Constructions
Note to the reader
Prologue
1. Rings and their fields of fractions
2. Skew polynomial rings and power series rings
3. Finite skew field extensions and applications
4. Localization
5. Coproducts of fields
6. General skew fields
7. Rational relations and rational identities
8. Equations and singularities
9. Valuations and orderings on skew fields
Standard notations
List of special notations used throughout the text
Bibliography and author index
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Algebra [PBF]