Commutative algebraCommutative algebra, first known as ideal theory, is the branch of algebra that studies commutative rings, their ideals, and modules over such rings. Both algebraic geometry and algebraic number theory build on commutative algebra. Prominent examples of commutative rings include polynomial rings; rings of algebraic integers, including the ordinary integers ; and p-adic integers. Commutative algebra is the main technical tool in the local study of schemes.
Functor categoryIn , a branch of mathematics, a functor category is a category where the objects are the functors and the morphisms are natural transformations between the functors (here, is another object in the category). Functor categories are of interest for two main reasons: many commonly occurring categories are (disguised) functor categories, so any statement proved for general functor categories is widely applicable; every category embeds in a functor category (via the Yoneda embedding); the functor category often has nicer properties than the original category, allowing certain operations that were not available in the original setting.
Hereditarily finite setIn mathematics and set theory, hereditarily finite sets are defined as finite sets whose elements are all hereditarily finite sets. In other words, the set itself is finite, and all of its elements are finite sets, recursively all the way down to the empty set. A recursive definition of well-founded hereditarily finite sets is as follows: Base case: The empty set is a hereditarily finite set. Recursion rule: If a1,...,ak are hereditarily finite, then so is {a1,...,ak}.
FunctorIn mathematics, specifically , a functor is a mapping between . Functors were first considered in algebraic topology, where algebraic objects (such as the fundamental group) are associated to topological spaces, and maps between these algebraic objects are associated to continuous maps between spaces. Nowadays, functors are used throughout modern mathematics to relate various categories. Thus, functors are important in all areas within mathematics to which is applied.
Noncommutative ringIn mathematics, a noncommutative ring is a ring whose multiplication is not commutative; that is, there exist a and b in the ring such that ab and ba are different. Equivalently, a noncommutative ring is a ring that is not a commutative ring. Noncommutative algebra is the part of ring theory devoted to study of properties of the noncommutative rings, including the properties that apply also to commutative rings. Sometimes the term noncommutative ring is used instead of ring to refer to an unspecified ring which is not necessarily commutative, and hence may be commutative.
Dedekind-infinite setIn mathematics, a set A is Dedekind-infinite (named after the German mathematician Richard Dedekind) if some proper subset B of A is equinumerous to A. Explicitly, this means that there exists a bijective function from A onto some proper subset B of A. A set is Dedekind-finite if it is not Dedekind-infinite (i.e., no such bijection exists). Proposed by Dedekind in 1888, Dedekind-infiniteness was the first definition of "infinite" that did not rely on the definition of the natural numbers.
Verdier dualityIn mathematics, Verdier duality is a cohomological duality in algebraic topology that generalizes Poincaré duality for manifolds. Verdier duality was introduced in 1965 by as an analog for locally compact topological spaces of Alexander Grothendieck's theory of Poincaré duality in étale cohomology for schemes in algebraic geometry. It is thus (together with the said étale theory and for example Grothendieck's coherent duality) one instance of Grothendieck's six operations formalism.
Flat moduleIn algebra, flat modules include free modules, projective modules, and, over a principal ideal domain, torsion free modules. Formally, a module M over a ring R is flat if taking the tensor product over R with M preserves exact sequences. A module is faithfully flat if taking the tensor product with a sequence produces an exact sequence if and only if the original sequence is exact. Flatness was introduced by in his paper Géometrie Algébrique et Géométrie Analytique.
Category (mathematics)In mathematics, a category (sometimes called an abstract category to distinguish it from a ) is a collection of "objects" that are linked by "arrows". A category has two basic properties: the ability to compose the arrows associatively and the existence of an identity arrow for each object. A simple example is the , whose objects are sets and whose arrows are functions. is a branch of mathematics that seeks to generalize all of mathematics in terms of categories, independent of what their objects and arrows represent.
Yoneda lemmaIn mathematics, the Yoneda lemma is arguably the most important result in . It is an abstract result on functors of the type morphisms into a fixed object. It is a vast generalisation of Cayley's theorem from group theory (viewing a group as a miniature category with just one object and only isomorphisms). It allows the of any into a (contravariant set-valued functors) defined on that category. It also clarifies how the embedded category, of representable functors and their natural transformations, relates to the other objects in the larger functor category.
