Algebraic structure


In mathematics, more specifically in abstract algebra and universal algebra, an algebraic structure consists of a nonempty set A, a collection of operations on A of finite arity, and a finite set of identities, known as axioms, that these operations must satisfy. Some algebraic structures also involve another set.
In the context of universal algebra, the set A with this structure is called an algebra, while, in other contexts, it is called an algebraic structure, the term algebra being reserved for specific algebraic structures that are vector spaces over a field or modules over a commutative ring.
Examples of algebraic structures with a single underlying set include groups, rings, fields, and lattices. Examples of algebraic structures with two underlying sets include vector spaces, modules, and algebras.
The properties of specific algebraic structures are studied in abstract algebra. The general theory of algebraic structures has been formalized in universal algebra. The language of category theory is used to express and study relationships between different classes of algebraic and non-algebraic objects. This is because it is sometimes possible to find strong connections between some classes of objects, sometimes of different kinds. For example, Galois theory establishes a connection between certain fields and groups: two algebraic structures of different kinds.

Introduction

Addition and multiplication on numbers are the prototypical examples of operations that combine two elements of a set to produce a third element of the set. These operations obey several algebraic laws. For example, a + = + c and a = c as the associative law. Also a + b = b + a and ab = ba as the commutative law. Many systems studied by mathematicians have operations that obey some, but not necessarily all, of the laws of ordinary arithmetic. For example, rotations of an object in three-dimensional space can be combined by, for example, performing the first rotation on the object and then applying the second rotation on it in its new orientation made by the previous rotation. Rotation as an operation obeys the associative law, but can fail to satisfy the commutative law.
Mathematicians give names to sets with one or more operations that obey a particular collection of laws, and study them in the abstract as algebraic structures. When a new problem can be shown to follow the laws of one of these algebraic structures, all the work that has been done on that category in the past can be applied to the new problem.
In full generality, algebraic structures may involve an arbitrary number of sets and operations that can combine more than two elements, but this article focuses on binary operations on one or two sets. The examples here are by no means a complete list, but they are meant to be a representative list and include the most common structures. Longer lists of algebraic structures may be found in the external links and within :Category:Algebraic structures. Structures are listed in approximate order of increasing complexity.

Examples

One set with operations

Simple structures: no binary operation:
Group-like structures: one binary operation. The binary operation can be indicated by any symbol, or with no symbol as is done for ordinary multiplication of real numbers.
Ring-like structures or Ringoids: two binary operations, often called addition and multiplication, with multiplication distributing over addition.
Lattice structures: two or more binary operations, including operations called meet and join, connected by the absorption law.
Arithmetics: two binary operations, addition and multiplication. S is an infinite set. Arithmetics are pointed unary systems, whose unary operation is injective successor, and with distinguished element 0.
Module-like structures: composite systems involving two sets and employing at least two binary operations.
Algebra-like structures: composite system defined over two sets, a ring R and an R-module M equipped with an operation called multiplication. This can be viewed as a system with five binary operations: two operations on R, two on M and one involving both R and M.
Four or more binary operations:
Algebraic structures can also coexist with added structure of non-algebraic nature, such as partial order or a topology. The added structure must be compatible, in some sense, with the algebraic structure.
Algebraic structures are defined through different configurations of axioms. Universal algebra abstractly studies such objects. One major dichotomy is between structures that are axiomatized entirely by identities and structures that are not. If all axioms defining a class of algebras are identities, then this class is a variety.
Identities are equations formulated using only the operations the structure allows, and variables that are tacitly universally quantified over the relevant universe. Identities contain no connectives, existentially quantified variables, or relations of any kind other than the allowed operations. The study of varieties is an important part of universal algebra. An algebraic structure in a variety may be understood as the quotient algebra of term algebra divided by the equivalence relations generated by a set of identities. So, a collection of functions with given signatures generate a free algebra, the term algebra T. Given a set of equational identities, one may consider their symmetric, transitive closure E. The quotient algebra T/E is then the algebraic structure or variety. Thus, for example, groups have a signature containing two operators: the multiplication operator m, taking two arguments, and the inverse operator i, taking one argument, and the identity element e, a constant, which may be considered an operator that takes zero arguments. Given a set of variables x, y, z, etc. the term algebra is the collection of all possible terms involving m, i, e and the variables; so for example, m would be an element of the term algebra. One of the axioms defining a group is the identity m = e; another is m = x. The axioms can be represented as . These equations induce equivalence classes on the free algebra; the quotient algebra then has the algebraic structure of a group.
Some structures do not form varieties, because either:
  1. It is necessary that 0 ≠ 1, 0 being the additive identity element and 1 being a multiplicative identity element, but this is a nonidentity;
  2. Structures such as fields have some axioms that hold only for nonzero members of S. For an algebraic structure to be a variety, its operations must be defined for all members of S; there can be no partial operations.
Structures whose axioms unavoidably include nonidentities are among the most important ones in mathematics, e.g., fields and division rings. Structures with nonidentities present challenges varieties do not. For example, the direct product of two fields is not a field, because, but fields do not have zero divisors.

Category theory

is another tool for studying algebraic structures. A category is a collection of objects with associated morphisms. Every algebraic structure has its own notion of homomorphism, namely any function compatible with the operation defining the structure. In this way, every algebraic structure gives rise to a category. For example, the category of groups has all groups as objects and all group homomorphisms as morphisms. This concrete category may be seen as a category of sets with added category-theoretic structure. Likewise, the category of topological groups is a category of topological spaces with extra structure. A forgetful functor between categories of algebraic structures "forgets" a part of a structure.
There are various concepts in category theory that try to capture the algebraic character of a context, for instance
In a slight abuse of notation, the word "structure" can also refer to just the operations on a structure, instead of the underlying set itself. For example, the sentence, "We have defined a ring structure on the set," means that we have defined ring operations on the set. For another example, the group can be seen as a set that is equipped with an algebraic structure, namely the operation.