Near-field (mathematics)


In mathematics, a near-field is an algebraic structure similar to a division ring, except that it has only one of the two distributive laws. Alternatively, a near-field is a near-ring in which there is a multiplicative identity, and every non-zero element has a multiplicative inverse.

Definition

A near-field is a set, together with two binary operations, and , satisfying the following axioms:

Examples

  1. Any division ring is a near-field.
  2. The following defines a near-field of order 9. It is the smallest near-field which is not a field.
  3. :Let be the Galois field of order 9. Denote multiplication in by ' '. Define a new binary operation ' · ' by:
  4. ::If is any element of which is a square and is any element of then.
  5. ::If is any element of which is not a square and is any element of then.
  6. :Then is a near-field with this new multiplication and the same addition as before.

    History and applications

The concept of a near-field was first introduced by Leonard Dickson in 1905. He took division rings and modified their multiplication, while leaving addition as it was, and thus produced the first known examples of near-fields that were not division rings. The near-fields produced by this method are known as Dickson near-fields; the near-field of order 9 given above is a Dickson near-field.
Hans Zassenhaus proved that all but 7 finite near-fields are either fields or Dickson near-fields.
The earliest application of the concept of near-field was in the study of geometries, such as projective geometries. Many projective geometries can be defined in terms of a coordinate system over a division ring, but others can not. It was found that by allowing coordinates from any near-ring the range of geometries which could be coordinatized was extended. For example, Marshall Hall used the near-field of order 9 given above to produce a Hall plane, the first of a sequence of such planes based on Dickson near-fields of order the square of a prime. In 1971 T. G. Room and P.B. Kirkpatrick provided an alternative development.
There are numerous other applications, mostly to geometry. A more recent application of near-fields is in the construction of ciphers for data-encryption, such as Hill ciphers.

Description in terms of Frobenius groups and group automorphisms

Let be a near field. Let be its multiplicative group and let be its additive group. Let act on by. The axioms of a near field show that this is a right group action by group automorphisms of, and the nonzero elements of form a single orbit with trivial stabilizer.
Conversely, if is an abelian group and is a subgroup of which acts freely and transitively on the nonzero elements of, then we can define a near field with additive group and multiplicative group. Choose an element in to call and let be the bijection. Then we define addition on by the additive group structure on and define multiplication by.
A Frobenius group can be defined as a finite group of the form where acts without stabilizer on the nonzero elements of. Thus, near fields are in bijection with Frobenius groups where.

Classification

As described above, Zassenhaus proved that all finite near fields either arise from a construction of Dickson or are one of seven exceptional examples. We will describe this classification by giving pairs where is an abelian group and is a group of automorphisms of which acts freely and transitively on the nonzero elements of.
The construction of Dickson proceeds as follows. Let be a prime power and choose a positive integer such that all prime factors of divide and, if, then is not divisible by. Let be the finite field of order and let be the additive group of. The multiplicative group of, together with the Frobenius automorphism generate a group of automorphisms of of the form, where is the cyclic group of order. The divisibility conditions on allow us to find a subgroup of of order which acts freely and transitively on. The case is the case of commutative finite fields; the nine element example above is,.
In the seven exceptional examples, is of the form. This table, including the numbering by Roman numerals, is taken from Zassenhaus's paper.
Generators forDescription of
I, the binary tetrahedral group.
II
III, the binary octahedral group.
IV
V, the binary icosahedral group.
VI
VII

The binary tetrahedral, octahedral and icosahedral groups are central extensions of the rotational symmetry groups of the platonic solids; these rotational symmetry groups are, and respectively. and can also be described as and.