In these notes, first published in 1980, Professor Northcott provides a self-contained introduction to the theory of affine algebraic groups for mathematicians with a basic knowledge of communicative algebra and field theory. The book divides into two parts. The first four chapters contain all the geometry needed for the second half of the book which deals with affine groups. Alternatively the first part provides a sure introduction to the foundations of algebraic geometry. Any affine group has an associated Lie algebra. In the last two chapters, the author studies these algebras and shows how, in certain important cases, their properties can be transferred back to the groups from which they arose. These notes provide a clear and carefully written introduction to algebraic geometry and algebraic groups.

A self-contained introduction to the theory of affine algebraic groups for mathematicians with a basic knowledge of communicative algebra and field theory.

Ah Love! Could you and I with Him consl?ire To grasp this sorry Scheme of things entIre' KHAYYAM People investigating algebraic groups have studied the same objects in many different guises. My first goal thus has been to take three different viewpoints and demonstrate how they offer complementary intuitive insight into the subject. In Part I we begin with a functorial idea, discussing some familiar processes for constructing groups. These turn out to be equivalent to the ring-theoretic objects called Hopf algebras, with which we can then con struct new examples. Study of their representations shows that they are closely related to groups of matrices, and closed sets in matrix space give us a geometric picture of some of the objects involved. This interplay of methods continues as we turn to specific results. In Part II, a geometric idea (connectedness) and one from classical matrix theory (Jordan decomposition) blend with the study of separable algebras. In Part III, a notion of differential prompted by the theory of Lie groups is used to prove the absence of nilpotents in certain Hopf algebras. The ring-theoretic work on faithful flatness in Part IV turns out to give the true explanation for the behavior of quotient group functors. Finally, the material is connected with other parts of algebra in Part V, which shows how twisted forms of any algebraic structure are governed by its automorphism group scheme.