This 2003 book describes a striking connection between topology and algebra, namely that 2D topological quantum field theories are equivalent to commutative Frobenius algebras. The precise formulation of the theorem and its proof is given in terms of monoidal categories, and the main purpose of the book is to develop these concepts from an elementary level, and more generally serve as an introduction to categorical viewpoints in mathematics. Rather than just proving the theorem, it is shown how the result fits into a more general pattern concerning universal monoidal categories for algebraic structures. Throughout, the emphasis is on the interplay between algebra and topology, with graphical interpretation of algebraic operations, and topological structures described algebraically in terms of generators and relations. The book will prove valuable to students or researchers entering this field who will learn a host of modern techniques that will prove useful for future work.

This is the first of two volumes which will provide a comprehensive introduction to the modern representation theory of Frobenius algebras. The first part of the book serves as a general introduction to basic results and techniques of the modern representation theory of finite dimensional associative algebras over fields, including the Morita theory of equivalences and dualities and the Auslander-Reiten theory of irreducible morphisms and almost split sequences. The second part is devoted to fundamental classical and recent results concerning the Frobenius algebras and their module categories. Moreover, the prominent classes of Frobenius algebras, the Hecke algebras of Coxeter groups, and the finite dimensional Hopf algebras over fields are exhibited. This volume is self contained and the only prerequisite is a basic knowledge of linear algebra. It includes complete proofs of all results presented and provides a rich supply of examples and exercises. The text is primarily addressed to graduate students starting research in the representation theory of algebras as well as mathematicians working in other fields.

Frobenius made many important contributions to mathematics in the latter part of the 19th century. Hawkins here focuses on his work in linear algebra and its relationship with the work of Burnside, Cartan, and Molien, and its extension by Schur and Brauer. He also discusses the Berlin school of mathematics and the guiding force of Weierstrass in that school, as well as the fundamental work of d'Alembert, Lagrange, and Laplace, and of Gauss, Eisenstein and Cayley that laid the groundwork for Frobenius's work in linear algebra. The book concludes with a discussion of Frobenius's contribution to the theory of stochastic matrices.

This second volume of this text covers the classical aspects of the theory of groups and their representations. It also offers a general introduction to the modern theory of representations including the representations of quivers and finite partially ordered sets and their applications to finite dimensional algebras. It reviews key recent developments in the theory of special ring classes including Frobenius, quasi-Frobenius, and others.

Doi-Koppinen Hopf modules and entwined modules unify various kinds of modules that have been intensively studied over the past decades, such as Hopf modules, graded modules, Yetter-Drinfeld modules. The book presents a unified theory, with focus on categorical concepts generalizing the notions of separable and Frobenius algebras, and discussing relations with smash products, Galois theory and descent theory. Each chapter of Part II is devoted to a particular nonlinear equation. The exposé is organized in such a way that the analogies between the four are clear: the quantum Yang-Baxter equation is related to Yetter-Drinfeld modules, the pentagon equation to Hopf modules, and the Long equation to Long dimodules. The Frobenius-separability equation provides a new viewpoint to Frobenius and separable algebras.

This textbook presents the second edition of Manin's celebrated 1988 Montreal lectures, which influenced a new generation of researchers in algebra to take up the study of Hopf algebras and quantum groups. In this expanded write-up of those lectures, Manin systematically develops an approach to quantum groups as symmetry objects in noncommutative geometry in contrast to the more deformation-oriented approach due to Faddeev, Drinfeld, and others. This new edition contains an extra chapter by Theo Raedschelders and Michel Van den Bergh, surveying recent work that focuses on the representation theory of a number of bi- and Hopf algebras that were first introduced in Manin's lectures, and have since gained a lot of attention. Emphasis is placed on the Tannaka–Krein formalism, which further strengthens Manin's approach to symmetry and moduli-objects in noncommutative geometry.