The theory of Jordan algebras has played important roles behind the scenes of several areas of mathematics. Jacobson's book has long been the definitive treatment of the subject. It covers foundational material, structure theory, and representation theory for Jordan algebras. Of course, there are immediate connections with Lie algebras, which Jacobson details in Chapter 8. Of particular continuing interest is the discussion of exceptional Jordan algebras, which serve to explain the exceptional Lie algebras and Lie groups. Jordan algebras originally arose in the attempts by Jordan, von Neumann, and Wigner to formulate the foundations of quantum mechanics. They are still useful and important in modern mathematical physics, as well as in Lie theory, geometry, and certain areas of analysis.

This book describes the history of Jordan algebras and describes in full mathematical detail the recent structure theory for Jordan algebras of arbitrary dimension due to Efim Zel'manov. Jordan algebras crop up in many surprising settings, and find application to a variety of mathematical areas. No knowledge is required beyond standard first-year graduate algebra courses.

Explores applications of Jordan theory to the theory of Lie algebras. After presenting the general theory of nonassociative algebras and of Lie algebras, the book then explains how properties of the Jordan algebra attached to a Jordan element of a Lie algebra can be used to reveal properties of the Lie algebra itself.

The geometry of Jordan and Lie structures tries to answer the following question: what is the integrated, or geometric, version of real Jordan algebras, - triple systems and - pairs? Lie theory shows the way one has to go: Lie groups and symmetric spaces are the geometric version of Lie algebras and Lie triple systems. It turns out that both geometries are closely related via a functor between them, called the Jordan-Lie functor, which is constructed in this book. The reader is not assumed to have any knowledge of Jordan theory; the text can serve as a self-contained introduction to (real finite-dimensional) Jordan theory.

Jordan algebras have found interesting applications in seemingly unrelated areas of mathematics such as operator theory, the foundations of quantum mechanics, complex analysis in finite and infinite dimensions, and harmonic analysis on homogeneous spaces. This book describes some relevant results and puts them in a general framework.