Applied abstract algebra. (Q4375375)

From the authors' preface: ``Algebra is beautiful. It is so beautiful that many people forget that algebra can be very useful as well. \((\dots)\) The aim of this book is to convey to senior undergraduate students, graduate students and lecturers/instructors the fact that concepts of abstract algebra encountered previously in a first algebra course can be used in many areas of applications. Of course, in order to apply algebra, we first need some theory which then can be applied. Hence we tried to blend the theory and its applications so that the reader can experience both parts. This book assumes knowledge of the material covered in a course of linear algebra and, preferably, a (first) course in (abstract) algebra \((\cdots)\), although this book will provide the necessary definitions and brief summaries of the main results that will be required from such a course in algebras''. ``This second edition includes major changes to the first edition, published in 1984: it contains corrections and, as we believe, substantial improvements to the first four chapters of the first edition. It includes a largely new chapter on `Cryptology' (Chapter 5) and an enlarged chapter on `Applications of Groups' (Chapter 6). An extensive Chapter 7 has been added to survey other (mostly quite recent) applications, many of which were not included in the first edition''. On the other hand, the review Zbl 0572.00001 to the first edition points out the inclusion of several computer programs for implementing various functions which have been removed from the second edition. The algebraic structures presented and used in this book are lattices, Boolean algebras, groups, rings, fields and especially finite fields, semigroups and universal algebras. The applications include switching circuits with applications to computers, random experiments, an extensive chapter on coding theory (introduction, linear codes, cyclic codes, special cyclic codes, decoding BCH codes), another extensive chapter on cryptology (classical cryptosystems, public key cryptosystems, discrete logarithms and other ciphers), fast adding in computers, Polya's theory of enumeration, image understanding, the study of symmetry in chemistry and crystallography, semigroups and automata, applications of semigroups in biology and in sociology, applications of linear recurring sequences in radar and communication systems, Latin squares and tournaments, balanced block designs, application of Hadamard matrices to coding and to the modeling of the brain, Gröbner bases for algebraic and for differential equations, and abstract data types. The book is supplied with numerous examples and exercises. The notes at the end of each section sketch the history of the subject treated in that section and refer the reader to the bibliography, which contains 250 items. The authors have brilliantly reached the aim declared in the preface. Reviewer's remarks: The term ``algebraic lattice'' is improperly used on pages 5 sqq, since it has a well-established more restrictive meaning in lattice theory. The priority of Shannon for the invention of switching theory (page 19) and that of Loomis for the representation theorem of Boolean \(\sigma\)-algebras (page 87) are shared with V. I. Shestakov and R. Sikorski, respectively.