Octonions, Jordan Algebras and Exceptional Groups

The 1963 Göttingen notes of T. A. Springer are well-known in the field but have been unavailable for some time. This book is a translation of those notes, completely updated and revised. The part of the book dealing with the algebraic structures is on a fairly elementary level, presupposing basic results from algebra. In the group-theoretical part use is made of some results from the theory of linear algebraic groups. The book will be useful to mathematicians interested in octonion algebras and Albert algebras, or in exceptional groups. It is suitable for use in a graduate course in algebra.

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext
Tonny A. Springer, born on February 13, 1926 at the Hague, Holland, studied mathematics at the University of Leiden, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1951. He has been at the University of Utrecht since 1955, from 1959-1991 as a full professor, and since 1991 as an emeritus professor. He has held visiting positions at numerous prestigious institutions all over the globe, including the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (Bures-sur-Yvette) and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Bombay). Throughout his career T. A. Springer has been involved in research on various aspects of the theory of linear algebraic groups (conjugacy classes, Galois cohomology, Weyl groups).

Zusammenfassung

From the reviews of the first edition:

"This book is an updated and revised English version of the German notes on octaves, Jordan algebras and exceptional groups which appeared as mimeographed lecture notes of Göttingen University in 1963. It is still an excellent reference on the subject ... ." (Huberta Lausch, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1087, 2006)

Inhalt

1. Composition Algebras.- 2. The Automorphism Group of an Octonion Algebra.- 3. Triality.- 4. Twisted Composition Algebras.- 5. J-algebras and Albert Algebras.- 6. Proper J-algebras and Twisted Composition Algebras.- 7. Exceptional Groups.- 8. Cohomological Invariants.