Customer Reviews

The Symmetric Group:Representations, Combinatorial Algorithms, and Symmetric Functions (Wadsworth Series in Computer Information Systems)

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This book is excellent. The material is presented clearly and concisely. It makes the subject matter accessible and interesting. I used it as the text for a one-semester graduate subject. I completed all of the exercises, so it is well-paced for this kind of study. I started with only an introductory knowledge of group theory, so it is self-contained. The only drawback is that there are no solutions to any of the exercises. If it had this, it would be a perfect bok.

Sagans book makes representation theory easy. The book first covers representations using modules and then choosing a basis to show the matrix approach. With every new topic he develops it using what Doron Zeilberger has dubbed the Gelfand Principle ([...]) The principle is: "Always chooses the smallest example to make a point". It isn't easy to find the smallest example when Sn grows as quickly as it does, but Sagen always manages to do it.

The ensuing chapters follow in the same vein. Ideas are introduced and explained, sometimes with pictures, sometimes with calculations, but always as clearly as can be.

To read this book does require a firm grounding in linear algebra, as well as abstract algebra. Time reading it is time well spent.

This book has 4 chapters.Chapter1 is about general theory of representations of finite group.Chapter2 is about representation of symmetric groups.chapter3 and 4 are about combinatorial topics and symmetric functions. Though I haven't read all of the book,I highly recommand this book because this book shows us introductive part of representation theory with easy words.I think it is worth to read for all who are to begin the study of representation theory.

This book has 4 chapters.Chapter1 is about general theory of representations of finite group.Chapter2 is about representation of symmetric groups.chapter3 and 4 are about combinatorial topics and symmetric functions. Though I haven't read all of the book,I highly recommand this book because this book shows us introductive part of representation theory with easy words.I think it is worth to read for all who are to begin the study of representation theory.