MATH 6340: Commutative Algebra (Fall 2012)

Instructor: Ed Swartz

Textbook:

  • Eisenbud: Commutative Algebra (recommended)
  • Atiyah and MacDonald: Introduction to Commutative Algebra (recommended)

This course is an introduction to commutative algebra. Commutative algebra is a key ingredient of both algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry, and is a lively area of research on its own.

A typical list of topics includes:

  • Groebner bases
  • Ideals: localization, prime ideals, and operations on ideals
  • Modules: graded rings and modules, syzygies, free resolution, tensor products, and operations on modules
  • Noether normalization and Hilbert's nullstellensatz, and several other key concepts/theorems in commutative algebra: integral dependence, going up/down and integral closure.
  • Primary decomposition in Noetherian rings
  • Discrete valuation rings
  • Hilbert functions and dimension theory
  • Tor and Ext, and flatness
  • Cohen-Macaulay rings, depth and regular sequences, Gorenstein rings, duality