The origin of representation theory
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: The origin of representation theory
zbMATH Open document ID: 0966.01018
author: Keith Conrad
published in: L'Enseignement Mathématique. 2e Série
publication date: 2001-01-30T00:00:00Z
review text: The author tells the story which has started in 1846 with an introduction of circulants by Catalan. After some results by Cremona and others, Dedekind extended circulants to group determinants in algebraic number theory and around 1886 became interested in factoring the group determinants for nonabelian finite groups. In 1896 Dedekind classified all finite groups which possess normal subgroups only and in a letter to Frobenius he suggested to think about the nonabelian case. Frobenius took up the problem and that was the beginning of his representation theory. Although historical in character, the paper is a fine piece of mathematics. It provides results in their logical sequel and supplies them with the proofs, either historical or modern.
reviewed by: Roman Duda
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A55
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 20-03
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 20C15
zbMATH DE Number: 1558725
zbMATH Keywords: circulants
zbMATH Keywords: Catalan
zbMATH Keywords: Dedekind
zbMATH Keywords: algebraic number theory
MaRDI profile type: Publication
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1558725