The Book of Involutions

Written for graduate students and research mathematicians, this monograph is an exposition of the theory of central simple algebras with involution, in relation to linear algebraic groups. Involutions are viewed as twisted forms of hermitian quadrics, leading to new developments on the model of the algebraic theory of quadratic forms. In addition to classical groups, phenomena related to triality are discussed, as well as: groups of type F4 or G2 arising from exceptional Jordan or composition algebras, the discriminant algebra of an algebra with unitary involution, and the algebra-theoretic counterpart to linear groups of type D4. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.