Ex Libris

All Abelian groups of order 72.

The Fundamental Theorem of Finite Abelian Groups decisively characterizes the Abelian finite groups of a given order. Its remote origins go back to Gauss in the Disquisitiones Arithmeticae in 1801 and it was nailed down by Schering (1869) and by Frobenius and Stickelberger (1879)^[1]:

Fundamental Theorem of Finite Abelian Groups

Let \( G \) be a finite Abelian Group of order \( n. \) Then: \[ \begin{equation}{G \cong \mathbb{Z}_{n_1} \times \mathbb{Z}_{n_2} \times \cdots \times \mathbb{Z}_{n_s},} \tag{1} \end{equation} \] where \( s \) and the \( n_i \) are the unique integers satisfying \( s \geq 1, n_i \geq 2 \) for all \( i, \) and \( n_{i+1} \; | \; n_i \) for \( 1 \leq i \leq s - 1. \) And also: \[ \begin{equation}{G \cong \mathbb{Z}_{p^{\beta_1}} \times \cdots \times \mathbb{Z}_{p^{\beta_t}} \times \cdots \times \mathbb{Z}_{q^{\gamma_1}} \times \cdots \times \mathbb{Z}_{q^{\gamma_u}},} \tag{2} \end{equation} \] for \( p \) and \( q \) and all the other primes dividing \( n, \) again in a unique way, where \( \sum \beta_i \) is the exponent of the greatest power of \( p \) dividing \( n, \) \( \sum \gamma_i \) is the exponent of the greatest power of \( q \) dividing \( n, \) and so on for all the other primes dividing \( n. \)

Click image for original.

When a problem contains several unknowns whose relationships are so complicated that one is obliged to form several equations; then, to discover the values of the unknowns, one makes all of them vanish, except one, which combined only with known quantities, gives, if the problem is determined, a final Equation, whose resolution reveals this first unknown, and then by this means all the others.

Here are the midterm and final exams for Math 542, Modern Algebra, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the spring semester 2015-2016, Professor Paul Terwilliger officiating. It is an undergraduate class, junior or senior level, for (mostly) math majors. The class takes up basic ring theory, following on Math 541, which is mostly group theory. The text, followed pretty closely, is Abstract Algebra, 3rd ed., by David S. Dummit and Richard M. Foote (Wiley, 2004) — D&F — widely used it appears. It certainly is comprehensive, with many examples and a great set of exercises, and is an impressive work in its own right, well-organized, demanding, and thorough. Typo-free as well, I haven't found a single one.

Robert E. Lee Moore (1882-1974)

It's a statement when someone names their child after Robert E. Lee, a man who did his best to destroy the United States in order to preserve slavery. Robert E. Lee was lionized more in death than in life, a paragon of the Lost Cause, the glorious if doomed rebellion of a brave people who wanted nothing but to be left alone, crushed by the soulless and brutal industrial juggernaut (Sherman's march to the Sea!). It's the big lie, forwarded for 150 years to defend the indefensible. What a wretched history of oppression, assiduously rebuilt over the generations by people like Moore, Sr. and his illustrious and vicious son Robert E. Lee Moore. The Compromise of 1877, peonage, disenfranchisement, lynching, Plessy v. Ferguson, Jim Crow, the Dunning school false flag on reconstruction. Read the old classics by W. E. B. Du Bois, Eric Foner, and C. Vann Woodward (himself a son of the south), among others, if you still doubt the long-standing construction and reconstruction of anti-black racism in this country down through the generations since 1865.

When a professor in this novel quotes the first line of a Philip Larkin poem, "Your mum and dad, they fuck you up," I had a viscerally negative reaction, only magnified when looking up the work in which the poet slanders his parents and grandparents, enjoins humanity against having children which they are bound to torture and ruin, and invites the entire wretched lot to commit suicide. "Your mum and dad fucked you up, Phil", I screamed, "that's clear enough". I've found that screaming at the written word is generally a sign that you do indeed have art in your hands, a thought applying doubly to Francine Prose's Blue Angel.

Frigyes Riesz.

The Riesz Representation Theorem is a foundation stone of 20^th century functional analysis. Generalized almost beyond recognition, Frigyes (Frédéric) Riesz originally proved the theorem in 1909 for \( C[0,1] \), the continuous real-valued functions on \( [0,1] \):

If \( \mathcal{A} \) is a bounded linear functional on \( C[0,1] \), then there is a function \( \alpha \) of bounded variation on \( [0,1] \) such that for all \( f \in C[0,1] \): \[ \mathcal{A}[f(x)] = {\int_0^1 f(x)d\alpha(x).} \hskip{60pt} (1) \]

In this article, I propose to retrace Riesz's original proof in Sur les opérations fonctionnelles linéaires^[1] in 1909, augmenting with his discussion in Sur certains systèmes singuliers d'équations intégrales^[2] in 1911 where appropriate.

F. Riesz proves the Riesz Representation Theorem (1911) — click image for original.

In what follows, the functions of bounded variation will play a leading role. We know the importance of this class of functions defined by M. Jordan, whose most remarkable properties become almost obvious after only one statement: that every real function of bounded variation is the difference of two bounded, never decreasing functions.

F. Riesz announces the Riesz Representation Theorem (1909) — click image for original.

To define what is meant by a linear operation, it is necessary to specify the domain of the functional. We consider the totality of all real continuous functions \( \Omega \) between two fixed numbers, for example between \( 0 \) and \( 1 \); for this class, we define the limit function based on the assumption of uniform convergence. The functional operation \( \text{A}[f(x)] \), which associates to each element of \( \Omega \) a corresponding real number, will be called continuous if when \( f(x) \) is the limit of \( f_i(x) \), then \( \text{A}(f_i) \) tends to \( \text{A}(f) \). Such a distributive and continuous operation is said to be linear. It is easy to show that this operation is bounded, that is to say, there is a constant \( M_A \) such that for every element \( f(x) \) we have

\[ \begin{equation}{|\text{A}[f(x)]| \leq M_A \times max. |f(x)|.} \tag{1} \end{equation} \]

Sergei Bernstein.

In 1912 Sergei Bernstein introduced his famous polynomials to prove the Weierstrass Approximation theorem:

If \( F(x) \) is any continuous function in the interval [0,1], it is always possible, regardless how small \( \varepsilon \), to determine a polynomial \( E_n(x) = {a_0 x^n + a_1 x^{n-1} + \cdots + a_n} \) of degree \( n \) high enough such that we have \[ {|F(x) - E_n(x)|} < \varepsilon \] for every point in the interval under consideration.

Weierstrass proved the theorem originally in 1885^[1], the very man who had earlier shown how wild a continuous function can be and in particular, how far from being smooth and subject to a Taylor expansion. Bernstein's proof was simple and based on probability theory. Maven Philip J. Davis says that "while [Bernstein's proof] is not the simplest conceptually, it is easily the most elegant".^[2]

Bernstein on the Weierstrass Approximation Theorem (1912) — click image for original.

I propose to give a very simple proof of the following theorem of Weierstrass:

If \( F(x) \) is any continuous function in the interval [0,1], it is always possible, regardless how small \( \varepsilon \), to determine a polynomial \( E_n(x) = {a_0 x^n + a_1 x^{n-1} + \cdots + a_n} \) of degree \( n \) high enough such that we have \[ {|F(x) - E_n(x)|} < \varepsilon \] for every point in the interval under consideration.