Finite Abelian Groups and Their Characters

Abstract

In Chapter 2 we had occasion to mention groups but made no essential use of their properties. Now we wish to discuss some elementary aspects of group theory in more detail. In Chapter 7 our discussion of Dirichlet’s theorem on primes in arithmetical progressions will require a knowledge of certain arithmetical functions called Dirichlet characters. Although the study of Dirichlet characters can be undertaken without any knowledge of groups, the introduction of a minimal amount of group theory places the theory of Dirichlet characters in a more natural setting and simplifies some of the discussion.