Ideal Class Group
In mathematics, the extent to which unique factorization fails in the ring of integers of an algebraic number field (or more generally any Dedekind domain) can be described by a certain group known as an ideal class group (or class group). If this group is finite (as it is in the case of the ring of integers of a number field), then the order of the group is called the class number. The multiplicative theory of a Dedekind domain is intimately tied to the structure of its class group. For example, the class group of a Dedekind domain is trivial if and only if the ring is a unique factorization domain.
Read more about Ideal Class Group: History and Origin of The Ideal Class Group, Definition, Properties, Relation With The Group of Units, Examples of Ideal Class Groups, Connections To Class Field Theory
Famous quotes containing the words ideal, class and/or group:
“And into the gulf between cantankerous reality and the male ideal of shaping your world, sail the innocent children. They are right there in front of uswild, irresponsible symbols of everything else we cant control.”
—Hugh ONeill (20th century)
“I read, with a kind of hopeless envy, histories and legends of people of our craft who do not write for money. It must be a pleasant experience to be able to cultivate so delicate a class of motives for the privilege of doing ones best to express ones thoughts to people who care for them. Personally, I have yet to breathe the ether of such a transcendent sphere. I am proud to say that I have always been a working woman, and always had to be ...”
—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (18441911)
“We begin with friendships, and all our youth is a reconnoitering and recruiting of the holy fraternity they shall combine for the salvation of men. But so the remoter stars seem a nebula of united light, yet there is no group which a telescope will not resolve; and the dearest friends are separated by impassable gulfs.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)