Special Linear Group

In mathematics, the special linear group of degree n over a field F is the set of n × n matrices with determinant 1, with the group operations of ordinary matrix multiplication and matrix inversion. This is the normal subgroup of the general linear group given by the kernel of the determinant

where we write F× for the multiplicative group of F (that is, excluding 0).

These elements are "special" in that they fall on a subvariety of the general linear group – they satisfy a polynomial equation (since the determinant is polynomial in the entries).

Read more about Special Linear Group:  Geometric Interpretation, Lie Subgroup, Topology, Relations To Other Subgroups of GL(n,A), Generators and Relations, Structure of GL(n,F)

Famous quotes containing the words special and/or group:

    The books may say that nine-month-olds crawl, say their first words, and are afraid of strangers. Your exuberantly concrete and special nine-month-old hasn’t read them. She may be walking already, not saying a word and smiling gleefully at every stranger she sees. . . . You can support her best by helping her learn what she’s trying to learn, not what the books say a typical child ought to be learning.
    Amy Laura Dombro (20th century)

    A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible.
    Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)