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Matt Macauley Profile
Matt Macauley

@VisualAlgebra

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Associate Professor (Clemson) | AIMS Lecturer (South Africa) | Author: "Visual Algebra" (forthcoming) | YouTuber | First Gen | Homesteader | Dad to Ida & Felix

Clemson, SC
Joined July 2009
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
7 months
🚨🚨 #MathTwitter Announcement! 🚨🚨. As I'm going through and finalizing chapters in my #VisualAlgebra book, I'm recording a new set of YouTube videos in tandem. This will be more than twice as long as my existing #VisualGroupTheory playlist, with MUCH more content. 1/3 👇
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
10 days
I’m celebrating the 4th of July this year by working all day in the office and drinking tea with a cricket match in the background. ‘Merica! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸.
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
26 days
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@tedcruz
Ted Cruz
27 days
Tucker Carlson is obsessed with defending Russia and the KGB thug that runs it.
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
2 months
RT @martinmbauer: Even if you don't care one bit about scientific research, it's important to recognise the value of publicly funding peopl….
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
3 months
The Vatican has the chance to do the funniest thing.
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@LindseyGrahamSC
Lindsey Graham
3 months
I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope. This would truly be a dark horse candidate, but I would ask the papal conclave and Catholic faithful to keep an open mind about this possibility!. The first Pope-U.S. President combination has
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
One more thing! You can find the entire playlist (currently have 45 lectures, am planning about 100) at the following webpage. I have the slides posted as well. 17/16.
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
Here's a summary of our 4 examples actions and the fundamental features. Please share, I think this will be helpful to algebra students and instructors alike!. Lecture 5.4: Examples of actions. 16/16
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
**Don't let someone tell you that you can only take the quotient by a subgroup if it's normal!**. You can ALWAYS quotient by the right cosets and get a G-set. If it's normal, that G-set happens to be a group. [In Ch 3, we constructed G/H by collapsing by *left* cosets.]. 15/16
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
Our last action is new, but arguably the most important: G acting on cosets of some subgroup H≤G. Also, *every* transitive G-set is isomorphic to such a G-set!. This is constructed by collapsing the *right* cosets in a Cayley graph. 14/16
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
One of my favorite examples is A₄, and it's something we've seen since Chapter 3. These last 2 pictures are from an old lecture, way back when we introduced normal subgroups:. Lecture 3.4: Normalizers and normal subgroups. 13/16
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
Here's the action of G on its subgroups by conjugation. Once again, we'll characterize our "five fundamental features", and revisit our two theorems on orbits. It's helpful to superimpose the action graph on the subgroup lattice. 12/16
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
Here's the action of G on its elements by conjugation. It's worth characterizing our "five fundamental features":. 1. orbits.2. stabilizers.3. fixators.4. kernel.5. fixed point set. 11/16
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
Next, we'll see 4 examples: a group G acting on. 1. Its elements by multiplication.2. Its elements by conjugation.3. Its subgroups by conjugation.4. Its cosets by multiplication. Here's the first one, and a 1-line proof of Cayley's theorem. 10/16
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
The orbit-counting theorem says the avg # of checkmarks per row (i.e., the avg size of a fixator) is the number of orbits. It's worth comparing this to our running example of D₄ acting on binary squares. Lecture 5.3: Two theorems on orbits. 9/16
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
The orbit-stabilizer theorem says that there is a bijection b/w elements in the orbit of s, and cosets of the stabilizer of s. Here's a visual for why this is true. To prove it, just show that the map below is a bijection. 8/16
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
Intuitively, elements in larger orbits tend to have smaller stabilizers, and vice-versa. Also, more checkmarks in the fixed table lead to more orbits. These observations can be quantified with the orbit-stabilizer and orbit-counting theorems. 7/16
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
An important observation is that elements in the same orbit have conjugate stabilizers. Here's a picture for why, the "action graph" interpretation on the right is the most helpful:. If x is a loop from s, and g:s↦s' a path, then g⁻¹xg is a loop from s'. 6/16
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
The kernel of an action is the intersection of the stabilizers. The fixed point set is the intersection of the fixators. These are dual in the fixed point table. The group switchboard analogy is useful. Lecture 5.2: Five features of group actions. 5/16
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
The fixed point table of an action ϕ:G→Perm(S) has a checkmark in the (g,s) entry if g fixes s. We can read the stabilizers off the columns, and the fixators off the rows. These are "dual" concepts. We should also interpret these using switchboards & action graphs. 4/16
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
A G-set is a set w/ an action. This endows it w/ an algebraic structure. Many books don't define this, which is a mistake. Note the difference b/w the G-set vs. action graph, which depends on the generating set. Lecture 5.1: G-sets & action graphs. 3/16
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@VisualAlgebra
Matt Macauley
4 months
If G acts on S, via ϕ:G→Perm(S), imagine that G has a "group switchboard", w/ a button for each element. Pressing it permutes elements of S, with the rule:. "Pressing the a-button followed by the b-button is the same as pressing the ab-button." This means:. ϕ(a)ϕ(b)=ϕ(ab). 2/16
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