Description: This book offers a self-contained exposition of local class field theory, serving as a second course on Galois theory. It opens with a discussion of several fundamental topics in algebra, such as profinite groups, p-adic fields, semisimple algebras and their modules, and homological algebra with the example of group cohomology. The book culminates with the description of the abelian extensions of local number fields, as well as the celebrated Kronecker-Weber theory, in both the local and global cases. The material will find use across disciplines, including number theory, representation theory, algebraic geometry, and algebraic topology. Written for beginning graduate students and advanced undergraduates, this book can be used in the classroom or for independent study.
Brief description: Pierre Guillot is a lecturer at the Université de Strasbourg and a researcher at the Institut de Recherche Mathématique Avancée (IRMA). He has authored numerous research papers in the areas of algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, quantum algebra, knot theory, combinatorics, the theory of Grothendieck's dessins d'enfants, and Galois cohomology.
Review Quotes: '... a valuable book. I certainly cannot think of any other source that makes the basic ideas of class field theory, and the Kronecker-Weber theorems, more accessible. And the background material on noncommutative algebra and group cohomology can be read with profit by somebody just interested in these topics alone. Highly recommended.' Mark Hunacek, The Mathematical Gazette