Accessible to junior and senior undergraduate students, this survey contains many examples, solved exercises, sets of problems, and parts of abstract algebra of use in many other areas of discrete mathematics. Although this is a mathematics book, the authors have made great efforts to address the needs of users employing the techniques discussed. Fully worked out computational examples are backed by more than 500 exercises throughout the 40 sections. This new edition includes a new chapter on cryptology, and an enlarged chapter on applications of groups, while an extensive chapter has been added to survey other applications not included in the first edition. The book assumes knowledge of the material covered in a course on linear algebra and, preferably, a first course in (abstract) algebra covering the basics of groups, rings, and fields.
