Representation of an algebra - Definition and Overview

In abstract algebra, a representation of an associative algebra is a module for that algebra. Here an associative algebra is a (not necessarily unital) ring. If the algebra is not unital, it may be made so in a standard way (see the adjoint functors page); there is no essential difference between modules for the resulting unital ring, in which the identity acts by the identity mapping, and representations of the algebra.

See also:

• module (mathematics)
• representation of a Hopf algebra
• representation of a Lie algebra.