Representation
A (linear) representation of a structure
Relation to modules
If the represented structure is an K-monoid, a representation is equivalent to a Module over a unital associative algebra, and indeed in most cases one can move from representations of an algebraic structure to representations of a related associative algebra (e.g. group ring, Universal enveloping algebra) over a field without loss of information. This is because
itself is an Endomorphism ring.
This yields the three equivalent ways of viewing a representation of a gadget
- A gadget homomorphism from
to a gadget of vector spaces; - A functor from a gadget-as-category to Category of vector spaces;
- A module over a K-monoid related to
.