Monoids arise naturally as endomorphism monoids, and groups arise naturally as automorphism groups. These are among the primary motivators for their study, in my opinion.
What are the (main) motivators of the study of Abelian groups?
Monoids arise naturally as endomorphism monoids, and groups arise naturally as automorphism groups. These are among the primary motivators for their study, in my opinion.
What are the (main) motivators of the study of Abelian groups?
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One of the original motivations was number theory, in particular the study of the ideal class group of a number ring and the group of units $(\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})^*$ notably by C. F. Gauss. More generally, abelian groups arise naturally in terms of cohomology theories, which serve to distinguish (geometric) objects by algebraic invariants (refining Betti numbers). Kronecker was probably the first one who abstracted from number-theoretic examples and formulated the general axioms of a finite abelian group in his 1870 work Auseinandersetzung einiger Eigenschaften der Klassenzahl idealer complexer Zahlen. He also essentially proves the classification of finite abelian groups. Historically, Camille Jordan coined the terminology of abelian groups because Niels Abel had proven that (in modern language) a polynomial with a commutative Galois group is solvable.