This book starts with the elementary theory of Lie groups of matrices
and arrives at the definition, elementary properties, and first
applications of cohomological induction, which is a recently discovered
algebraic construction of group representations. Along the way it
develops the computational techniques that are so important in handling
Lie groups. The book is based on a one-semester course given at the
State University of New York, Stony Brook in fall, 1986 to an audience
having little or no background in Lie groups but interested in seeing
connections among algebra, geometry, and Lie theory.
These notes develop what is needed beyond a first graduate course in
algebra in order to appreciate cohomological induction and to see its
first consequences. Along the way one is able to study homological
algebra with a significant application in mind; consequently one sees
just what results in that subject are fundamental and what results are
minor.