Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 April 2009
Let G be a cyclic group of prime order p and K a field of characteristic p. The set of classes of isomorphic indecomposable (K, G)-modules forms a basis over the complex field for an algebra p (Green, 1962) with addition and multiplication being derived from direct sum and tensor product operations.
Algebras n with similar properties can be defined for all n ≥ 2. Each such algebra is isomorphic to a matrix algebra Mn of n × n matrices with complex entries and standard operations. The characters of elements of n are the eigenvalues of the corresponding matrices in Mn.