Thisbookisintendedasanintroductiontoallthe?nitesimplegroups.During themonumentalstruggletoclassifythe?nitesimplegroups(andindeedsince), a huge amount of information about these groups has been accumulated. Conveyingthisinformationtothenextgenerationofstudentsandresearchers, not to mention those who might wish to apply this knowledge, has become a major challenge. With the publication of the two volumes by Aschbacher and Smith [12, 13] in 2004 we can reasonably regard the proof of the Classi?cation Theorem for Finite Simple Groups (usually abbreviated CFSG) as complete. Thus it is timely to attempt an overview of all the (non-abelian) ?nite simple groups in one volume. For expository purposes it is convenient to divide them into four basic types, namely the alternating, classical, exceptional and sporadic groups. The study of alternating groups soon develops into the theory of per- tation groups, which is well served by the classic text of Wielandt [170]and more modern treatments such as the comprehensive introduction by Dixon and Mortimer [53] and more specialised texts such as that of Cameron [19].

This book addresses college students' weak foundation in algebra, its causes, and potential solutions to improve their long-term success and understanding in mathematics as a whole. The authors, who are experts in a wide variety of fields, emphasize that these difficulties are more complex than just forgotten rules, and offer strategic approaches from a number of angles that will increase the chances of student understanding. Instructors who are frustrated with their students' lack of skills and knowledge at college level will find this volume helpful, as the authors confront the deeper reasons why students have difficulties with Algebra and reveal how to remedy the issue.

Fractional evolution equations provide a unifying framework to investigate wellposedness of complex systems with fractional order derivatives. This monograph presents the existence, attractivity, stability, periodic solutions and control theory for time fractional evolution equations. The book contains an up-to-date and comprehensive stuff on the topic.

The book offers a new approach to information theory that is more general then the classical approach by Shannon. The classical definition of information is given for an alphabet of symbols or for a set of mutually exclusive propositions (a partition of the probability space ) with corresponding probabilities adding up to 1. The new definition is given for an arbitrary cover of , i.e. for a set of possibly overlapping propositions. The generalized information concept is called novelty and it is accompanied by two new concepts derived from it, designated as information and surprise, which describe "opposite" versions of novelty, information being related more to classical information theory and surprise being related more to the classical concept of statistical significance. In the discussion of these three concepts and their interrelations several properties or classes of covers are defined, which turn out to be lattices. The book also presents applications of these new concepts, mostly in statistics and in neuroscience.

This book is intended as an introduction to fuzzy algebraic hyperstructures. As the first in its genre, it includes a number of topics, most of which reflect the authors' past research and thus provides a starting point for future research directions. The book is organized in five chapters. The first chapter introduces readers to the basic notions of algebraic structures and hyperstructures. The second covers fuzzy sets, fuzzy groups and fuzzy polygroups. The following two chapters are concerned with the theory of fuzzy Hv-structures: while the third chapter presents the concept of fuzzy Hv-subgroup of Hv-groups, the fourth covers the theory of fuzzy Hv-ideals of Hv-rings. The final chapter discusses several connections between hypergroups and fuzzy sets, and includes a study on the association between hypergroupoids and fuzzy sets endowed with two membership functions. In addition to providing a reference guide to researchers, the book is also intended as textbook for undergraduate and graduate students.

This edited volume highlights the scientific contributions of Volker Mehrmann, a leading expert in the area of numerical (linear) algebra, matrix theory, differential-algebraic equations and control theory. These mathematical research areas are strongly related and often occur in the same real-world applications. The main areas where such applications emerge are computational engineering and sciences, but increasingly also social sciences and economics. This book also reflects some of Volker Mehrmann's major career stages. Starting out working in the areas of numerical linear algebra (his first full professorship at TU Chemnitz was in "Numerical Algebra," hence the title of the book) and matrix theory, Volker Mehrmann has made significant contributions to these areas ever since. The highlights of these are discussed in Parts I and II of the present book. Often the development of new algorithms in numerical linear algebra is motivated by problems in system and control theory. These and his later major work on differential-algebraic equations, to which he together with Peter Kunkel made many groundbreaking contributions, are the topic of the chapters in Part III. Besides providing a scientific discussion of Volker Mehrmann's work and its impact on the development of several areas of applied mathematics, the individual chapters stand on their own as reference works for selected topics in the fields of numerical (linear) algebra, matrix theory, differential-algebraic equations and control theory.

This book consists of both expository and research articles solicited from speakers at the conference entitled "Arithmetic and Ideal Theory of Rings and Semigroups," held September 22-26, 2014 at the University of Graz, Graz, Austria. It reflects recent trends in multiplicative ideal theory and factorization theory, and brings together for the first time in one volume both commutative and non-commutative perspectives on these areas, which have their roots in number theory, commutative algebra, and algebraic geometry. Topics discussed include topological aspects in ring theory, Prufer domains of integer-valued polynomials and their monadic submonoids, and semigroup algebras. It will be of interest to practitioners of mathematics and computer science, and researchers in multiplicative ideal theory, factorization theory, number theory, and algebraic geometry.

In this book, Denis Serre begins by providing a clean and concise introduction to the basic theory of matrices. He then goes on to give many interesting applications of matrices to different aspects of mathematics and also other areas of science and engineering. With forty percent new material, this second edition is significantly different from the first edition. Newly added topics include: * Dunford decomposition, * tensor and exterior calculus, polynomial identities, * regularity of eigenvalues for complex matrices, * functional calculus and the Dunford-Taylor formula, * numerical range, * Weyl's and von Neumann's inequalities, and * Jacobi method with random choice. The book mixes together algebra, analysis, complexity theory and numerical analysis. As such, this book will provide many scientists, not just mathematicians, with a useful and reliable reference. It is intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students with either applied or theoretical goals. This book is based on a course given by the author at the Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon.

This book provides an extensive treatment of Potential Theory for sub-Laplacians on stratified Lie groups. It also provides a largely self-contained presentation of stratified Lie groups, and of their Lie algebra of left-invariant vector fields. The presentation is accessible to graduate students and requires no specialized knowledge in algebra or differential geometry.

Without using the customary Clifford algebras frequently studied in connection with the representations of orthogonal groups, this book gives an elementary introduction to the two-component spinor formalism for four-dimensional spaces with any signature. Some of the useful applications of four-dimensional spinors, such as Yang-Mills theory, are derived in detail using illustrative examples. Spinors in Four-Dimensional Spaces is aimed at graduate students and researchers in mathematical and theoretical physics interested in the applications of the two-component spinor formalism in any four-dimensional vector space or Riemannian manifold with a definite or indefinite metric tensor. This systematic and self-contained book is suitable as a seminar text, a reference book, and a self-study guide.

Traditionally, Lie Theory is a tool to build mathematical models for physical systems. Recently, the trend is towards geometrisation of the mathematical description of physical systems and objects. A geometric approach to a system yields in general some notion of symmetry which is very helpful in understanding its structure. Geometrisation and symmetries are meant in their broadest sense, i.e., classical geometry, differential geometry, groups and quantum groups, infinite-dimensional (super-)algebras, and their representations. Furthermore, we include the necessary tools from functional analysis and number theory. This is a large interdisciplinary and interrelated field.
Samples of these new trends are presented in this volume, based on contributions from the Workshop Lie Theory and Its Applications in Physics held near Varna, Bulgaria, in June 2011.
This book is suitable for an extensive audience of mathematicians, mathematical physicists, theoretical physicists, and researchers in the field of Lie Theory."

Traditionally a subject of number theory, continued fractions appear in dynamical systems, algebraic geometry, topology, and even celestial mechanics. The rise of computational geometry has resulted in renewed interest in multidimensional generalizations of continued fractions. Numerous classical theorems have been extended to the multidimensional case, casting light on phenomena in diverse areas of mathematics. This book introduces a new geometric vision of continued fractions. It covers several applications to questions related to such areas as Diophantine approximation, algebraic number theory, and toric geometry. The reader will find an overview of current progress in the geometric theory of multidimensional continued fractions accompanied by currently open problems. Whenever possible, we illustrate geometric constructions with figures and examples. Each chapter has exercises useful for undergraduate or graduate courses.

This fundamental monograph introduces both the probabilistic and algebraic aspects of information theory and coding. It has evolved from the authors' years of experience teaching at the undergraduate level, including several Cambridge Maths Tripos courses. The book provides relevant background material, a wide range of worked examples and clear solutions to problems from real exam papers. It is a valuable teaching aid for undergraduate and graduate students, or for researchers and engineers who want to grasp the basic principles.

This monograph is the first book-length treatment of valuation theory on finite-dimensional division algebras, a subject of active and substantial research over the last forty years. Its development was spurred in the last decades of the twentieth century by important advances such as Amitsur's construction of non crossed products and Platonov's solution of the Tannaka-Artin problem. This study is particularly timely because it approaches the subject from the perspective of associated graded structures. This new approach has been developed by the authors in the last few years and has significantly clarified the theory. Various constructions of division algebras are obtained as applications of the theory, such as noncrossed products and indecomposable algebras. In addition, the use of valuation theory in reduced Whitehead group calculations (after Hazrat and Wadsworth) and in essential dimension computations (after Baek and Merkurjev) is showcased. The intended audience consists of graduate students and research mathematicians.

This book discusses recent developments and the latest research in algebra and related topics. The book allows aspiring researchers to update their understanding of prime rings, generalized derivations, generalized semiderivations, regular semigroups, completely simple semigroups, module hulls, injective hulls, Baer modules, extending modules, local cohomology modules, orthogonal lattices, Banach algebras, multilinear polynomials, fuzzy ideals, Laurent power series, and Hilbert functions. All the contributing authors are leading international academicians and researchers in their respective fields. Most of the papers were presented at the international conference on Algebra and its Applications (ICAA-2014), held at Aligarh Muslim University, India, from December 15-17, 2014. The book also includes papers from mathematicians who couldn't attend the conference. The conference has emerged as a powerful forum offering researchers a venue to meet and discuss advances in algebra and its applications, inspiring further research directions.

This book treats modal logic as a theory, with several subtheories, such as completeness theory, correspondence theory, duality theory and transfer theory and is intended as a course in modal logic for students who have had prior contact with modal logic and who wish to study it more deeply. It presupposes training in mathematical or logic. Very little specific knowledge is presupposed, most results which are needed are proved in this book.

This unique book's subject is meanders (connected, oriented, non-self-intersecting planar curves intersecting the horizontal line transversely) in the context of dynamical systems. By interpreting the transverse intersection points as vertices and the arches arising from these curves as directed edges, meanders are introduced from the graphtheoretical perspective. Supplementing the rigorous results, mathematical methods, constructions, and examples of meanders with a large number of insightful figures, issues such as connectivity and the number of connected components of meanders are studied in detail with the aid of collapse and multiple collapse, forks, and chambers. Moreover, the author introduces a large class of Morse meanders by utilizing the right and left one-shift maps, and presents connections to Sturm global attractors, seaweed and Frobenius Lie algebras, and the classical Yang-Baxter equation. Contents Seaweed Meanders Meanders Morse Meanders and Sturm Global Attractors Right and Left One-Shifts Connection Graphs of Type I, II, III and IV Meanders and the Temperley-Lieb Algebra Representations of Seaweed Lie Algebras CYBE and Seaweed Meanders

The most ubiquitous, and perhaps the most intriguing, number pattern in mathematics is the Fibonacci sequence. In this simple pattern beginning with two ones, each succeeding number is the sum of the two numbers immediately preceding it (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, ad infinitum). Far from being just a curiosity, this sequence recurs in structures found throughout nature - from the arrangement of whorls on a pinecone to the branches of certain plant stems. All of which is astounding evidence for the deep mathematical basis of the natural world. With admirable clarity, two veteran math educators take us on a fascinating tour of the many ramifications of the Fibonacci numbers. They begin with a brief history of a distinguished Italian discoverer, who, among other accomplishments, was responsible for popularizing the use of Arabic numerals in the West. Turning to botany, the authors demonstrate, through illustrative diagrams, the unbelievable connections between Fibonacci numbers and natural forms (pineapples, sunflowers, and daisies are just a few examples). In art, architecture, the stock market, and other areas of society and culture, they point out numerous examples of the Fibonacci sequence as well as its derivative, the "golden ratio." And of course in mathematics, as the authors amply demonstrate, there are almost boundless applications in probability, number theory, geometry, algebra, and Pascal's triangle, to name a few.Accessible and appealing to even the most math-phobic individual, this fun and enlightening book allows the reader to appreciate the elegance of mathematics and its amazing applications in both natural and cultural settings.

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a mathematician brilliant beyond comparison who inspired many great mathematicians. There is extensive literature available on the work of Ramanujan. But what is missing in the literature is an analysis that would place his mathematics in context and interpret it in terms of modern developments. The 12 lectures by Hardy, delivered in 1936, served this purpose at the time they were given. This book presents Ramanujan's essential mathematical contributions and gives an informal account of some of the major developments that emanated from his work in the 20th and 21st centuries. It contends that his work still has an impact on many different fields of mathematical research. This book examines some of these themes in the landscape of 21st-century mathematics. These essays, based on the lectures given by the authors focus on a subset of Ramanujan's significant papers and show how these papers shaped the course of modern mathematics.

This volume, setting out the theory of positive maps as it stands today, reflects the rapid growth in this area of mathematics since it was recognized in the 1990s that these applications of C*-algebras are crucial to the study of entanglement in quantum theory. The author, a leading authority on the subject, sets out numerous results previously unpublished in book form. In addition to outlining the properties and structures of positive linear maps of operator algebras into the bounded operators on a Hilbert space, he guides readers through proofs of the Stinespring theorem and its applications to inequalities for positive maps.

The text examines the maps positivity properties, as well as their associated linear functionals together with their density operators. It features special sections on extremal positive maps and Choi matrices. In sum, this is a vital publication that covers a full spectrum of matters relating to positive linear maps, of which a large proportion is relevant and applicable to today s quantum information theory. The latter sections of the book present the material in finite dimensions, while the text as a whole appeals to a wider and more general readership by keeping the mathematics as elementary as possible throughout."

In this book, non-spectral methods are presented and discussed that have been developed over the last two decades for the investigation of asymptotic behavior of operator semigroups. This concerns in particular Markov semigroups in L1-spaces, motivated by applications to probability theory and dynamical systems. Recently many results on the asymptotic behaviour of Markov semigroups were extended to positive semigroups in Banach lattices with order-continuous norm, and to positive semigroups in non-commutative L1-spaces. Related results, historical notes, exercises, and open problems accompany each chapter.

This text is intended for a one or two semester sophomore level course in linear algebra. It is designed to provide a balance of applications, theory and computation, and to emphasize their interdependence. The text has a strong orientation towards numerical computation and the linear algebra needed in applied mathematics. At the same time, it contains a rigorous and self-contained development of most of the traditional topics in a linear algebra course. It provides background for numerous projects, which frequently require computational tools, but is not tied to any one computational platform. A comprehensive set of exercises and projects is included.

The theme of the first Abel Symposium was operator algebras in a wide sense. In the last 40 years operator algebras have developed from a rather special discipline within functional analysis to become a central field in mathematics often described as "non-commutative geometry." It has branched out in several sub-disciplines and made contact with other subjects. The contributions to this volume give a state-of-the-art account of some of these sub-disciplines and the variety of topics reflect to some extent how the subject has developed. This is the first volume in a prestigious new book series linked to the Abel prize.

This monograph presents recursion theory from a generalized point of view centered on the computational aspects of definability. A major theme is the study of the structures of degrees arising from two key notions of reducibility, the Turing degrees and the hyperdegrees, using techniques and ideas from recursion theory, hyperarithmetic theory, and descriptive set theory. The emphasis is on the interplay between recursion theory and set theory, anchored on the notion of definability. The monograph covers a number of fundamental results in hyperarithmetic theory as well as some recent results on the structure theory of Turing and hyperdegrees. It also features a chapter on the applications of these investigations to higher randomness.

Systemics of Emergence: Research and Development is a volume devoted to exploring the core theoretical and disciplinary research problems of emergence processes from which systems are established. It focuses on emergence as the key point of any systemic process. This topic is dealt with within different disciplinary approaches, indicated by the organization in sections: 1) Applications; 2) Biology and human care; 3) Cognitive Science; 4) Emergence; 5) General Systems; 6) Learning; 7) Management; 8) Social Systems; 9) Systemic Approach and Information Science; 10) Theoretical issues in Systemics.

The Editors and contributing authors have produced this volume to help, encourage and widen the work in this area of General Systems Research.