The topics faced in this book cover a large spectrum of current trends in mathematics, such as Shimura varieties and the Lang lands program, zonotopal combinatorics, non linear potential theory, variational methods in imaging, Riemann holonomy and algebraic geometry, mathematical problems arising in kinetic theory, Boltzmann systems, Pell's equations in polynomials, deformation theory in non commutative algebras. This work contains a selection of contributions written by international leading mathematicians who were speakers at the "INdAM Day", an initiative born in 2004 to present the most recent developments in contemporary mathematics.

Combinatorics and Algebraic Geometry have enjoyed a fruitful interplay since the nineteenth century. Classical interactions include invariant theory, theta functions and enumerative geometry. The aim of this volume is to introduce recent developments in combinatorial algebraic geometry and to approach algebraic geometry with a view towards applications, such as tensor calculus and algebraic statistics. A common theme is the study of algebraic varieties endowed with a rich combinatorial structure. Relevant techniques include polyhedral geometry, free resolutions, multilinear algebra, projective duality and compactifications.

VII Preface In many fields of mathematics, geometry has established itself as a fruitful method and common language for describing basic phenomena and problems as well as suggesting ways of solutions. Especially in pure mathematics this is ob vious and well-known (examples are the much discussed interplay between lin ear algebra and analytical geometry and several problems in multidimensional analysis). On the other hand, many specialists from applied mathematics seem to prefer more formal analytical and numerical methods and representations. Nevertheless, very often the internal development of disciplines from applied mathematics led to geometric models, and occasionally breakthroughs were b ed on geometric insights. An excellent example is the Klee-Minty cube, solving a problem of linear programming by transforming it into a geomet ric problem. Also the development of convex programming in recent decades demonstrated the power of methods that evolved within the field of convex geometry. The present book focuses on three applied disciplines: control theory, location science and computational geometry. It is our aim to demonstrate how methods and topics from convex geometry in a wider sense (separation theory of convex cones, Minkowski geometry, convex partitionings, etc.) can help to solve various problems from these disciplines."

This book is about modern algebraic geometry. The title "A Royal Road to Algebraic Geometry" is inspired by the famous anecdote about the king asking Euclid if there really existed no simpler way for learning geometry, than to read all of his work "Elements." Euclid is said to have answered: ""There is no royal road to geometry" "

The book starts by explaining this enigmatic answer, the aim of the book being to argue that indeed, in some sense" there is" a royal road to algebraic geometry.

From a point of departure in algebraic curves, the exposition moves on to the present shape of the field, culminating with Alexander Grothendieck's theory of schemes. Contemporary homological tools are explained.

The reader will follow a directed path leading up to the main elements of modern algebraic geometry. When the road is completed, the reader is empowered to start navigating in this immense field, and to open up the door to a wonderful field of research. The greatest scientific experience of a lifetime

This book collects the papers published by A. Borel from 1983 to 1999. About half of them are research papers, written on his own or in collaboration, on various topics pertaining mainly to algebraic or Lie groups, homogeneous spaces, arithmetic groups (L2-spectrum, automorphic forms, cohomology and covolumes), L2-cohomology of symmetric or locally symmetric spaces, and to the Oppenheim conjecture. Other publications include surveys and personal recollections (of D. Montgomery, Harish-Chandra, and A. Weil), considerations on mathematics in general and several articles of a historical nature: on the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, on N. Bourbaki and on selected aspects of the works of H. Weyl, C. Chevalley, E. Kolchin, J. Leray, and A. Weil. The book concludes with an essay on H. Poincare and special relativity. Some comments on, and corrections to, a number of papers have also been added.

"These volumes collect almost all of the research and expository papers of J.-P. Serre published in mathematical journals through 1984, as well as some of his seminar reports, and a few items not previously published. .... Throughout his writings, Serre has liberally sprinkled open questions and conjectures. Most endnotes list subsequent progress made on these questions or improvements to the main results of the papers. Some make additional comments, and a few are corrections. These endnotes alone justify the publication of the collected works. Serre is one of the masters of mathematical exposition...." --James Milne, University of Michigan, in Math Reviews

A comprehensive, self-contained treatment presenting general results of the theory. Establishes a geometric intuition and a working facility with specific geometric practices. Emphasizes applications through the study of interesting examples and the development of computational tools. Coverage ranges from analytic to geometric. Treats basic techniques and results of complex manifold theory, focusing on results applicable to projective varieties, and includes discussion of the theory of Riemann surfaces and algebraic curves, algebraic surfaces and the quadric line complex as well as special topics in complex manifolds.

This book gives a clear introductory account of equivariant cohomology, a central topic in algebraic topology. Equivariant cohomology is concerned with the algebraic topology of spaces with a group action, or in other words, with symmetries of spaces. First defined in the 1950s, it has been introduced into K-theory and algebraic geometry, but it is in algebraic topology that the concepts are the most transparent and the proofs are the simplest. One of the most useful applications of equivariant cohomology is the equivariant localization theorem of Atiyah-Bott and Berline-Vergne, which converts the integral of an equivariant differential form into a finite sum over the fixed point set of the group action, providing a powerful tool for computing integrals over a manifold. Because integrals and symmetries are ubiquitous, equivariant cohomology has found applications in diverse areas of mathematics and physics. Assuming readers have taken one semester of manifold theory and a year of algebraic topology, Loring Tu begins with the topological construction of equivariant cohomology, then develops the theory for smooth manifolds with the aid of differential forms. To keep the exposition simple, the equivariant localization theorem is proven only for a circle action. An appendix gives a proof of the equivariant de Rham theorem, demonstrating that equivariant cohomology can be computed using equivariant differential forms. Examples and calculations illustrate new concepts. Exercises include hints or solutions, making this book suitable for self-study.

Introduction to Global Optimization Exploiting Space-Filling Curves provides an overview of classical and new results pertaining to the usage of space-filling curves in global optimization. The authors look at a family of derivative-free numerical algorithms applying space-filling curves to reduce the dimensionality of the global optimization problem; along with a number of unconventional ideas, such as adaptive strategies for estimating Lipschitz constant, balancing global and local information to accelerate the search. Convergence conditions of the described algorithms are studied in depth and theoretical considerations are illustrated through numerical examples. This work also contains a code for implementing space-filling curves that can be used for constructing new global optimization algorithms. Basic ideas from this text can be applied to a number of problems including problems with multiextremal and partially defined constraints and non-redundant parallel computations can be organized. Professors, students, researchers, engineers, and other professionals in the fields of pure mathematics, nonlinear sciences studying fractals, operations research, management science, industrial and applied mathematics, computer science, engineering, economics, and the environmental sciences will find this title useful .

The textbook provides both beginner and experienced CAD users with the math behind the CAD. The geometry tools introduced here help the reader exploit commercial CAD software to its fullest extent. In fact, the book enables the reader to go beyond what CAD software packages offer in their menus. Chapter 1 summarizes the basic Linear and Vector Algebra pertinent to vectors in 3D, with some novelties: the 2D form of the vector product and the manipulation of "larger" matrices and vectors by means of block-partitioning of larger arrays. In chapter 2 the relations among points, lines and curves in the plane are revised accordingly; the difference between curves representing functions and their geometric counterparts is emphasized. Geometric objects in 3D, namely, points, planes, lines and surfaces are the subject of chapter 3; of the latter, only quadrics are studied, to keep the discussion at an elementary level, but the interested reader is guided to the literature on splines. The concept of affine transformations, at the core of CAD software, is introduced in chapter 4, which includes applications of these transformations to the synthesis of curves and surfaces that would be extremely cumbersome to produce otherwise. The book, catering to various disciplines such as engineering, graphic design, animation and architecture, is kept discipline-independent, while including examples of interest to the various disciplines. Furthermore, the book can be an invaluable complement to undergraduate lectures on CAD.

The notes in this volume correspond to advanced courses held at the Centre de Recerca Matematica as part of the research program in Arithmetic Geometry in the 2009-2010 academic year.

The notes by Laurent Berger provide an introduction to "p"-adic Galois representations and Fontaine rings, which are especially useful for describing many local deformation rings at "p" that arise naturally in Galois deformation theory.

The notes by Gebhard Bockle offer a comprehensive course on Galois deformation theory, starting from the foundational results of Mazur and discussing in detail the theory of pseudo-representations and their deformations, local deformations at places l p and local deformations at "p" which are flat. In the last section, the results of Bockle and Kisin on presentations of global deformation rings over local ones are discussed.

The notes by Mladen Dimitrov present the basics of the arithmetic theory of Hilbert modular forms and varieties, with an emphasis on the study of the images of the attached Galois representations, on modularity lifting theorems over totally real number fields, and on the cohomology of Hilbert modular varieties with integral coefficients.

The notes by Lassina Dembele and John Voight describe methods for performing explicit computations in spaces of Hilbert modular forms. These methods depend on the Jacquet-Langlands correspondence and on computations in spaces of quaternionic modular forms, both for the case of definite and indefinite quaternion algebras. Several examples are given, and applications to modularity of Galois representations are discussed.

The notes by Tim Dokchitser describe the proof, obtained by the author in a joint project with Vladimir Dokchitser, of the parity conjecture for elliptic curves over number fields under the assumption of finiteness of the Tate-Shafarevich group. The statement of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture is included, as well as a detailed study of local and global root numbers of elliptic curves and their classification."

This book contains a detailed account of the result of the author's recent Annals paper and JAMS paper on arithmetic invariant, including mu-invariant, L-invariant, and similar topics. This book can be regarded as an introductory text to the author's previous book p-Adic Automorphic Forms on Shimura Varieties. Written as a down-to-earth introduction to Shimura varieties, this text includes many examples and applications of the theory that provide motivation for the reader. Since it is limited to modular curves and the corresponding Shimura varieties, this book is not only a great resource for experts in the field, but it is also accessible to advanced graduate students studying number theory. Key topics include non-triviality of arithmetic invariants and special values of L-functions; elliptic curves over complex and p-adic fields; Hecke algebras; scheme theory; elliptic and modular curves over rings; and Shimura curves.

This book stems from lectures on commutative algebra for 4th-year university students at two French universities (Paris and Rennes). At that level, students have already followed a basic course in linear algebra and are essentially fluent with the language of vector spaces over fields. The topics introduced include arithmetic of rings, modules, especially principal ideal rings and the classification of modules over such rings, Galois theory, as well as an introduction to more advanced topics such as homological algebra, tensor products, and algebraic concepts involved in algebraic geometry. More than 300 exercises will allow the reader to deepen his understanding of the subject. The book also includes 11 historical vignettes about mathematicians who contributed to commutative algebra.

This book, the third book in the four-volume series in algebra, deals with important topics in homological algebra, including abstract theory of derived functors, sheaf co-homology, and an introduction to etale and l-adic co-homology. It contains four chapters which discuss homology theory in an abelian category together with some important and fundamental applications in geometry, topology, algebraic geometry (including basics in abstract algebraic geometry), and group theory. The book will be of value to graduate and higher undergraduate students specializing in any branch of mathematics. The author has tried to make the book self-contained by introducing relevant concepts and results required. Prerequisite knowledge of the basics of algebra, linear algebra, topology, and calculus of several variables will be useful.

This text offers a collection of survey and research papers by leading specialists in the field documenting the current understanding of higher dimensional varieties. Recently, it has become clear that ideas from many branches of mathematics can be successfully employed in the study of rational and integral points. This book will be very valuable for researchers from these various fields who have an interest in arithmetic applications, specialists in arithmetic geometry itself, and graduate students wishing to pursue research in this area.

A complex torus is a connected compact complex Lie group. Any complex 9 9 torus is of the form X =

The original edition of this book has been out of print for some years. The appear ance of the present second edition owes much to the initiative of Yves Nievergelt at Eastern Washington University, and the support of Ann Kostant, Mathematics Editor at Birkhauser. Since the book was first published, several people have remarked on the absence of exercises and expressed the opinion that the book would have been more useful had exercises been included. In 1997, Yves Nievergelt informed me that, for a decade, he had regularly taught a course at Eastern Washington based on the book, and that he had systematically compiled exercises for his course. He kindly put his work at my disposal. Thus, the present edition appears in two parts. The first is essentially just a reprint of the original edition. I have corrected the misprints of which I have become aware (including those pointed out to me by others), and have made a small number of other minor changes.

Real analytic sets in Euclidean space (Le. , sets defined locally at each point of Euclidean space by the vanishing of an analytic function) were first investigated in the 1950's by H. Cartan [Car], H. Whitney [WI-3], F. Bruhat [W-B] and others. Their approach was to derive information about real analytic sets from properties of their complexifications. After some basic geometrical and topological facts were established, however, the study of real analytic sets stagnated. This contrasted the rapid develop ment of complex analytic geometry which followed the groundbreaking work of the early 1950's. Certain pathologies in the real case contributed to this failure to progress. For example, the closure of -or the connected components of-a constructible set (Le. , a locally finite union of differ ences of real analytic sets) need not be constructible (e. g. , R - {O} and 3 2 2 { (x, y, z) E R : x = zy2, x + y2 -=I- O}, respectively). Responding to this in the 1960's, R. Thorn [Thl], S. Lojasiewicz [LI,2] and others undertook the study of a larger class of sets, the semianalytic sets, which are the sets defined locally at each point of Euclidean space by a finite number of ana lytic function equalities and inequalities. They established that semianalytic sets admit Whitney stratifications and triangulations, and using these tools they clarified the local topological structure of these sets. For example, they showed that the closure and the connected components of a semianalytic set are semianalytic.

This volume, dedicated to Bertram Kostant on the occasion of his 65th birthday, is a collection of 22 invited papers by leading mathematicians working in Lie theory, geometry, algebra, and mathematical physics. Kostant's fundamental work in all these areas has provided deep new insights and connections, and has created new fields of research. The papers gathered here present original research articles as well as expository papers, broadly reflecting the range of Kostant's work.

Arithmetic algebraic geometry is in a fascinating stage of growth, providing a rich variety of applications of new tools to both old and new problems. Representative of these recent developments is the notion of Arakelov geometry, a way of "completing" a variety over the ring of integers of a number field by adding fibres over the Archimedean places. Another is the appearance of the relations between arithmetic geometry and Nevanlinna theory, or more precisely between diophantine approximation theory and the value distribution theory of holomorphic maps. Research mathematicians and graduate students in algebraic geometry and number theory will find a valuable and lively view of the field in this state-of-the-art selection.

In a detailed and comprehensive introduction to the theory of plane algebraic curves, the authors examine this classical area of mathematics that both figured prominently in ancient Greek studies and remains a source of inspiration and atopic of research to this day. Arising from notes for a course given at the University of Bonn in Germany, "Plane Algebraic Curves" reflects the authors concern for the student audience through its emphasis on motivation, development of imagination, and understanding of basic ideas. As classical objects, curves may be viewed from many angles. This text also provides a foundation for the comprehension and exploration of modern work on singularities.

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In the first chapter one finds many special curves with very attractive geometric presentations the wealth of illustrations is a distinctive characteristic of this book and an introduction to projective geometry (over the complex numbers). In the second chapter one finds a very simple proof of Bezout's theorem and a detailed discussion of cubics. The heart of this book and how else could it be with the first author is the chapter on the resolution of singularities (always over the complex numbers). (...) Especially remarkable is the outlook to further work on the topics discussed, with numerous references to the literature. Many examples round off this successful representation of a classical and yet still very much alive subject.

(Mathematical Reviews)"

The present volume is the second in a two-volume set entitled "Singularities of Differentiable Maps." While the first volume, subtitled "Classification of Critical Points" and originallypublishedas Volume82 in the Monographs in Mathematics series, contained the zoology of differentiable maps, that is, it was devoted to a description of what, where, and how singularities could be encountered, this second volume concentrates on elements of theanatomy and physiology of singularities of differentiable functions. The questions considered are about the structure of singularities and how they function."

"Elliptic Tales" describes the latest developments in number theory by looking at one of the most exciting unsolved problems in contemporary mathematics--the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture. In this book, Avner Ash and Robert Gross guide readers through the mathematics they need to understand this captivating problem.

The key to the conjecture lies in elliptic curves, which may appear simple, but arise from some very deep--and often very mystifying--mathematical ideas. Using only basic algebra and calculus while presenting numerous eye-opening examples, Ash and Gross make these ideas accessible to general readers, and, in the process, venture to the very frontiers of modern mathematics.

This is a description of the underlying principles of algebraic geometry, some of its important developments in the twentieth century, and some of the problems that occupy its practitioners today. It is intended for the working or the aspiring mathematician who is unfamiliar with algebraic geometry but wishes to gain an appreciation of its foundations and its goals with a minimum of prerequisites. Few algebraic prerequisites are presumed beyond a basic course in linear algebra.

This book is the result of a 25-year-old project and comprises a collection of more than 500 attractive open problems in the field. The largely self-contained chapters provide a broad overview of discrete geometry, along with historical details and the most important partial results related to these problems. This book is intended as a source book for both professional mathematicians and graduate students who love beautiful mathematical questions, are willing to spend sleepless nights thinking about them, and who would like to get involved in mathematical research.