This book contains expository papers that give an up-to-date account of recent developments and open problems in the geometry and topology of manifolds, along with several research articles that present new results appearing in published form for the first time. The unifying theme is the problem of understanding manifolds in low dimensions, notably in dimensions three and four, and the techniques include algebraic topology, surgery theory, Donaldson and Seiberg-Witten gauge theory, Heegaard Floer homology, contact and symplectic geometry, and Gromov-Witten invariants. The articles collected for this volume were contributed by participants of the Conference 'Geometry and Topology of Manifolds' held at McMaster University on May 14-18, 2004 and are representative of the many excellent talks delivered at the conference.

Algebraic geometry and geometric modeling both deal with curves and surfaces generated by polynomial equations. Algebraic geometry investigates the theoretical properties of polynomial curves and surfaces; geometric modeling uses polynomial, piecewise polynomial, and rational curves and surfaces to build computer models of mechanical components and assemblies for industrial design and manufacture. The NSF sponsored the four-day ''Vilnius Workshop on Algebraic Geometry and Geometric Modeling'', which brought together some of the top experts in the two research communities to examine a wide range of topics of interest to both fields. This volume is an outgrowth of that workshop. Included are surveys, tutorials, and research papers. In addition, the editors have included a translation of Minding's 1841 paper, ''On the determination of the degree of an equations obtained by elimination'', which foreshadows the modern application of mixed volumes in algebraic geometry. The volume is suitable for mathematicians, computer scientists, and engineers interested in applications of algebraic geometry to geometric modeling.

This volume presents the proceedings of the international conference on Combinatorial and Geometric Representation Theory. In the field of representation theory, a wide variety of mathematical ideas are providing new insights, giving powerful methods for understanding the theory, and presenting various applications to other branches of mathematics. Over the past two decades, there have been remarkable developments. This book explains the strong connections between combinatorics, geometry, and representation theory. It is suitable for graduate students and researchers interested in representation theory.

The idea of mirror symmetry originated in physics, but in recent years, the field of mirror symmetry has exploded onto the mathematical scene. It has inspired many new developments in algebraic and arithmetic geometry, toric geometry, the theory of Riemann surfaces, and infinite-dimensional Lie algebras among others. The developments in physics stimulated the interest of mathematicians in Calabi-Yau varieties. This led to the realization that the time is ripe for mathematicians, armed with many concrete examples and alerted by the mirror symmetry phenomenon, to focus on Calabi-Yau varieties and to test for these special varieties some of the great outstanding conjectures, e.g., the modularity conjecture for Calabi-Yau threefolds defined over the rationals, the Bloch-Beilinson conjectures, regulator maps of higher algebraic cycles, Picard-Fuchs differential equations, GKZ hypergeometric systems, and others.The articles in this volume report on current developments. The papers are divided roughly into two categories: geometric methods and arithmetic methods. One of the significant outcomes of the workshop is that we are finally beginning to understand the mirror symmetry phenomenon from the arithmetic point of view, namely, in terms of zeta-functions and L-series of mirror pairs of Calabi-Yau threefolds. The book is suitable for researchers interested in mirror symmetry and string theory.

This volume derives from the second Iberoamerican Congress on Geometry, held in 2001 in Mexico at the Centro de Investigacion en Matematicas A.C., an internationally recognized program of research in pure mathematics. The conference topics were chosen with an eye toward the presentation of new methods, recent results, and the creation of more interconnections between the different research groups working in complex manifolds and hyperbolic geometry. This volume reflects both the unity and the diversity of these subjects. Researchers around the globe have been working on problems concerning Riemann surfaces, as well as a wide scope of other issues: the theory of Teichmuller spaces, theta functions, algebraic geometry and classical function theory. Included here are discussions revolving around questions of geometry that are related in one way or another to functions of a complex variable.There are contributors on Riemann surfaces, hyperbolic geometry, Teichmuller spaces, and quasiconformal maps. Complex geometry has many applications - triangulations of surfaces, combinatorics, ordinary differential equations, complex dynamics, and the geometry of special curves and jacobians, among others. In this book, research mathematicians in complex geometry, hyperbolic geometry and Teichmuller spaces will find a selection of strong papers by international experts.

This book presents the proceedings of two conferences, Resolution des singularites et geometrie non commutative and the Annapolis Algebraic Geometry Conference. Research articles in the volume cover various topics of algebraic geometry, including the theory of Jacobians, singularities, applications to cryptography, and more. The book is suitable for graduate students and research mathematicians interested in algebraic geometry.

This volume contains 13 papers from the conference on 'Hilbert Schemes, Vector Bundles and Their Interplay with Representation Theory'. The papers are written by leading mathematicians in algebraic geometry and representation theory and present the latest developments in the field. Among other contributions, the volume includes several very impressive and elegant theorems in representation theory by R. Friedman and J. W. Morgan, convolution on homology groups of moduli spaces of sheaves on K3 surfaces by H. Nakajima, and computation of the $S^1$ fixed points in Quot-schemes and mirror principle computations for Grassmannians by S.T. Yau, et al. The book is of interest to graduate students and researchers in algebraic geometry, representation theory, topology and their applications to high energy physics.

This is a genuine introduction to algebraic geometry. The author makes no assumption that readers know more than can be expected of a good undergraduate. He introduces fundamental concepts in a way that enables students to move on to a more advanced book or course that relies more heavily on commutative algebra. The language is purposefully kept on an elementary level, avoiding sheaf theory and cohomology theory. The introduction of new algebraic concepts is always motivated by a discussion of the corresponding geometric ideas. The main point of the book is to illustrate the interplay between abstract theory and specific examples. The book contains numerous problems that illustrate the general theory.The text is suitable for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students. It contains sufficient material for a one-semester course. The reader should be familiar with the basic concepts of modern algebra. A course in one complex variable would be helpful, but is not necessary. It is also an excellent text for those working in neighboring fields (algebraic topology, algebra, Lie groups, etc.) who need to know the basics of algebraic geometry.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 2000 Howard conference on "Infinite Dimensional Lie Groups in Geometry and Representation Theory." It presents some important recent developments in this area. It opens with a topological characterization of regular groups, treats among other topics the integrability problem of various infinite dimensional Lie algebras, presents substantial contributions to important subjects in modern geometry, and concludes with interesting applications to representation theory. The book should be a new source of inspiration for advanced graduate students and established researchers in the field of geometry and its applications to mathematical physics.

Hodge theory originated as an application of harmonic theory to the study of the geometry of compact complex manifolds. The ideas have proved to be quite powerful, leading to fundamentally important results throughout algebraic geometry. This book consists of expositions of various aspects of modern Hodge theory. Its purpose is to provide the nonexpert reader with a precise idea of the current status of the subject. The three chapters develop distinct but closely related subjects: $L^2$ Hodge theory and vanishing theorems; Frobenius and Hodge degeneration; variations of Hodge structures and mirror symmetry.The techniques employed cover a wide range of methods borrowed from the heart of mathematics: elliptic PDE theory, complex differential geometry, algebraic geometry in characteristic $p$, cohomological and sheaf-theoretic methods, deformation theory of complex varieties, Calabi-Yau manifolds, singularity theory, etc. A special effort has been made to approach the various themes from their most natural starting points. Each of the three chapters is supplemented with a detailed introduction and numerous references. The reader will find precise statements of quite a number of open problems that have been the subject of active research in recent years. The reader should have some familiarity with differential and algebraic geometry, with other prerequisites varying by chapter. The book is suitable as an accompaniment to a second course in algebraic geometry.

Algebraic curves have many special properties that make their study particularly rewarding. As a result, curves provide a natural introduction to algebraic geometry. In this book, the authors also bring out aspects of curves that are unique to them and emphasize connections with algebra. This text covers the essential topics in the geometry of algebraic curves, such as line bundles and vector bundles, the Riemann-Roch Theorem, divisors, coherent sheaves, and zeroth and first cohomology groups. The authors make a point of using concrete examples and explicit methods to ensure that the style is clear and understandable. Several chapters develop the connections between the geometry of algebraic curves and the algebra of one-dimensional fields. This is an interesting topic that is rarely found in introductory texts on algebraic geometry. This book makes an excellent text for a first course for graduate students.

This volume contains papers related to the research conference, 'Symbolic Computation: Solving Equations in Algebra, Analysis, and Engineering', held at Mount Holyoke College (MA). It provides a broad range of active research areas in symbolic computation as it applies to the solution of polynomial systems. The conference brought together pure and applied mathematicians, computer scientists, and engineers, who use symbolic computation to solve systems of equations or who develop the theoretical background and tools needed for this purpose. Within this general framework, the conference focused on several themes: systems of polynomials, systems of differential equations, non commutative systems, and applications.

Our knowledge of objects of algebraic geometry such as moduli of curves, (real) Schubert classes, fundamental groups of complements of hyperplane arrangements, toric varieties, and variation of Hodge structures, has been enhanced by ideas and constructions of quantum field theory, such as mirror symmetry, Gromov-Witten invariants, quantum cohomology, and gravitational descendants. These are some of the themes of this refereed collection of papers, which grew out of the special session, "Enumerative Geometry in Physics," held at the AMS meeting in Lowell, MA, USA, April 2000. This session brought together mathematicians and physicists who reported on the latest results and open questions; all the abstracts are included as an appendix, and also included are papers by some who could not attend. The collection provides an overview of state-of-the-art tools, links that connect classical and modern problems, and the latest knowledge available.

Geometry and physics have been developed with a strong influence on each other. One of the most remarkable interactions between geometry and physics since 1980 has been an application of quantum field theory to topology and differential geometry. This book focuses on a relationship between two-dimensional quantum field theory and three-dimensional topology which has been studied intensively since the discovery of the Jones polynomial in the middle of the 1980s and Witten's invariant for 3-manifolds derived from Chern-Simons gauge theory An essential difficulty in quantum field theory comes from infinite-dimensional freedom of a system. Techniques dealing with such infinite-dimensional objects developed in the framework of quantum field theory have been influential in geometry as well. This book gives an accessible treatment for a rigorous construction of topological invariants originally defined as partition functions of fields on manifolds The book is organized as follows: the introduction starts from classical mechanics and explains basic background materials in quantum field theory and geometry. Chapter 1 presents conformal field theory based on the geometry of loop groups. Ch

This book offers a self-contained elementary introduction to the fundamental concepts and techniques of Algebraic Geometry, leading to some gems of the subject like Bezout's Theorem, the Fundamental Theorem of Projective Geometry, and Zariski's Main Theorem. The book contains a detailed treatment of algebraic plane curves with a special emphasis on elliptic curves and their birational classification. The role played by elliptic curves in modern theory of cryptology is illustrated. A novel feature of the book is a discussion of the state of the art on the Jacobian Problem and its relation to the Epimorphism Theorem. The recently introduced Tame Transformation Method of Cryptosystems, is sketched. Prerequisities are limited to a knowledge of finite Galois Theory, and of commutative Noetherian rings. All the Commutative Algebra needed is presented in Chapter 1, and could form the basis for a mini course on the subject. The exposition retains classroom flavour. About 300 exercises are included, often with adequate hints.

The Hilbert scheme $X^{[n]}$ of a surface $X$ describes collections of $n$ (not necessarily distinct) points on $X$. More precisely, it is the moduli space for $0$-dimensional subschemes of $X$ of length $n$. Recently it was realized that Hilbert schemes originally studied in algebraic geometry are closely related to several branches of mathematics, such as singularities, symplectic geometry, representation theory - even theoretical physics.The discussion in the book reflects this feature of Hilbert schemes. For example, a construction of the representation of the infinite dimensional Heisenberg algebra (i.e., Fock space) is presented. This representation has been studied extensively in the literature in connection with affine Lie algebras, conformal field theory, etc. However, the construction presented in this volume is completely unique and provides the unexplored link between geometry and representation theory. The book offers a nice survey of current developments in this rapidly growing subject. It is suitable as a text at the advanced graduate level.

This volume contains three papers on the foundations of Grothendieck duality on Noetherian formal schemes and on not-necessarily-Noetherian ordinary schemes. The first paper presents a self-contained treatment for formal schemes which synthesizes several duality-related topics, such as local duality, formal duality, residue theorems, dualizing complexes, etc. Included is an exposition of properties of torsion sheaves and of limits of coherent sheaves. A second paper extends Greenlees-May duality to complexes on formal schemes. This theorem has important applications to Grothendieck duality. The third paper outlines methods for eliminating the Noetherian hypotheses.A basic role is played by Kiehl's theorem affirming conservation of pseudo-coherence of complexes under proper pseudo-coherent maps. This work gives a detailed introduction to Grothendieck Duality, unifying diverse topics. For example, local and global duality appear as different cases of the same theorem. Even for ordinary schemes, the approach - inspired by that of Deligne and Verdier - is considerably more general than the one in Hartshorne's classic ""Residues and Duality."" Moreover, close attention is paid to the category-theoretic aspects, especially to justification of all needed commutativities in diagrams of derived functors.

Subanalytic and semialgebraic sets were introduced for topological and systematic investigations of real analytic and algebraic sets. One of the author's purposes is to show that almost all (known and unknown) properties of subanalytic and semialgebraic sets follow abstractly from some fundamental axioms. Another is to develop methods of proof that use finite processes instead of integration of vector fields. The proofs are elementary, but the results obtained are new and significant - for example, for singularity theorists and topologists. Further, the new methods and tools developed provide solid foundations for further research by model theorists (logicians) who are interested in applications of model theory to geometry. A knowledge of basic topology is required.

This book combines foundational constructions in the theory of motives and results relating motivic cohomology to more explicit constructions. Prerequisite for understanding the work is a basic background in algebraic geometry. The author constructs and describes a triangulated category of mixed motives over an arbitrary base scheme. Most of the classical constructions of cohomology are described in the motivic setting, including Chern classes from higher $K$-theory, push-forward for proper maps, Riemann-Roch, duality, as well as an associated motivic homology, Borel-Moore homology and cohomology with compact supports.

Mirror symmetry began when theoretical physicists made some astonishing predictions about rational curves on quintic hypersurfaces in four-dimensional projective space. Understanding the mathematics behind these predictions has been a substantial challenge. This work a comprehensive monographs on mirror symmetry, covering the original observations by the physicists through to progress made. Subjects discussed include: toric varieties Hodge theory Kahler geometry moduli of stable maps Calabi-Yau manifolds quantum cohomology Gromov-Witten invariants and the mirror theorem.

The academic year 1996-97 was designated as a special year in Algebraic Topology at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL). In addition to guest lecturers and special courses, an international conference was held entitled ""Current trends in algebraic topology with applications to algebraic geometry and physics"". The series of plenary lectures included in this volume indicate the great breadth of the conference and the lively interaction that took place among various areas of mathematics. Original research papers were submitted, and all submissions were refereed to the usual journal standards. It features a paper prepared by C. Rezk on the Hopkins-Miller theorem, and a set of problems presented at a special problem session held at the conference.

This book is based on the notes from the graduate course given by the author at Rutgers University in the fall of 1994 and the spring of 1995. The main goal of the book is to acquaint the reader with various perspectives of the theory of automorphic forms. In addition to detailed and often nonstandard exposition of familiar topics of the theory, particular attention is paid to such subjects as theta-functions and representations by quadratic forms.

This volume is an outgrowth of the AMS Special Session on Extremal Riemann Surfaces held at the Joint Mathematics Meeting in San Francisco, January 1995. The book deals with a variety of extremal problems related to Riemann surfaces. Some papers deal with the identification of surfaces with longest systole (element of shortest nonzero length) for the length spectrum and the Jacobian. Parallels are drawn to classical questions involving extremal lattices. Other papers deal with maximizing or minimizing functions defined by the spectrum such as the heat kernel, the zeta function, and the determinant of the Laplacian, some from the point of view of identifying an extremal metric.There are discussions of Hurwitz surfaces and surfaces with large cyclic groups of automorphisms. Also discussed are surfaces which are natural candidates for solving extremal problems such as triangular, modular, and arithmetic surfaces, and curves in various group theoretically defined curve families. Other allied topics are theta identities, quadratic periods of Abelian differentials, Teichmuller disks, binary quadratic forms, and spectral asymptotics of degenerating hyperbolic three manifolds. This volume: includes papers by some of the foremost experts on Riemann surfaces; outlines interesting connections between Riemann surfaces and parallel fields; follows up on investigations of Sarnak concerning connections between the theory of extreme lattices and Jacobians of Riemann surfaces; and, contains papers on a variety of topics relating to Riemann surfaces.

Contains more than fifty carefully refereed and edited full-length papers on the theory and applications of mathematical methods arising out of the Fourth International Conference on Mathematical Methods in Computer Aided Geometric Design, held in Lillehammer, Norway, in July 1997.