This volume is a tribute to Maxim Kontsevich, one of the most original and influential mathematicians of our time. Maxim's vision has inspired major developments in many areas of mathematics, ranging all the way from probability theory to motives over finite fields, and has brought forth a paradigm shift at the interface of modern geometry and mathematical physics. Many of his papers have opened completely new directions of research and led to the solutions of many classical problems. This book collects papers by leading experts currently engaged in research on topics close to Maxim's heart. Contributors: S. Donaldson A. Goncharov D. Kaledin M. Kapranov A. Kapustin L. Katzarkov A. Noll P. Pandit S. Pimenov J. Ren P. Seidel C. Simpson Y. Soibelman R. Thorngren

This volume contains selected papers authored by speakers and participants of the 2013 Arbeitstagung, held at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, Germany, from May 22-28. The 2013 meeting (and this resulting proceedings) was dedicated to the memory of Friedrich Hirzebruch, who passed away on May 27, 2012. Hirzebruch organized the first Arbeitstagung in 1957 with a unique concept that would become its most distinctive feature: the program was not determined beforehand by the organizers, but during the meeting by all participants in an open discussion. This ensured that the talks would be on the latest developments in mathematics and that many important results were presented at the conference for the first time. Written by leading mathematicians, the papers in this volume cover various topics from algebraic geometry, topology, analysis, operator theory, and representation theory and display the breadth and depth of pure mathematics that has always been characteristic of the Arbeitstagung.

This book arose from a conference on "Singularities and Computer Algebra" which was held at the Pfalz-Akademie Lambrecht in June 2015 in honor of Gert-Martin Greuel's 70th birthday. This unique volume presents a collection of recent original research by some of the leading figures in singularity theory on a broad range of topics including topological and algebraic aspects, classification problems, deformation theory and resolution of singularities. At the same time, the articles highlight a variety of techniques, ranging from theoretical methods to practical tools from computer algebra.Greuel himself made major contributions to the development of both singularity theory and computer algebra. With Gerhard Pfister and Hans Schoenemann, he developed the computer algebra system SINGULAR, which has since become the computational tool of choice for many singularity theorists.The book addresses researchers whose work involves singularity theory and computer algebra from the PhD to expert level.

The purpose of this book is to present the classical analytic function theory of several variables as a standard subject in a course of mathematics after learning the elementary materials (sets, general topology, algebra, one complex variable). This includes the essential parts of Grauert-Remmert's two volumes, GL227(236) (Theory of Stein spaces) and GL265 (Coherent analytic sheaves) with a lowering of the level for novice graduate students (here, Grauert's direct image theorem is limited to the case of finite maps).The core of the theory is "Oka's Coherence", found and proved by Kiyoshi Oka. It is indispensable, not only in the study of complex analysis and complex geometry, but also in a large area of modern mathematics. In this book, just after an introductory chapter on holomorphic functions (Chap. 1), we prove Oka's First Coherence Theorem for holomorphic functions in Chap. 2. This defines a unique character of the book compared with other books on this subject, in which the notion of coherence appears much later.The present book, consisting of nine chapters, gives complete treatments of the following items: Coherence of sheaves of holomorphic functions (Chap. 2); Oka-Cartan's Fundamental Theorem (Chap. 4); Coherence of ideal sheaves of complex analytic subsets (Chap. 6); Coherence of the normalization sheaves of complex spaces (Chap. 6); Grauert's Finiteness Theorem (Chaps. 7, 8); Oka's Theorem for Riemann domains (Chap. 8). The theories of sheaf cohomology and domains of holomorphy are also presented (Chaps. 3, 5). Chapter 6 deals with the theory of complex analytic subsets. Chapter 8 is devoted to the applications of formerly obtained results, proving Cartan-Serre's Theorem and Kodaira's Embedding Theorem. In Chap. 9, we discuss the historical development of "Coherence".It is difficult to find a book at this level that treats all of the above subjects in a completely self-contained manner. In the present volume, a number of classical proofs are improved and simplified, so that the contents are easily accessible for beginning graduate students.

This volume grew out of two Simons Symposia on "Nonarchimedean and tropical geometry" which took place on the island of St. John in April 2013 and in Puerto Rico in February 2015. Each meeting gathered a small group of experts working near the interface between tropical geometry and nonarchimedean analytic spaces for a series of inspiring and provocative lectures on cutting edge research, interspersed with lively discussions and collaborative work in small groups. The articles collected here, which include high-level surveys as well as original research, mirror the main themes of the two Symposia. Topics covered in this volume include: Differential forms and currents, and solutions of Monge-Ampere type differential equations on Berkovich spaces and their skeletons; The homotopy types of nonarchimedean analytifications; The existence of "faithful tropicalizations" which encode the topology and geometry of analytifications; Relations between nonarchimedean analytic spaces and algebraic geometry, including logarithmic schemes, birational geometry, and the geometry of algebraic curves; Extended notions of tropical varieties which relate to Huber's theory of adic spaces analogously to the way that usual tropical varieties relate to Berkovich spaces; and Relations between nonarchimedean geometry and combinatorics, including deep and fascinating connections between matroid theory, tropical geometry, and Hodge theory.

In the more than 100 years since the fundamental group was first introduced by Henri Poincare it has evolved to play an important role in different areas of mathematics. Originally conceived as part of algebraic topology, this essential concept and its analogies have found numerous applications in mathematics that are still being investigated today, and which are explored in this volume, the result of a meeting at Heidelberg University that brought together mathematicians who use or study fundamental groups in their work with an eye towards applications in arithmetic. The book acknowledges the varied incarnations of the fundamental group: pro-finite, -adic, p-adic, pro-algebraic and motivic. It explores a wealth of topics that range from anabelian geometry (in particular the section conjecture), the -adic polylogarithm, gonality questions of modular curves, vector bundles in connection with monodromy, and relative pro-algebraic completions, to a motivic version of Minhyong Kim's non-abelian Chabauty method and p-adic integration after Coleman. The editor has also included the abstracts of all the talks given at the Heidelberg meeting, as well as the notes on Coleman integration and on Grothendieck's fundamental group with a view towards anabelian geometry taken from a series of introductory lectures given by Amnon Besser and Tamas Szamuely, respectively."

The book is devoted to the study of the geometrical and topological structure of gauge theories. It consists of the following three building blocks:- Geometry and topology of fibre bundles,- Clifford algebras, spin structures and Dirac operators,- Gauge theory.Written in the style of a mathematical textbook, it combines a comprehensive presentation of the mathematical foundations with a discussion of a variety of advanced topics in gauge theory.The first building block includes a number of specific topics, like invariant connections, universal connections, H-structures and the Postnikov approximation of classifying spaces.Given the great importance of Dirac operators in gauge theory, a complete proof of the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem is presented. The gauge theory part contains the study of Yang-Mills equations (including the theory of instantons and the classical stability analysis), the discussion of various models with matter fields (including magnetic monopoles, the Seiberg-Witten model and dimensional reduction) and the investigation of the structure of the gauge orbit space. The final chapter is devoted to elements of quantum gauge theory including the discussion of the Gribov problem, anomalies and the implementation of the non-generic gauge orbit strata in the framework of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory.The book is addressed both to physicists and mathematicians. It is intended to be accessible to students starting from a graduate level.

Featuring a blend of original research papers and comprehensive surveys from an international team of leading researchers in the thriving fields of foliation theory, holomorphic foliations, and birational geometry, this book presents the proceedings of the conference "Foliation Theory in Algebraic Geometry," hosted by the Simons Foundation in New York City in September 2013. Topics covered include: Fano and del Pezzo foliations; the cone theorem and rank one foliations; the structure of symmetric differentials on a smooth complex surface and a local structure theorem for closed symmetric differentials of rank two; an overview of lifting symmetric differentials from varieties with canonical singularities and the applications to the classification of AT bundles on singular varieties; an overview of the powerful theory of the variety of minimal rational tangents introduced by Hwang and Mok; recent examples of varieties which are hyperbolic and yet the Green-Griffiths locus is the whole of X; and a classification of psuedoeffective codimension one distributions. Foliations play a fundamental role in algebraic geometry, for example in the proof of abundance for threefolds and to a solution of the Green-Griffiths conjecture for surfaces of general type with positive Segre class. The purpose of this volume is to foster communication and enable interactions between experts who work on holomorphic foliations and birational geometry, and to bring together leading researchers to demonstrate the powerful connection of ideas, methods, and goals shared by these two areas of study.

This book collects the scientific contributions of a group of leading experts who took part in the INdAM Meeting held in Cortona in September 2014. With combinatorial techniques as the central theme, it focuses on recent developments in configuration spaces from various perspectives. It also discusses their applications in areas ranging from representation theory, toric geometry and geometric group theory to applied algebraic topology.

This book provides a first course on lattices - mathematical objects pertaining to the realm of discrete geometry, which are of interest to mathematicians for their structure and, at the same time, are used by electrical and computer engineers working on coding theory and cryptography. The book presents both fundamental concepts and a wealth of applications, including coding and transmission over Gaussian channels, techniques for obtaining lattices from finite prime fields and quadratic fields, constructions of spherical codes, and hard lattice problems used in cryptography. The topics selected are covered in a level of detail not usually found in reference books. As the range of applications of lattices continues to grow, this work will appeal to mathematicians, electrical and computer engineers, and graduate or advanced undergraduate in these fields.

This book explores the theory and application of locally nilpotent derivations, a subject motivated by questions in affine algebraic geometry and having fundamental connections to areas such as commutative algebra, representation theory, Lie algebras and differential equations. The author provides a unified treatment of the subject, beginning with 16 First Principles on which the theory is based. These are used to establish classical results, such as Rentschler's Theorem for the plane and the Cancellation Theorem for Curves. More recent results, such as Makar-Limanov's theorem for locally nilpotent derivations of polynomial rings, are also discussed. Topics of special interest include progress in classifying additive actions on three-dimensional affine space, finiteness questions (Hilbert's 14th Problem), algorithms, the Makar-Limanov invariant, and connections to the Cancellation Problem and the Embedding Problem. A lot of new material is included in this expanded second edition, such as canonical factorization of quotient morphisms, and a more extended treatment of linear actions. The reader will also find a wealth of examples and open problems and an updated resource for future investigations.

Customarily, the framework of algebraic geometry has been worked over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, say, over the complex number field. However, over a field of positive characteristics, many unpredictable phenomena arise where analyses will lead to further developments.In the present book, we consider first the forms of the affine line or the additive group, classification of such forms and detailed analysis. The forms of the affine line considered over the function field of an algebraic curve define the algebraic surfaces with fibrations by curves with moving singularities. These fibrations are investigated via the Mordell-Weil groups, which are originally introduced for elliptic fibrations.This is the first book which explains the phenomena arising from purely inseparable coverings and Artin-Schreier coverings. In most cases, the base surfaces are rational, hence the covering surfaces are unirational. There exists a vast, unexplored world of unirational surfaces. In this book, we explain the Frobenius sandwiches as examples of unirational surfaces.Rational double points in positive characteristics are treated in detail with concrete computations. These kinds of computations are not found in current literature. Readers, by following the computations line after line, will not only understand the peculiar phenomena in positive characteristics, but also understand what are crucial in computations. This type of experience will lead the readers to find the unsolved problems by themselves.

The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is the World Championship Competition for High School students, and is held annually in a different country. More than eighty countries are involved.
Containing numerous exercises, illustrations, hints and solutions, presented in a lucid and thought- provoking style, this text provides a wide range of skills required in competitions such as the Mathematical Olympiad.
More than fifty problems in Euclidean geometry invo9lving integers and rational numbers are presented. Early chapters cover elementary problems while later sections break new ground in certain areas and area greater challenge for the more adventurous reader. The text is ideal for Mathematical
Olympiad training and also serves as a supplementary text for student in pure mathematics, particularly number theory and geometry.
Dr. Christopher Bradley was formerly a Fellow and Tutor in Mathematics at Jesus College, Oxford, Deputy Leader of the British Mathematical Olympiad Team and for several years Secretary of the British Mathematical Olympiad Committee.

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.

The purpose of this monograph is two-fold: it introduces a conceptual language for the geometrical objects underlying Painleve equations, and it offers new results on a particular Painleve III equation of type PIII (D6), called PIII (0, 0, 4, 4), describing its relation to isomonodromic families of vector bundles on P1 with meromorphic connections. This equation is equivalent to the radial sine (or sinh) Gordon equation and, as such, it appears widely in geometry and physics. It is used here as a very concrete and classical illustration of the modern theory of vector bundles with meromorphic connections. Complex multi-valued solutions on C* are the natural context for most of the monograph, but in the last four chapters real solutions on R>0 (with or without singularities) are addressed. These provide examples of variations of TERP structures, which are related to tt geometry and harmonic bundles. As an application, a new global picture o0 is given.

This book provides a multitude of geometric constructions usually encountered in civil engineering and surveying practice. A detailed geometric solution is provided to each construction as well as a step-by-step set of programming instructions for incorporation into a computing system. The volume is comprised of 12 chapters and appendices that may be grouped in three major parts: the first is intended for those who love geometry for its own sake and its evolution through the ages, in general, and, more specifically, with the introduction of the computer. The second section addresses geometric features used in the book and provides support procedures used by the constructions presented. The remaining chapters and the appendices contain the various constructions. The volume is ideal for engineering practitioners in civil and construction engineering and allied areas.

An exploration of mathematical style through 99 different proofs of the same theorem This book offers a multifaceted perspective on mathematics by demonstrating 99 different proofs of the same theorem. Each chapter solves an otherwise unremarkable equation in distinct historical, formal, and imaginative styles that range from Medieval, Topological, and Doggerel to Chromatic, Electrostatic, and Psychedelic. With a rare blend of humor and scholarly aplomb, Philip Ording weaves these variations into an accessible and wide-ranging narrative on the nature and practice of mathematics. Inspired by the experiments of the Paris-based writing group known as the Oulipo-whose members included Raymond Queneau, Italo Calvino, and Marcel Duchamp-Ording explores new ways to examine the aesthetic possibilities of mathematical activity. 99 Variations on a Proof is a mathematical take on Queneau's Exercises in Style, a collection of 99 retellings of the same story, and it draws unexpected connections to everything from mysticism and technology to architecture and sign language. Through diagrams, found material, and other imagery, Ording illustrates the flexibility and creative potential of mathematics despite its reputation for precision and rigor. Readers will gain not only a bird's-eye view of the discipline and its major branches but also new insights into its historical, philosophical, and cultural nuances. Readers, no matter their level of expertise, will discover in these proofs and accompanying commentary surprising new aspects of the mathematical landscape.

This title introduces the theory of arc schemes in algebraic geometry and singularity theory, with special emphasis on recent developments around the Nash problem for surfaces. The main challenges are to understand the global and local structure of arc schemes, and how they relate to the nature of the singularities on the variety. Since the arc scheme is an infinite dimensional object, new tools need to be developed to give a precise meaning to the notion of a singular point of the arc scheme.Other related topics are also explored, including motivic integration and dual intersection complexes of resolutions of singularities. Written by leading international experts, it offers a broad overview of different applications of arc schemes in algebraic geometry, singularity theory and representation theory.

This book introduces the reader to basic notions of integrable techniques for one-dimensional quantum systems. In a pedagogical way, a few examples of exactly solvable models are worked out to go from the coordinate approach to the Algebraic Bethe Ansatz, with some discussion on the finite temperature thermodynamics. The aim is to provide the instruments to approach more advanced books or to allow for a critical reading of research articles and the extraction of useful information from them. We describe the solution of the anisotropic XY spin chain; of the Lieb-Liniger model of bosons with contact interaction at zero and finite temperature; and of the XXZ spin chain, first in the coordinate and then in the algebraic approach. To establish the connection between the latter and the solution of two dimensional classical models, we also introduce and solve the 6-vertex model. Finally, the low energy physics of these integrable models is mapped into the corresponding conformal field theory. Through its style and the choice of topics, this book tries to touch all fundamental ideas behind integrability and is meant for students and researchers interested either in an introduction to later delve in the advance aspects of Bethe Ansatz or in an overview of the topic for broadening their culture.

As in the previous Seminar Notes, the current volume reflects general trends in the study of Geometric Aspects of Functional Analysis, understood in a broad sense. A classical theme in the Local Theory of Banach Spaces which is well represented in this volume is the identification of lower-dimensional structures in high-dimensional objects. More recent applications of high-dimensionality are manifested by contributions in Random Matrix Theory, Concentration of Measure and Empirical Processes. Naturally, the Gaussian measure plays a central role in many of these topics, and is also studied in this volume; in particular, the recent breakthrough proof of the Gaussian Correlation Conjecture is revisited. The interplay of the theory with Harmonic and Spectral Analysis is also well apparent in several contributions. The classical relation to both the primal and dual Brunn-Minkowski theories is also well represented, and related algebraic structures pertaining to valuations and valent functions are discussed. All contributions are original research papers and were subject to the usual refereeing standards.

The classification of algebraic surfaces is an intricate and fascinating branch of mathematics, developed over more than a century and still an active area of research today. In this book, Professor Beauville gives a lucid and concise account of the subject, expressed simply in the language of modern topology and sheaf theory, and accessible to any budding geometer. A chapter on preliminary material ensures that this volume is self-contained while the exercises succeed both in giving the flavor of the classical subject, and in equipping the reader with the techniques needed for research. The book is aimed at graduate students in geometry and topology.

Providing a timely description of the present state of the art of moduli spaces of curves and their geometry, this volume is written in a way which will make it extremely useful both for young people who want to approach this important field, and also for established researchers, who will find references, problems, original expositions, new viewpoints, etc. The book collects the lecture notes of a number of leading algebraic geometers and in particular specialists in the field of moduli spaces of curves and their geometry. This is an important subject in algebraic geometry and complex analysis which has seen spectacular developments in recent decades, with important applications to other parts of mathematics such as birational geometry and enumerative geometry, and to other sciences, including physics. The themes treated are classical but with a constant look to modern developments (see Cascini, Debarre, Farkas, and Sernesi's contributions), and include very new material, such as Bridgeland stability (see Macri's lecture notes) and tropical geometry (see Chan's lecture notes).

This volume is based on four advanced courses held at the Centre de Recerca Matematica (CRM), Barcelona. It presents both background information and recent developments on selected topics that are experiencing extraordinary growth within the broad research area of geometry and quantization of moduli spaces. The lectures focus on the geometry of moduli spaces which are mostly associated to compact Riemann surfaces, and are presented from both classical and quantum perspectives.