Pluripotential theory is a very powerful tool in geometry, complex analysis and dynamics. This volume brings together the lectures held at the 2011 CIME session on "pluripotential theory" in Cetraro, Italy. This CIME course focused on complex Monge-Ampere equations, applications of pluripotential theory to Kahler geometry and algebraic geometry and to holomorphic dynamics. The contributions provide an extensive description of the theory and its very recent developments, starting from basic introductory materials and concluding with open questions in current research.

Serge Lang (1927-2005) was one of the top mathematicians of our time. He was born in Paris in 1927, and moved with his family to California, where he graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1943. He subsequently graduated from California Institute of Technology in 1946, and received a doctorate from Princeton University in 1951 before holding faculty positions at the University of Chicago and Columbia University (1955-1971). At the time of his death he was professor emeritus of Mathematics at Yale University.
An excellent writer, Lang has made innumerable and invaluable contributions in diverse fields of mathematics. He was perhaps best known for his work in number theory and for his mathematics textbooks, including the influential "Algebra." He was also a member of the Bourbaki group.
He was honored with the Cole Prize by the American Mathematical Society as well as with the Prix Carriere by the French Academy of Sciences. These five volumes collect the majority of his research papers, which range over a variety of topics."

Addressing graduate students and researchers in physics and mathematics, this book fills a gap in the literature. It is an introduction into modern constructive physics, field theory and statistical mechanics and a survey on the most recent research in this field. It presents the main technical tools such as cluster expansion and their implementation in the rigorous renormalization group, and studies physical models in some detail. The reader will find a study of the ultraviolet limit of the Gross-Neveu model, of continuous symmetry breaking and of self-avoiding random walks in statistical mechanics, as well as applications to solid-state physics. Mathematicians will find constructive methods useful for studies in partial differential equations.

In recognition of professor Shiing-Shen Chern's long and distinguished service to mathematics and to the University of California, the geometers at Berkeley held an International Symposium in Global Analysis and Global Geometry in his honor in June 1979. The output of this Symposium was published in a series of three separate volumes, comprising approximately a third of Professor Chern's total publications up to 1979. Later, a fourth volume was published, focusing on papers written during the Eighties. This third volume comprises selected papers written between 1965 and 1979.

This book and the following second volume is an introduction into modern algebraic geometry. In the first volume the methods of homological algebra, theory of sheaves, and sheaf cohomology are developed. These methods are indispensable for modern algebraic geometry, but they are also fundamental for other branches of mathematics and of great interest in their own.
In the last chapter of volume I these concepts are applied to the theory of compact Riemann surfaces. In this chapter the author makes clear how influential the ideas of Abel, Riemann and Jacobi were and that many of the modern methods have been anticipated by them.
For this second edition the text was completely revised and corrected. The author also added a short section on moduli of elliptic curves with N-level structures. This new paragraph anticipates some of the techniques of volume II.

The Jacobian of a smooth projective curve is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable and beautiful objects in algebraic geometry. This work is an attempt to develop an analogous theory for smooth projective surfaces - a theory of the nonabelian Jacobian of smooth projective surfaces. Just like its classical counterpart, our nonabelian Jacobian relates to vector bundles (of rank 2) on a surface as well as its Hilbert scheme of points. But it also comes equipped with the variation of Hodge-like structures, which produces a sheaf of reductive Lie algebras naturally attached to our Jacobian. This constitutes a nonabelian analogue of the (abelian) Lie algebra structure of the classical Jacobian. This feature naturally relates geometry of surfaces with the representation theory of reductive Lie algebras/groups. This work's main focus is on providing an in-depth study of various aspects of this relation. It presents a substantial body of evidence that the sheaf of Lie algebras on the nonabelian Jacobian is an efficient tool for using the representation theory to systematically address various algebro-geometric problems. It also shows how to construct new invariants of representation theoretic origin on smooth projective surfaces.

Stochastic geometry, based on current developments in geometry, probability and measure theory, makes possible modeling of two- and three-dimensional random objects with interactions as they appear in the microstructure of materials, biological tissues, macroscopically in soil, geological sediments etc. In combination with spatial statistics it is used for the solution of practical problems such as the description of spatial arrangements and the estimation of object characteristics. A related field is stereology, which makes possible inference on the structures, based on lower-dimensional observations. Unfolding problems for particle systems and extremes of particle characteristics are studied. The reader can learn about current developments in stochastic geometry with mathematical rigor on one hand and find applications to real microstructure analysis in natural and material sciences on the other hand.

This book covers the modular invariant theory of finite groups, the case when the characteristic of the field divides the order of the group, a theory that is more complicated than the study of the classical non-modular case. Largely self-contained, the book develops the theory from its origins up to modern results. It explores many examples, illustrating the theory and its contrast with the better understood non-modular setting. It details techniques for the computation of invariants for many modular representations of finite groups, especially the case of the cyclic group of prime order. It includes detailed examples of many topics as well as a quick survey of the elements of algebraic geometry and commutative algebra as they apply to invariant theory. The book is aimed at both graduate students and researchers-an introduction to many important topics in modern algebra within a concrete setting for the former, an exploration of a fascinating subfield of algebraic geometry for the latter.

Serge Lang (1927-2005) was one of the top mathematicians of our time. He was born in Paris in 1927, and moved with his family to California, where he graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1943. He subsequently graduated from California Institute of Technology in 1946, and received a doctorate from Princeton University in 1951 before holding faculty positions at the University of Chicago and Columbia University (1955-1971). At the time of his death he was professor emeritus of Mathematics at Yale University. An excellent writer, Lang has made innumerable and invaluable contributions in diverse fields of mathematics. He was perhaps best known for his work in number theory and for his mathematics textbooks, including the influential Algebra. He was also a member of the Bourbaki group. He was honored with the Cole Prize by the American Mathematical Society as well as with the Prix Carriere by the French Academy of Sciences. These five volumes collect the majority of his research papers, which range over a variety of topics.

Serge Lang (1927-2005) was one of the top mathematicians of our time. He was born in Paris in 1927, and moved with his family to California, where he graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1943. He subsequently graduated from California Institute of Technology in 1946, and received a doctorate from Princeton University in 1951 before holding faculty positions at the University of Chicago and Columbia University (1955-1971). At the time of his death he was professor emeritus of Mathematics at Yale University. An excellent writer, Lang has made innumerable and invaluable contributions in diverse fields of mathematics. He was perhaps best known for his work in number theory and for his mathematics textbooks, including the influential Algebra. He was also a member of the Bourbaki group. He was honored with the Cole Prize by the American Mathematical Society as well as with the Prix Carriere by the French Academy of Sciences. These five volumes collect the majority of his research papers, which range over a variety of topics"

Previous publications on the generalization of the Thomae formulae to "Zn" curves have emphasized the theory's implications in mathematical physics and depended heavily on applied mathematical techniques. This book redevelops these previous results demonstrating how they can be derived directly from the basic properties of theta functions as functions on compact Riemann surfaces.

"Generalizations of Thomae's Formulafor "Zn" Curves" includes several refocused proofs developed in a generalized context that is more accessible to researchers in related mathematical fields such as algebraic geometry, complex analysis, and number theory.

This book is intended for mathematicians with an interest in complex analysis, algebraic geometry or number theory as well as physicists studying conformal field theory."

This book is an introduction to the mathematical theory of design for articulated mechanical systems known as linkages. The focus is on sizing mechanical constraints that guide the movement of a work piece, or end-effector, of the system. The function of the device is prescribed as a set of positions to be reachable by the end-effector; and the mechanical constraints are formed by joints that limit relative movement. The goal is to find all the devices that can achieve a specific task. Formulated in this way the design problem is purely geometric in character. Robot manipulators, walking machines, and mechanical hands are examples of articulated mechanical systems that rely on simple mechanical constraints to provide a complex workspace for the end- effector. The principles presented in this book form the foundation for a design theory for these devices. The emphasis, however, is on articulated systems with fewer degrees of freedom than that of the typical robotic system, and therefore, less complexity. This book will be useful to mathematics, engineering and computer science departments teaching courses on mathematical modeling of robotics and other articulated mechanical systems. This new edition includes research results of the past decade on the synthesis of multi loop planar and spherical linkages, and the use of homotopy methods and Clifford algebras in the synthesis of spatial serial chains. One new chapter on the synthesis of spatial serial chains introduces numerical homotopy and the linear product decomposition of polynomial systems. The second new chapter introduces the Clifford algebra formulation of the kinematics equations of serial chain robots. Examples are use throughout to demonstrate the theory.

Ricci Flow for Shape Analysis and Surface Registration introduces the beautiful and profound Ricci flow theory in a discrete setting. By using basic tools in linear algebra and multivariate calculus, readers can deduce all the major theorems in surface Ricci flow by themselves. The authors adapt the Ricci flow theory to practical computational algorithms, apply Ricci flow for shape analysis and surface registration, and demonstrate the power of Ricci flow in many applications in medical imaging, computer graphics, computer vision and wireless sensor network. Due to minimal pre-requisites, this book is accessible to engineers and medical experts, including educators, researchers, students and industry engineers who have an interest in solving real problems related to shape analysis and surface registration.

A unique series of fascinating research papers on subjects related to the work of Niels Henrik Abel, written by some of the foremost specialists in their fields. Some of the authors have been specifically invited to present papers, discussing the influence of Abel in a mathematical-historical context. Others have submitted papers presented at the Abel Bicentennial Conference, Oslo June 3-8, 2002. The idea behind the book has been to produce a text covering a substantial part of the legacy of Abel, as perceived at the beginning of the 21st century.

Just suppose, for a moment, that all rings of integers in algebraic number fields were unique factorization domains, then it would be fairly easy to produce a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, fitting, say, in the margin of this page. Unfortunately however, rings of integers are not that nice in general, so that, for centuries, math ematicians had to search for alternative proofs, a quest which culminated finally in Wiles' marvelous results - but this is history. The fact remains that modern algebraic number theory really started off with in vestigating the problem which rings of integers actually are unique factorization domains. The best approach to this question is, of course, through the general the ory of Dedekind rings, using the full power of their class group, whose vanishing is, by its very definition, equivalent to the unique factorization property. Using the fact that a Dedekind ring is essentially just a one-dimensional global version of discrete valuation rings, one easily verifies that the class group of a Dedekind ring coincides with its Picard group, thus making it into a nice, functorial invariant, which may be studied and calculated through algebraic, geometric and co homological methods. In view of the success of the use of the class group within the framework of Dedekind rings, one may wonder whether it may be applied in other contexts as well. However, for more general rings, even the definition of the class group itself causes problems."

Polyhedral and Algebraic Methods in Computational Geometry provides a thorough introduction into algorithmic geometry and its applications. It presents its primary topics from the viewpoints of discrete, convex and elementary algebraic geometry. The first part of the book studies classical problems and techniques that refer to polyhedral structures. The authors include a study on algorithms for computing convex hulls as well as the construction of Voronoi diagrams and Delone triangulations. The second part of the book develops the primary concepts of (non-linear) computational algebraic geometry. Here, the book looks at Groebner bases and solving systems of polynomial equations. The theory is illustrated by applications in computer graphics, curve reconstruction and robotics. Throughout the book, interconnections between computational geometry and other disciplines (such as algebraic geometry, optimization and numerical mathematics) are established. Polyhedral and Algebraic Methods in Computational Geometry is directed towards advanced undergraduates in mathematics and computer science, as well as towards engineering students who are interested in the applications of computational geometry.

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.

Originally published in 1985, this classic textbook is an English translation of "Einfuhrung in die kommutative Algebra und algebraische Geometrie." As part of the Modern Birkhauser Classics series, the publisher is proud to make "Introduction to Commutative Algebra and Algebraic Geometry" available to a wider audience.

Aimed at students who have taken a basic course in algebra, the goal of the text is to present important results concerning the representation of algebraic varieties as intersections of the least possible number of hypersurfaces and a closely related problem with the most economical generation of ideals in Noetherian rings. Along the way, one encounters many basic concepts of commutative algebra and algebraic geometry and proves many facts which can then serve as a basic stock for a deeper study of these subjects.

"

This volume began as the last part of a one-term graduate course given at the Fields Institute for Research in the Mathematical Sciences in the Autumn of 1993. The course was one of four associated with the 1993-94 Fields Institute programme, which I helped to organise, entitled "Artin L-functions". Published as [132]' the final chapter of the course introduced a manner in which to construct class-group valued invariants from Galois actions on the algebraic K-groups, in dimensions two and three, of number rings. These invariants were inspired by the analogous Chin burg invariants of [34], which correspond to dimensions zero and one. The classical Chinburg invariants measure the Galois structure of classical objects such as units in rings of algebraic integers. However, at the "Galois Module Structure" workshop in February 1994, discussions about my invariant (0,1 (L/ K, 3) in the notation of Chapter 5) after my lecture revealed that a number of other higher-dimensional co homological and motivic invariants of a similar nature were beginning to surface in the work of several authors. Encouraged by this trend and convinced that K-theory is the archetypical motivic cohomology theory, I gratefully took the opportunity of collaboration on computing and generalizing these K-theoretic invariants. These generalizations took several forms - local and global, for example - as I followed part of number theory and the prevalent trends in the "Galois Module Structure" arithmetic geometry.

Restricted-orientation convexity is the study of geometric objects whose intersections with lines from some fixed set are connected. This notion generalizes standard convexity and several types of nontraditional convexity. The authors explore the properties of this generalized convexity in multidimensional Euclidean space, and describ restricted-orientation analogs of lines, hyperplanes, flats, halfspaces, and identify major properties of standard convex sets that also hold for restricted-orientation convexity. They then introduce the notion of strong restricted-orientation convexity, which is an alternative generalization of convexity, and show that its properties are also similar to that of standard convexity.

Assuming that the reader is familiar with sheaf theory, the book gives a self-contained introduction to the theory of constructible sheaves related to many kinds of singular spaces, such as cell complexes, triangulated spaces, semialgebraic and subanalytic sets, complex algebraic or analytic sets, stratified spaces, and quotient spaces. The relation to the underlying geometrical ideas are worked out in detail, together with many applications to the topology of such spaces. All chapters have their own detailed introduction, containing the main results and definitions, illustrated in simple terms by a number of examples. The technical details of the proof are postponed to later sections, since these are not needed for the applications.

This text covers Riemann surface theory from elementary aspects to the fontiers of current research. Open and closed surfaces are treated with emphasis on the compact case, while basic tools are developed to describe the analytic, geometric, and algebraic properties of Riemann surfaces and the associated Abelian varities. Topics covered include existence of meromorphic functions, the Riemann-Roch theorem, Abel's theorem, the Jacobi inversion problem, Noether's theorem, and the Riemann vanishing theorem. A complete treatment of the uniformization of Riemann sufaces via Fuchsian groups, including branched coverings, is presented, as are alternate proofs for the most important results, showing the diversity of approaches to the subject. Of interest not only to pure mathematicians, but also to physicists interested in string theory and related topics.

The International Conference on Linear Statistical Inference LINSTAT'93 was held in Poznan, Poland, from May 31 to June 4, 1993. The purpose of the confer ence was to enable scientists, from various countries, engaged in the diverse areas of statistical sciences and practice to meet together and exchange views and re sults related to the current research on linear statistical inference in its broadest sense. Thus, the conference programme included sessions on estimation, prediction and testing in linear models, on robustness of some relevant statistical methods, on estimation of variance components appearing in linear models, on certain gen eralizations to nonlinear models, on design and analysis of experiments, including optimality and comparison of linear experiments, and on some other topics related to linear statistical inference. Within the various sessions 22 invited papers and 37 contributed papers were presented, 12 of them as posters. The conference gathered 94 participants from eighteen countries of Europe, North America and Asia. There were 53 participants from abroad and 41 from Poland. The conference was the second of this type, devoted to linear statistical inference. The first was held in Poznan in June, 4-8, 1984. Both belong to the series of confer ences on mathematical statistics and probability theory organized under the auspices of the Committee of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, due to the ini tiative and efforts of its Mathematical Statistics Section. In the years 1973-1993 there were held in Poland nineteen such conferences, some of them international."

The section conjecture in anabelian geometry, announced by Grothendieck in 1983, is concerned with a description of the set of rational points of a hyperbolic algebraic curve over a number field in terms of the arithmetic of its fundamental group. While the conjecture is still open today in 2012, its study has revealed interesting arithmetic for curves and opened connections, for example, to the question whether the Brauer-Manin obstruction is the only one against rational points on curves. This monograph begins by laying the foundations for the space of sections of the fundamental group extension of an algebraic variety. Then, arithmetic assumptions on the base field are imposed and the local-to-global approach is studied in detail. The monograph concludes by discussing analogues of the section conjecture created by varying the base field or the type of variety, or by using a characteristic quotient or its birational analogue in lieu of the fundamental group extension.