Since Benoit Mandelbrot's pioneering work in the late 1970s, scores of research articles and books have been published on the topic of fractals. Despite the volume of literature in the field, the general level of theoretical understanding has remained low; most work is aimed either at too mainstream an audience to achieve any depth or at too specialized a community to achieve widespread use. Written by celebrated mathematician and educator A.A. Kirillov, A Tale of Two Fractals is intended to help bridge this gap, providing an original treatment of fractals that is at once accessible to beginners and sufficiently rigorous for serious mathematicians. The work is designed to give young, non-specialist mathematicians a solid foundation in the theory of fractals, and, in the process, to equip them with exposure to a variety of geometric, analytical, and algebraic tools with applications across other areas.

Quantum cohomology has its origins in symplectic geometry and algebraic geometry, but is deeply related to differential equations and integrable systems. This text explains what is behind the extraordinary success of quantum cohomology, leading to its connections with many existing areas of mathematics as well as its appearance in new areas such as mirror symmetry.
Certain kinds of differential equations (or D-modules) provide the key links between quantum cohomology and traditional mathematics; these links are the main focus of the book, and quantum cohomology and other integrable PDEs such as the KdV equation and the harmonic map equation are discussed within this unified framework.
Aimed at graduate students in mathematics who want to learn about quantum cohomology in a broad context, and theoretical physicists who are interested in the mathematical setting, the text assumes basic familiarity with differential equations and cohomology.

This monograph focuses on the geometric theory of motivic integration, which takes its values in the Grothendieck ring of varieties. This theory is rooted in a groundbreaking idea of Kontsevich and was further developed by Denef & Loeser and Sebag. It is presented in the context of formal schemes over a discrete valuation ring, without any restriction on the residue characteristic. The text first discusses the main features of the Grothendieck ring of varieties, arc schemes, and Greenberg schemes. It then moves on to motivic integration and its applications to birational geometry and non-Archimedean geometry. Also included in the work is a prologue on p-adic analytic manifolds, which served as a model for motivic integration. With its extensive discussion of preliminaries and applications, this book is an ideal resource for graduate students of algebraic geometry and researchers of motivic integration. It will also serve as a motivation for more recent and sophisticated theories that have been developed since.

Like the first Abel Symposium, held in 2004, the Abel Symposium 2015 focused on operator algebras. It is interesting to see the remarkable advances that have been made in operator algebras over these years, which strikingly illustrate the vitality of the field. A total of 26 talks were given at the symposium on a variety of themes, all highlighting the richness of the subject. The field of operator algebras was created in the 1930s and was motivated by problems of quantum mechanics. It has subsequently developed well beyond its initial intended realm of applications and expanded into such diverse areas of mathematics as representation theory, dynamical systems, differential geometry, number theory and quantum algebra. One branch, known as "noncommutative geometry", has become a powerful tool for studying phenomena that are beyond the reach of classical analysis. This volume includes research papers that present new results, surveys that discuss the development of a specific line of research, and articles that offer a combination of survey and research. These contributions provide a multifaceted portrait of beautiful mathematics that both newcomers to the field of operator algebras and seasoned researchers alike will appreciate.

This introductory volume provides the basics of surface-knots and related topics, not only for researchers in these areas but also for graduate students and researchers who are not familiar with the field.Knot theory is one of the most active research fields in modern mathematics. Knots and links are closed curves (one-dimensional manifolds) in Euclidean 3-space, and they are related to braids and 3-manifolds. These notions are generalized into higher dimensions. Surface-knots or surface-links are closed surfaces (two-dimensional manifolds) in Euclidean 4-space, which are related to two-dimensional braids and 4-manifolds. Surface-knot theory treats not only closed surfaces but also surfaces with boundaries in 4-manifolds. For example, knot concordance and knot cobordism, which are also important objects in knot theory, are surfaces in the product space of the 3-sphere and the interval.Included in this book are basics of surface-knots and the related topics of classical knots, the motion picture method, surface diagrams, handle surgeries, ribbon surface-knots, spinning construction, knot concordance and 4-genus, quandles and their homology theory, and two-dimensional braids.

This collection of high-quality articles in the field of combinatorics, geometry, algebraic topology and theoretical computer science is a tribute to Jiri Matousek, who passed away prematurely in March 2015. It is a collaborative effort by his colleagues and friends, who have paid particular attention to clarity of exposition - something Jirka would have approved of. The original research articles, surveys and expository articles, written by leading experts in their respective fields, map Jiri Matousek's numerous areas of mathematical interest.

This monograph presents an application of concepts and methods from algebraic topology to models of concurrent processes in computer science and their analysis. Taking well-known discrete models for concurrent processes in resource management as a point of departure, the book goes on to refine combinatorial and topological models. In the process, it develops tools and invariants for the new discipline directed algebraic topology, which is driven by fundamental research interests as well as by applications, primarily in the static analysis of concurrent programs. The state space of a concurrent program is described as a higher-dimensional space, the topology of which encodes the essential properties of the system. In order to analyse all possible executions in the state space, more than "just" the topological properties have to be considered: Execution paths need to respect a partial order given by the time flow. As a result, tools and concepts from topology have to be extended to take privileged directions into account. The target audience for this book consists of graduate students, researchers and practitioners in the field, mathematicians and computer scientists alike.

This lecture notes volume presents significant contributions from the "Algebraic Geometry and Number Theory" Summer School, held at Galatasaray University, Istanbul, June 2-13, 2014. It addresses subjects ranging from Arakelov geometry and Iwasawa theory to classical projective geometry, birational geometry and equivariant cohomology. Its main aim is to introduce these contemporary research topics to graduate students who plan to specialize in the area of algebraic geometry and/or number theory. All contributions combine main concepts and techniques with motivating examples and illustrative problems for the covered subjects. Naturally, the book will also be of interest to researchers working in algebraic geometry, number theory and related fields.

The algebraic techniques developed by Kakde will almost certainly lead eventually to major progress in the study of congruences between automorphic forms and the main conjectures of non-commutative Iwasawa theory for many motives. Non-commutative Iwasawa theory has emerged dramatically over the last decade, culminating in the recent proof of the non-commutative main conjecture for the Tate motive over a totally real p-adic Lie extension of a number field, independently by Ritter and Weiss on the one hand, and Kakde on the other. The initial ideas for giving a precise formulation of the non-commutative main conjecture were discovered by Venjakob, and were then systematically developed in the subsequent papers by Coates-Fukaya-Kato-Sujatha-Venjakob and Fukaya-Kato. There was also parallel related work in this direction by Burns and Flach on the equivariant Tamagawa number conjecture. Subsequently, Kato discovered an important idea for studying the K_1 groups of non-abelian Iwasawa algebras in terms of the K_1 groups of the abelian quotients of these Iwasawa algebras. Kakde's proof is a beautiful development of these ideas of Kato, combined with an idea of Burns, and essentially reduces the study of the non-abelian main conjectures to abelian ones. The approach of Ritter and Weiss is more classical, and partly inspired by techniques of Frohlich and Taylor. Since many of the ideas in this book should eventually be applicable to other motives, one of its major aims is to provide a self-contained exposition of some of the main general themes underlying these developments. The present volume will be a valuable resource for researchers working in both Iwasawa theory and the theory of automorphic forms.

Algebra, geometry and topology cover a variety of different, but intimately related research fields in modern mathematics. This book focuses on specific aspects of this interaction. The present volume contains refereed papers which were presented at the International Conference "Experimental and Theoretical Methods in Algebra, Geometry and Topology", held in Eforie Nord (near Constanta), Romania, during 20-25 June 2013. The conference was devoted to the 60th anniversary of the distinguished Romanian mathematicians Alexandru Dimca and Stefan Papadima. The selected papers consist of original research work and a survey paper. They are intended for a large audience, including researchers and graduate students interested in algebraic geometry, combinatorics, topology, hyperplane arrangements and commutative algebra. The papers are written by well-known experts from different fields of mathematics, affiliated to universities from all over the word, they cover a broad range of topics and explore the research frontiers of a wide variety of contemporary problems of modern mathematics.

Rational homotopy is a very powerful tool for differential topology and geometry. This text aims to provide graduates and researchers with the tools necessary for the use of rational homotopy in geometry. Algebraic Models in Geometry has been written for topologists who are drawn to geometrical problems amenable to topological methods and also for geometers who are faced with problems requiring topological approaches and thus need a simple and concrete introduction to rational homotopy. This is essentially a book of applications. Geodesics, curvature, embeddings of manifolds, blow-ups, complex and Kahler manifolds, symplectic geometry, torus actions, configurations and arrangements are all covered. The chapters related to these subjects act as an introduction to the topic, a survey, and a guide to the literature. But no matter what the particular subject is, the central theme of the book persists; namely, there is a beautiful connection between geometry and rational homotopy which both serves to solve geometric problems and spur the development of topological methods.

This monograph summarizes and extends a number of results on the topology of trigonal curves in geometrically ruled surfaces. An emphasis is given to various applications of the theory to a few related areas, most notably singular plane curves of small degree, elliptic surfaces, and Lefschetz fibrations (both complex and real), and Hurwitz equivalence of braid monodromy factorizations. The approach relies on a close relation between trigonal curves/elliptic surfaces, a certain class of ribbon graphs, and subgroups of the modular group, which provides a combinatorial framework for the study of geometric objects. A brief summary of the necessary auxiliary results and techniques used and a background of the principal problems dealt with are included in the text. The book is intended to researchers and graduate students in the field of topology of complex and real algebraic varieties.

This book emphasizes in detail the applicability of the Optimal Homotopy Asymptotic Method to various engineering problems. It is a continuation of the book "Nonlinear Dynamical Systems in Engineering: Some Approximate Approaches", published at Springer in 2011 and it contains a great amount of practical models from various fields of engineering such as classical and fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, nonlinear oscillations, electrical machines and so on. The main structure of the book consists of 5 chapters. The first chapter is introductory while the second chapter is devoted to a short history of the development of homotopy methods, including the basic ideas of the Optimal Homotopy Asymptotic Method. The last three chapters, from Chapter 3 to Chapter 5, are introducing three distinct alternatives of the Optimal Homotopy Asymptotic Method with illustrative applications to nonlinear dynamical systems. The third chapter deals with the first alternative of our approach with two iterations. Five applications are presented from fluid mechanics and nonlinear oscillations. The Chapter 4 presents the Optimal Homotopy Asymptotic Method with a single iteration and solving the linear equation on the first approximation. Here are treated 32 models from different fields of engineering such as fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, nonlinear damped and undamped oscillations, electrical machines and even from physics and biology. The last chapter is devoted to the Optimal Homotopy Asymptotic Method with a single iteration but without solving the equation in the first approximation.

The most important invariant of a topological space is its fundamental group. When this is trivial, the resulting homotopy theory is well researched and familiar. In the general case, however, homotopy theory over nontrivial fundamental groups is much more problematic and far less well understood.

"Syzygies and Homotopy Theory" explores the problem of nonsimply connected homotopy in the first nontrivial cases and presents, for the first time, a systematic rehabilitation of Hilbert's method of syzygies in the context of non-simply connected homotopy theory. The first part of the book is theoretical, formulated to allow a general finitely presented group as a fundamental group. The innovation here is to regard syzygies as stable modules rather than minimal modules. Inevitably this forces a reconsideration of the problems of noncancellation; these are confronted in the second, practical, part of the book. In particular, the second part of the book considers how the theory works out in detail for the specific examples "F""n"" "F where "F""n "is a free group of rank "n" and F is finite. Another innovation is to parametrize the first syzygy in terms of the more familiar class of stably free modules. Furthermore, detailed description of these stably free modules is effected by a suitable modification of the method of Milnor squares.

The theory developed within this book has potential applications in various branches of algebra, including homological algebra, ring theory and K-theory. "Syzygies and Homotopy Theory "will be of interest to researchers and also to graduate students with a background in algebra and algebraic topology."

A Kleinian group is a discrete subgroup of the isometry group of hyperbolic 3-space, which is also regarded as a subgroup of Moebius transformations in the complex plane. The present book is a comprehensive guide to theories of Kleinian groups from the viewpoints of hyperbolic geometry and complex analysis. After 1960, Ahlfors and Bers were the leading researchers of Kleinian groups and helped it to become an active area of complex analysis as a branch of Teichmuller theory. Later, Thurston brought a revolution to this area with his profound investigation of hyperbolic manifolds, and at the same time complex dynamical approach was strongly developed by Sullivan. This book provides fundamental results and important theorems which are needed for access to the frontiers of the theory from a modern viewpoint.

This book provides a detailed and largely self-contained description of various classical and new results on solvability and unsolvability of equations in explicit form. In particular, it offers a complete exposition of the relatively new area of topological Galois theory, initiated by the author. Applications of Galois theory to solvability of algebraic equations by radicals, basics of Picard-Vessiot theory, and Liouville's results on the class of functions representable by quadratures are also discussed. A unique feature of this book is that recent results are presented in the same elementary manner as classical Galois theory, which will make the book useful and interesting to readers with varied backgrounds in mathematics, from undergraduate students to researchers. In this English-language edition, extra material has been added (Appendices A-D), the last two of which were written jointly with Yura Burda.

This 3. edition is an introduction to classical knot theory. It contains many figures and some tables of invariants of knots. This comprehensive account is an indispensable reference source for anyone interested in both classical and modern knot theory. Most of the topics considered in the book are developed in detail; only the main properties of fundamental groups and some basic results of combinatorial group theory are assumed to be known.

This book uncovers mathematical structures underlying natural intelligence and applies category theory as a modeling language for understanding human cognition, giving readers new insights into the nature of human thought. In this context, the book explores various topics and questions, such as the human representation of the number system, why our counting ability is different from that which is evident among non-human organisms, and why the idea of zero is so difficult to grasp. The book is organized into three parts: the first introduces the general reason for studying general structures underlying the human mind; the second part introduces category theory as a modeling language and use it for exposing the deep and fascinating structures underlying human cognition; and the third applies the general principles and ideas of the first two parts to reaching a better understanding of challenging aspects of the human mind such as our understanding of the number system, the metaphorical nature of our thinking and the logic of our unconscious dynamics.

From a Geometrical Point of View explores historical and philosophical aspects of category theory, trying therewith to expose its significance in the mathematical landscape. The main thesis is that Klein's Erlangen program in geometry is in fact a particular instance of a general and broad phenomenon revealed by category theory. The volume starts with Eilenberg and Mac Lane's work in the early 1940's and follows the major developments of the theory from this perspective. Particular attention is paid to the philosophical elements involved in this development. The book ends with a presentation of categorical logic, some of its results and its significance in the foundations of mathematics.

From a Geometrical Point of View aims to provide its readers with a conceptual perspective on category theory and categorical logic, in order to gain insight into their role and nature in contemporary mathematics. It should be of interest to mathematicians, logicians, philosophers of mathematics and science in general, historians of contemporary mathematics, physicists and computer scientists.

Manifolds fall naturally into two classes depending on whether they can be fitted with a distance measuring function or not. The former, metrisable manifolds, and especially compact manifolds, have been intensively studied by topologists for over a century, whereas the latter, non-metrisable manifolds, are much more abundant but have a more modest history, having become of increasing interest only over the past 40 years or so. The first book on this topic, this book ranges from criteria for metrisability, dynamics on non-metrisable manifolds, Nyikos's Bagpipe Theorem and whether perfectly normal manifolds are metrisable to structures on manifolds, especially the abundance of exotic differential structures and the dearth of foliations on the long plane. A rigid foliation of the Euclidean plane is described. This book is intended for graduate students and mathematicians who are curious about manifolds beyond the metrisability wall, and especially the use of Set Theory as a tool.

This collection of survey lectures in mathematics traces the career of Beno Eckmann, whose work ranges across a broad spectrum of mathematical concepts from topology through homological algebra to group theory. One of our most influential living mathematicians, Eckmann has been associated for nearly his entire professional life with the Swiss Federal Technical University (ETH) at Zurich, as student, lecturer, professor, and professor emeritus.

This book is a survey of current topics in the mathematical theory of knots. For a mathematician, a knot is a closed loop in 3-dimensional space: imagine knotting an extension cord and then closing it up by inserting its plug into its outlet. Knot theory is of central importance in pure and applied mathematics, as it stands at a crossroads of topology, combinatorics, algebra, mathematical physics and biochemistry.
* Survey of mathematical knot theory
* Articles by leading world authorities
* Clear exposition, not over-technical
* Accessible to readers with undergraduate background in mathematics

This book offers a detailed presentation of results needed to prove the Morse Homology Theorem using classical techniques from algebraic topology and homotopy theory. The text presents results that were formerly scattered in the mathematical literature, in a single reference with complete and detailed proofs. The core material includes CW-complexes, Morse theory, hyperbolic dynamical systems (the Lamba-Lemma, the Stable/Unstable Manifold Theorem), transversality theory, the Morse-Smale-Witten boundary operator, and Conley index theory.

This proceedings book brings selected works from two conferences, the 2nd Brazil-Mexico Meeting on Singularity and the 3rd Northeastern Brazilian Meeting on Singularities, that were hold in Salvador, in July 2015. All contributions were carefully peer-reviewed and revised, and cover topics like Equisingularity, Topology and Geometry of Singularities, Topological Classification of Singularities of Mappings, and more. They were written by mathematicians from several countries, including Brazil, Spain, Mexico, Japan and the USA, on relevant topics on Theory of Singularity, such as studies on deformations, Milnor fibration, foliations, Catastrophe theory, and myriad applications. Open problems are also introduced, making this volume a must-read both for graduate students and active researchers in this field.

This thesis describes a new connection between algebraic geometry, topology, number theory and quantum field theory. It offers a pedagogical introduction to algebraic topology, allowing readers to rapidly develop basic skills, and it also presents original ideas to inspire new research in the quest for dualities. Its ambitious goal is to construct a method based on the universal coefficient theorem for identifying new dualities connecting different domains of quantum field theory. This thesis opens a new area of research in the domain of non-perturbative physics-one in which the use of different coefficient structures in (co)homology may lead to previously unknown connections between different regimes of quantum field theories. The origin of dualities is an issue in fundamental physics that continues to puzzle the research community with unexpected results like the AdS/CFT duality or the ER-EPR conjecture. This thesis analyzes these observations from a novel and original point of view, mainly based on a fundamental connection between number theory and topology. Beyond its scientific qualities, it also offers a pedagogical introduction to advanced mathematics and its connection with physics. This makes it a valuable resource for students in mathematical physics and researchers wanting to gain insights into (co)homology theories with coefficients or the way in which Grothendieck's work may be connected with physics.