In the study of algebraic/analytic varieties a key aspect is the description of the invariants of their singularities. This book targets the challenging non-isolated case. Let f be a complex analytic hypersurface germ in three variables whose zero set has a 1-dimensional singular locus. We develop an explicit procedure and algorithm that describe the boundary M of the Milnor fiber of f as an oriented plumbed 3-manifold. This method also provides the characteristic polynomial of the algebraic monodromy. We then determine the multiplicity system of the open book decomposition of M cut out by the argument of g for any complex analytic germ g such that the pair (f,g) is an ICIS. Moreover, the horizontal and vertical monodromies of the transversal type singularities associated with the singular locus of f and of the ICIS (f,g) are also described. The theory is supported by a substantial amount of examples, including homogeneous and composed singularities and suspensions. The properties peculiar to M are also emphasized.

The concept of moduli goes back to B. Riemann, who shows in [68] that the isomorphism class of a Riemann surface of genus 9 ~ 2 depends on 3g - 3 parameters, which he proposes to name "moduli". A precise formulation of global moduli problems in algebraic geometry, the definition of moduli schemes or of algebraic moduli spaces for curves and for certain higher dimensional manifolds have only been given recently (A. Grothendieck, D. Mumford, see [59]), as well as solutions in some cases. It is the aim of this monograph to present methods which allow over a field of characteristic zero to construct certain moduli schemes together with an ample sheaf. Our main source of inspiration is D. Mumford's "Geometric In variant Theory". We will recall the necessary tools from his book [59] and prove the "Hilbert-Mumford Criterion" and some modified version for the stability of points under group actions. As in [78], a careful study of positivity proper ties of direct image sheaves allows to use this criterion to construct moduli as quasi-projective schemes for canonically polarized manifolds and for polarized manifolds with a semi-ample canonical sheaf.

This is the first of two volumes representing the current state of knowledge about Enriques surfaces which occupy one of the classes in the classification of algebraic surfaces. Recent improvements in our understanding of algebraic surfaces over fields of positive characteristic allowed us to approach the subject from a completely geometric point of view although heavily relying on algebraic methods. Some of the techniques presented in this book can be applied to the study of algebraic surfaces of other types. We hope that it will make this book of particular interest to a wider range of research mathematicians and graduate students. Acknowledgements. The undertaking of this project was made possible by the support of several institutions. Our mutual cooperation began at the University of Warwick and the Max Planck Institute of Mathematics in 1982/83. Most of the work in this volume was done during the visit of the first author at the University of Michigan in 1984-1986. The second author was supported during all these years by grants from the National Science Foundation.

The present book is a collection of variations on a theme which can be summed up as follows: It is impossible for a non-zero function and its Fourier transform to be simultaneously very small. In other words, the approximate equalities x :::::: y and x :::::: fj cannot hold, at the same time and with a high degree of accuracy, unless the functions x and yare identical. Any information gained about x (in the form of a good approximation y) has to be paid for by a corresponding loss of control on x, and vice versa. Such is, roughly speaking, the import of the Uncertainty Principle (or UP for short) referred to in the title ofthis book. That principle has an unmistakable kinship with its namesake in physics - Heisenberg's famous Uncertainty Principle - and may indeed be regarded as providing one of mathematical interpretations for the latter. But we mention these links with Quantum Mechanics and other connections with physics and engineering only for their inspirational value, and hasten to reassure the reader that at no point in this book will he be led beyond the world of purely mathematical facts. Actually, the portion of this world charted in our book is sufficiently vast, even though we confine ourselves to trigonometric Fourier series and integrals (so that "The U. P. in Fourier Analysis" might be a slightly more appropriate title than the one we chose).

The theory of complex analytic sets is part of the modern geometrical theory of functions of several complex variables. A wide circle of problems in multidimensional complex analysis, related to holomorphic functions and maps, can be reformulated in terms of analytic sets. In these reformulations additional phenomena may emerge, while for the proofs new methods are necessary. (As an example we can mention the boundary properties of conformal maps of domains in the plane, which may be studied by means of the boundary properties of the graphs of such maps.) The theory of complex analytic sets is a relatively young branch of complex analysis. Basically, it was developed to fulfill the need of the theory of functions of several complex variables, but for a long time its development was, so to speak, within the framework of algebraic geometry - by analogy with algebraic sets. And although at present the basic methods of the theory of analytic sets are related with analysis and geometry, the foundations of the theory are expounded in the purely algebraic language of ideals in commutative algebras. In the present book I have tried to eliminate this noncorrespondence and to give a geometric exposition of the foundations of the theory of complex analytic sets, using only classical complex analysis and a minimum of algebra (well-known properties of polynomials of one variable). Moreover, it must of course be taken into consideration that algebraic geometry is one of the most important domains of application of the theory of analytic sets, and hence a lot of attention is given in the present book to algebraic sets.

This volume of the Proceedings of the congress ISAAC '97 collects the con tributions of the four sections 1. Function theoretic and functional analytic methods for pde, 2. Applications of function theory of several complex variables to pde, 3. Integral equations and boundary value problems, 4. Partial differential equations. Most but not all of the authors have participated in the congress. Unfortunately some from Eastern Europe and Asia have not managed to come because of lack of financial support. Nevertheless their manuscripts of the proposed talks are included in this volume. The majority of the papers deal with complex methods. Among them boundary value problems in particular the Riemann-Hilbert, the Riemann (Hilbert) and related problems are treated. Boundary behaviour of vector-valued functions are studied too. The Riemann-Hilbert problem is solved for elliptic complex equations, for mixed complex equations, and for several complex variables. It is considered in a general topological setting for mappings into q;n and related to Toeplitz operators. Convolution operators are investigated for nilpotent Lie groups leading to some consequences for the null space of the tangential Cauchy Riemann operator. Some boundary value problems for overdetermined systems in balls of q;n are solved explicitly. A survey is given for the Gauss-Manin connection associated with deformations of curve singularities. Several papers deal with generalizations of analytic functions with various applications to mathematical physics. Singular integrals in quaternionic anal ysis are studied which are applied to the time-harmonic Maxwell equations."

One service mathematics has rendered the 'Et moil " '1 .i favait su comment en revenir. je n'y scrais point all .. human race. It has put oommon sense back Jules Verne when: it belongs, on the topmost shelf next to the dusty canister labelled' discarded nonsense'. The series is divergent; therefore we may be EricT.Bell able to do something with it O. Heaviside Mathematics is a tool for thought A highly necessary tool in a world where both feedback and nonlineari ties abound. Similarly, all kinds of parts of mathematics serve as tools for other parts and for other sci ences. Applying a simple rewriting rule to the quote on the right above one finds such statements as: 'One ser vice topology has rendered mathematical physics .. .'; 'One service logic has rendered computer science .. .'; 'One service category theory has rendered mathematics .. .'. All arguably true. And all statements obtainable this way form part of the raison d'etre of this series."

This volume is dedicated to the memory of Harry Ernest Rauch, who died suddenly on June 18, 1979. In organizing the volume we solicited: (i) articles summarizing Rauch's own work in differential geometry, complex analysis and theta functions (ii) articles which would give the reader an idea of the depth and breadth of Rauch's researches, interests, and influence, in the fields he investigated, and (iii) articles of high scientific quality which would be of general interest. In each of the areas to which Rauch made significant contribution - pinching theorems, teichmiiller theory, and theta functions as they apply to Riemann surfaces - there has been substantial progress. Our hope is that the volume conveys the originality of Rauch's own work, the continuing vitality of the fields he influenced, and the enduring respect for, and tribute to, him and his accom plishments in the mathematical community. Finally, it is a pleasure to thank the Department of Mathematics, of the Grad uate School of the City University of New York, for their logistical support, James Rauch who helped us with the biography, and Springer-Verlag for all their efforts in producing this volume. Isaac Chavel . Hershel M. Farkas Contents Harry Ernest Rauch - Biographical Sketch. . . . . . . . VII Bibliography of the Publications of H. E. Rauch. . . . . . X Ph.D. Theses Written under the Supervision of H. E. Rauch. XIII H. E. Rauch, Geometre Differentiel (by M. Berger) . . . . . . . ."

Quasiregular Mappings extend quasiconformal theory to the noninjective case.They give a natural and beautiful generalization of the geometric aspects ofthe theory of analytic functions of one complex variable to Euclidean n-space or, more generally, to Riemannian n-manifolds. This book is a self-contained exposition of the subject. A braod spectrum of results of both analytic and geometric character are presented, and the methods vary accordingly. The main tools are the variational integral method and the extremal length method, both of which are thoroughly developed here. Reshetnyak's basic theorem on discreteness and openness is used from the beginning, but the proof by means of variational integrals is postponed until near the end. Thus, the method of extremal length is being used at an early stage and leads, among other things, to geometric proofs of Picard-type theorems and a defect relation, which are some of the high points of the present book.

For a given meromorphic function I(z) and an arbitrary value a, Nevanlinna's value distribution theory, which can be derived from the well known Poisson-Jensen for mula, deals with relationships between the growth of the function and quantitative estimations of the roots of the equation: 1 (z) - a = O. In the 1920s as an application of the celebrated Nevanlinna's value distribution theory of meromorphic functions, R. Nevanlinna [188] himself proved that for two nonconstant meromorphic func tions I, 9 and five distinctive values ai (i = 1,2,3,4,5) in the extended plane, if 1 1- (ai) = g-l(ai) 1M (ignoring multiplicities) for i = 1,2,3,4,5, then 1 = g. Fur 1 thermore, if 1- (ai) = g-l(ai) CM (counting multiplicities) for i = 1,2,3 and 4, then 1 = L(g), where L denotes a suitable Mobius transformation. Then in the 19708, F. Gross and C. C. Yang started to study the similar but more general questions of two functions that share sets of values. For instance, they proved that if 1 and 9 are two nonconstant entire functions and 8 , 82 and 83 are three distinctive finite sets such 1 1 that 1- (8 ) = g-1(8 ) CM for i = 1,2,3, then 1 = g.

This volume consists of a collection of articles for the proceedings of the 40th Taniguchi Symposium Analysis and Geometry in Several Complex Variables held in Katata, Japan, on June 23-28, 1997. Since the inhomogeneous Cauchy-Riemann equation was introduced in the study of Complex Analysis of Several Variables, there has been strong interaction between Complex Analysis and Real Analysis, in particular, the theory of Partial Differential Equations. Problems in Complex Anal ysis stimulate the development of the PDE theory which subsequently can be applied to Complex Analysis. This interaction involves Differen tial Geometry, for instance, via the CR structure modeled on the induced structure on the boundary of a complex manifold. Such structures are naturally related to the PDE theory. Differential Geometric formalisms are efficiently used in settling problems in Complex Analysis and the results enrich the theory of Differential Geometry. This volume focuses on the most recent developments in this inter action, including links with other fields such as Algebraic Geometry and Theoretical Physics. Written by participants in the Symposium, this vol ume treats various aspects of CR geometry and the Bergman kernel/ pro jection, together with other major subjects in modern Complex Analysis. We hope that this volume will serve as a resource for all who are interested in the new trends in this area. We would like to express our gratitude to the Taniguchi Foundation for generous financial support and hospitality. We would also like to thank Professor Kiyosi Ito who coordinated the organization of the symposium."

'Et moi, ..., si j'avait su comment en reveni.r, One service mathematics has rendered the je n'y serais point aile.' human race. It has put common sense back Jules Verne where it belongs. on the topmost shelf next to the dusty canister labelled 'discarded non 111e series is divergent; therefore we may be sense'. Eric T. Bell able to do something with it. O. Heaviside Mathematics is a tool for thought. A highly necessary tool in a world where both feedback and non linearities abound. Similarly, all kinds of parts of mathematics serve as tools for other parts and for other sciences. Applying a simple rewriting rule to the quote on the right above one finds such statements as: 'One service topology has rendered mathematical physics .. .'; 'One service logic has rendered com puter science .. .'; 'One service category theory has rendered mathematics .. .'. All arguably true. And all statements obtainable this way form part of the raison d'etre of this series."

I - Entire functions of several complex variables constitute an important and original chapter in complex analysis. The study is often motivated by certain applications to specific problems in other areas of mathematics: partial differential equations via the Fourier-Laplace transformation and convolution operators, analytic number theory and problems of transcen dence, or approximation theory, just to name a few. What is important for these applications is to find solutions which satisfy certain growth conditions. The specific problem defines inherently a growth scale, and one seeks a solution of the problem which satisfies certain growth conditions on this scale, and sometimes solutions of minimal asymp totic growth or optimal solutions in some sense. For one complex variable the study of solutions with growth conditions forms the core of the classical theory of entire functions and, historically, the relationship between the number of zeros of an entire function f(z) of one complex variable and the growth of If I (or equivalently log If I) was the first example of a systematic study of growth conditions in a general setting. Problems with growth conditions on the solutions demand much more precise information than existence theorems. The correspondence between two scales of growth can be interpreted often as a correspondence between families of bounded sets in certain Frechet spaces. However, for applications it is of utmost importance to develop precise and explicit representations of the solutions."

Harmonic maps are solutions to a natural geometrical variational prob lem. This notion grew out of essential notions in differential geometry, such as geodesics, minimal surfaces and harmonic functions. Harmonic maps are also closely related to holomorphic maps in several complex variables, to the theory of stochastic processes, to nonlinear field theory in theoretical physics, and to the theory of liquid crystals in materials science. During the past thirty years this subject has been developed extensively. The monograph is by no means intended to give a complete description of the theory of harmonic maps. For example, the book excludes a large part of the theory of harmonic maps from 2-dimensional domains, where the methods are quite different from those discussed here. The first chapter consists of introductory material. Several equivalent definitions of harmonic maps are described, and interesting examples are presented. Various important properties and formulas are derived. Among them are Bochner-type formula for the energy density and the second varia tional formula. This chapter serves not only as a basis for the later chapters, but also as a brief introduction to the theory. Chapter 2 is devoted to the conservation law of harmonic maps. Em phasis is placed on applications of conservation law to the mono tonicity formula and Liouville-type theorems."

This book gives an introductory exposition of the theory of hyperfunctions and regular singularities. This first English introduction to hyperfunctions brings readers to the forefront of research in the theory of harmonic analysis on symmetric spaces. A substantial bibliography is also included. This volume is based on a paper which was awarded the 1983 University of Copenhagen Gold Medal Prize.

4. 1 Bergman-Toeplitz Operators Over Bounded Domains 242 4. 2 Hardy-Toeplitz Operators Over Strictly Domains Pseudoconvex 250 Groupoid C* -Algebras 4. 3 256 4. 4 Hardy-Toeplitz Operators Over Tubular Domains 267 4. 5 Bergman-Toeplitz Operators Over Tubular Domains 278 4. 6 Hardy-Toeplitz Operators Over Polycircular Domains 284 4. 7 Bergman-Toeplitz Operators Over Polycircular Domains 290 4. 8 Hopf C* -Algebras 299 4. 9 Actions and Coactions on C* -Algebras 310 4. 10 Hardy-Toeplitz Operators Over K-circular Domains 316 4. 11 Hardy-Toeplitz Operators Over Symmetric Domains 325 4. 12 Bergman-Toeplitz Operators Over Symmetric Domains 361 5. Index Theory for Multivariable Toeplitz Operators 5. 0 Introduction 371 5. 1 K-Theory for Topological Spaces 372 5. 2 Index Theory for Strictly Pseudoconvex Domains 384 5. 3 C*-Algebras K-Theory for 394 5. 4 Index Theory for Symmetric Domains 400 5. 5 Index Theory for Tubular Domains 432 5. 6 Index Theory for Polycircular Domains 455 References 462 Index of Symbols and Notations 471 In trod uction Toeplitz operators on the classical Hardy space (on the I-torus) and the closely related Wiener-Hopf operators (on the half-line) form a central part of operator theory, with many applications e. g. , to function theory on the unit disk and to the theory of integral equations.

This volume consists of papers presented in the special sessions on "Complex and Numerical Analysis," "Value Distribution Theory and Complex Domains," and "Use of Symbolic Computation in Mathematics Education" of the ISAAC'97 Congress held at the University of Delaware, during June 2-7, 1997. The ISAAC Congress coincided with a U.S.-Japan Seminar also held at the University of Delaware. The latter was supported by the National Science Foundation through Grant INT-9603029 and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science through Grant MTCS-134. It was natural that the participants of both meetings should interact and consequently several persons attending the Congress also presented papers in the Seminar. The success of the ISAAC Congress and the U.S.-Japan Seminar has led to the ISAAC'99 Congress being held in Fukuoka, Japan during August 1999. Many of the same participants will return to this Seminar. Indeed, it appears that the spirit of the U.S.-Japan Seminar will be continued every second year as part of the ISAAC Congresses. We decided to include with the papers presented in the ISAAC Congress and the U.S.-Japan Seminar several very good papers by colleagues from the former Soviet Union. These participants in the ISAAC Congress attended at their own expense.

On April 25-27, 1989, over a hundred mathematicians, including eleven from abroad, gathered at the University of Illinois Conference Center at Allerton Park for a major conference on analytic number theory. The occa sion marked the seventieth birthday and impending (official) retirement of Paul T. Bateman, a prominent number theorist and member of the mathe matics faculty at the University of Illinois for almost forty years. For fifteen of these years, he served as head of the mathematics department. The conference featured a total of fifty-four talks, including ten in vited lectures by H. Delange, P. Erdos, H. Iwaniec, M. Knopp, M. Mendes France, H. L. Montgomery, C. Pomerance, W. Schmidt, H. Stark, and R. C. Vaughan. This volume represents the contents of thirty of these talks as well as two further contributions. The papers span a wide range of topics in number theory, with a majority in analytic number theory."

This book is the Proceedings of the Second ISAAC Congress. ISAAC is the acronym of the International Society for Analysis, its Applications and Computation. The president of ISAAC is Professor Robert P. Gilbert, the second named editor of this book, e-mail: [email protected]. The Congress is world-wide valued so highly that an application for a grant has been selected and this project has been executed with Grant No. 11-56 from *the Commemorative Association for the Japan World Exposition (1970). The finance of the publication of this book is exclusively the said Grant No. 11-56 from *. Thus, a pair of each one copy of two volumes of this book will be sent to all contributors, who registered at the Second ISAAC Congress in Fukuoka, free of charge by the Kluwer Academic Publishers. Analysis is understood here in the broad sense of the word, includ ing differential equations, integral equations, functional analysis, and function theory. It is the purpose of ISAAC to promote analysis, its applications, and its interaction with computation. With this objective, ISAAC organizes international Congresses for the presentation and dis cussion of research on analysis. ISAAC welcomes new members and those interested in joining ISAAC are encouraged to look at the web site http://www .math. udel.edu/ gilbert/isaac/index.html vi and http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/ rd/ ag/isaac/newton/index.html.

Frechet spaces have been studied since the days of Banach. These spaces, their inductive limits and their duals played a prominent role in the development of the theory of locally convex spaces. Also they are natural tools in many areas of real and complex analysis. The pioneering work of Grothendieck in the fifties has been one of the important sources of inspiration for research in the theory of Frechet spaces. A structure theory of nuclear Frechet spaces emerged and some important questions posed by Grothendieck were settled in the seventies. In particular, subspaces and quotient spaces of stable nuclear power series spaces were completely characterized. In the last years it has become increasingly clear that the methods used in the structure theory of nuclear Frechet spaces actually provide new insight to linear problems in diverse branches of analysis and lead to solutions of some classical problems. The unifying theme at our Workshop was the recent developments in the theory of the projective limit functor. This is appropriate because of the important role this theory had in the recent research. The main results of the structure theory of nuclear Frechet spaces can be formulated and proved within the framework of this theory. A major area of application of the theory of the projective limit functor is to decide when a linear operator is surjective and, if it is, to determine whether it has a continuous right inverse.

There is almost no field in Mathematics which does not use Mathe matical Analysis. Computer methods in Applied Mathematics, too, are often based on statements and procedures of Mathematical Analysis. An important part of Mathematical Analysis is Complex Analysis because it has many applications in various branches of Mathematics. Since the field of Complex Analysis and its applications is a focal point in the Vietnamese research programme, the Hanoi University of Technology organized an International Conference on Finite or Infinite Dimensional Complex Analysis and Applications which took place in Hanoi from August 8 - 12, 2001. This conference th was the 9 one in a series of conferences which take place alternately in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam each year. The first one took place th at Pusan University in Korea in 1993. The preceding 8 conference was th held in Shandong in China in August 2000. The 9 conference of the was the first one which took place above mentioned series of conferences in Vietnam. Present trends in Complex Analysis reflected in the present volume are mainly concentrated in the following four research directions: 1 Value distribution theory (including meromorphic funtions, mero morphic mappings, as well as p-adic functions over fields of finite or zero characteristic) and its applications, 2 Holomorphic functions in several (finitely or infinitely many) com plex variables, 3 Clifford Analysis, i.e., complex methods in higher-dimensional real Euclidian spaces, 4 Generalized analytic functions."

Ever since its introduction around 1960 by Kirillov, the orbit method has played a major role in representation theory of Lie groups and Lie algebras. This book contains the proceedings of a conference held from August 29 to September 2, 1988, at the University of Copenhagen, about "the orbit method in representation theory." It contains ten articles, most of which are original research papers, by well-known mathematicians in the field, and it reflects the fact that the orbit method plays an important role in the representation theory of semisimple Lie groups, solvable Lie groups, and even more general Lie groups, and also in the theory of enveloping algebras.

Over the last decades, the study of nonself-adjoint or nonunitary operators has been mainly based on the method of characteristic functions and on methods of model construction or dilatation for corresponding operator classes. The characteristic function is a mathematical object (a matrix or an operator) associated with a class of nonself-adjoint (or nonunitary) operators that describes the spectral properties of the operators from this class. It may happen that characteristic functions are simpler than the corresponding operators; in this case one can significantly simplify the problem under investigation for these operators. For given characteristic function of an operator A, we construct, in explicit form, an operator that serves as a model A of the operator A in a certain linear space (to some extent this resembles the construction of diagonal and triangular matrices' unitary equivalent or similar, to certain matrix classes). The study of this model operator may give much information about the original operator (its spectrum, the completeness of the system of root subspaces, etc.). In this book, we consider various classes of linear (generally speaking, unbounded) operators, construct and study their characteristic functions and models. We also present a detailed study of contractiol)s and dissipative operators (in particular, from the viewpoint of their triangulation).

Infinite dimensional holomorphy is the study of holomorphic or analytic func tions over complex topological vector spaces. The terms in this description are easily stated and explained and allow the subject to project itself ini tially, and innocently, as a compact theory with well defined boundaries. However, a comprehensive study would include delving into, and interacting with, not only the obvious topics of topology, several complex variables theory and functional analysis but also, differential geometry, Jordan algebras, Lie groups, operator theory, logic, differential equations and fixed point theory. This diversity leads to a dynamic synthesis of ideas and to an appreciation of a remarkable feature of mathematics - its unity. Unity requires synthesis while synthesis leads to unity. It is necessary to stand back every so often, to take an overall look at one's subject and ask "How has it developed over the last ten, twenty, fifty years? Where is it going? What am I doing?" I was asking these questions during the spring of 1993 as I prepared a short course to be given at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro during the following July. The abundance of suit able material made the selection of topics difficult. For some time I hesitated between two very different aspects of infinite dimensional holomorphy, the geometric-algebraic theory associated with bounded symmetric domains and Jordan triple systems and the topological theory which forms the subject of the present book."

Let 8 be a Riemann surface of analytically finite type (9, n) with 29 - 2+n> O. Take two pointsP1, P2 E 8, and set 8 ,1>2= 8 \ {P1' P2}. Let PI Homeo+(8;P1,P2) be the group of all orientation preserving homeomor- phismsw: 8 -+ 8 fixingP1, P2 and isotopic to the identity on 8. Denote byHomeot(8;Pb P2) the set of all elements ofHomeo+(8;P1, P2) iso- topic to the identity on 8 ,P2' ThenHomeot(8;P1,P2) is a normal sub- pl group ofHomeo+(8;P1,P2). We setIsot(8;P1,P2) =Homeo+(8;P1,P2)/ Homeot(8;p1, P2). The purpose of this note is to announce a result on the Nielsen- Thurston-Bers type classification of an element [w] ofIsot+(8;P1,P2). We give a necessary and sufficient condition for thetypeto be hyperbolic. The condition is described in terms of properties of the pure braid [b ] w induced by [w]. Proofs will appear elsewhere. The problem considered in this note and the form ofthe solution are suggested by Kra's beautiful theorem in [6], where he treats self-maps of Riemann surfaces with one specified point. 2 TheclassificationduetoBers Let us recall the classification of elements of the mapping class group due to Bers (see Bers [1]). LetT(R) be the Teichmiiller space of a Riemann surfaceR, andMod(R) be the Teichmtiller modular group of R. Note that an orientation preserving homeomorphism w: R -+ R induces canonically an element (w) EMod(R). Denote by&.r(R)(*,.) the Teichmiiller distance onT(R). For an elementXEMod(R), we define a(x)= inf &.r(R)(r,x(r)).