Over the past ten years, the asymptotic theory of one-parameter semigroups of operators has witnessed an explosive development. A number oflong-standing open problems have recently been solved and the theory seems to have obtained a certain degree of maturity. These notes, based on a course delivered at the University of Tiibingen in the academic year 1994-1995, represent a first attempt to organize the available material, most of which exists only in the form of research papers. If A is a bounded linear operator on a complex Banach space X, then it is an easy consequence of the spectral mapping theorem exp(tO"(A)) = O"(exp(tA)), t E JR, and Gelfand's formula for the spectral radius that the uniform growth bound of the wt family {exp(tA)h~o, i. e. the infimum of all wE JR such that II exp(tA)II :::: Me for some constant M and all t 2: 0, is equal to the spectral bound s(A) = sup{Re A : A E O"(A)} of A. This fact is known as Lyapunov's theorem. Its importance resides in the fact that the solutions of the initial value problem du(t) =A () dt u t , u(O) = x, are given by u(t) = exp(tA)x. Thus, Lyapunov's theorem implies that the expo- nential growth of the solutions of the initial value problem associated to a bounded operator A is determined by the location of the spectrum of A.

Heyting'88 Summer School and Conference on Mathematical Logic, held September 13 - 23, 1988 in Chaika, Bulgaria, was honourably dedicated to Arend Heyting's 90th anniversary. It was organized by Sofia University "Kliment Ohridski" on the occasion of its centenary and by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, with sponsorship of the Association for Symbolic Logic. The Meeting gathered some 115 participants from 19 countries. The present volume consists of invited and selected papers. Included are all the invited lectures submitted for publication and the 14 selected contributions, chosen out of 56 submissions by the Selection Committee. The selection was made on the basis of reports of PC members, an average of 4 per sLlbmission. All the papers are concentrated on the topics of the Meeting: Recursion Theory, Modal and Non-classical Logics, Intuitionism and Constructivism, Related Applications to Computer and Other Sciences, Life and Work of Arend Heyting. I am pleased to thank all persons and institutions that contributed to the success of the Meeting: sponsors, Programme Committee members and additional referees, the members of the Organizing Committee, our secretaries K. Lozanova and L. Nikolova, as well as K. Angelov, V. Bozhichkova, A. Ditchev, D. Dobrev, N. Dimitrov, R. Draganova, G. Gargov, N. Georgieva, M. Janchev, P. Marinov, S. Nikolova, S. Radev, I. Soskov, A. Soskova and v. Sotirov, who helped in the organization, Plenum Press and at last but not least all participants in the Meeting and contributors to this volume.

The discovery of quantum mechanics in the years 1925-1930 necessitated the consideration of associating ordinary functions with non-commuting operators. Methods were proposed by Born/Jordan, Kirkwood, and Weyl. Sometime later, Moyal saw the connection between the Weyl rule and the Wigner distribution, which had been proposed by Wigner in 1932 as a way of doing quantum statistical mechanics. The basic idea of associating functions with operators has since been generalized and developed to a high degree. It has found several application fields, including quantum mechanics, pseudo-differential operators, time-frequency analysis, quantum optics, wave propagation, differential equations, image processing, radar, and sonar.

This book aims at bringing together the results from the above mentioned fields in a unified manner and showing the reader how the methods have been applied. A wide audience is addressed, particularly students and researchers who want to obtain an up-to-date working knowledge of the field. The mathematics is accessible to the uninitiated reader and is presented in a straightforward manner.

Pseudodifferential methods are central to the study of partial differential equations, because they permit an "algebraization." The main purpose of this book is to set up an operational calculus for operators defined from differential and pseudodifferential boundary values problems via a resolvent construction. A secondary purposed is to give a complete treatment of the properties of the calculus of pseudodifferential boundary problems with transmission, both the first version by Boutet de Monvel (brought completely up to date in this edition) and in version containing a parameter running in an unbounded set. And finally, the book presents some applications to evolution problems, index theory, fractional powers, spectral theory and singular perturbation theory. Thus the book's improved proofs and modern points of view will be useful to research mathematicians and to graduate students studying partial differential equations and pseudodifferential operators.

This volume contains the proceedings of the International Conference on "Par- tial Differential Equations" held in HolzhaujErzgebirge, Germany, July 3~9, 1994. The conference was sponsored by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, the Deutsche For- schungsgemeinschaft, the Land Brandenburg and the Freistaat Sachsen. It was initiated by the Max-Planck-Research Group "Partielle Differential- gleichungen und Komplexe Analysis" at the University of Potsdam as one of the annual meetings of the research group. This conference is part of a series begun by the former Karl-Weierstraf3-Institute of Mathematics in Berlin, with the confer- ences in Ludwigsfelde 1976, Reinhardsbrunn 1985, Holzhau 1988 (proceedings in the Teubner Texte zur Mathematik 112, Teubner-Verlag 1989), Breitenbrunn 1990 (proceedings in the Teubner Texte zur Mathematik 131, Teubner-Verlag 1992), and Lambrecht 1991 (proceedings in Operator Theory: Advances and Applications, Vol. 57, Birkhiiuser Verlag 1992); subsequent conferences took place in Potsdam in 1992 and 1993 under the auspices of the Max-Planck-Research Group "Partielle Differentialgleichungen und Komplexe Analysis" at the University of Potsdam. It was the intention of the organizers to bring together specialists from differ- ent areas of modern analysis, geometry and mathematical physics to discuss not only recent progress in the respective disciplines but also to encourage interaction between these fields. The scientific advisory board of the Holzhau conference consisted of S. Al- beverio (Bochum), L. Boutet de Monvel (Paris), M. Demuth (Clausthal), P. Gilkey (Eugene), B. Gramsch (Mainz), B. Helffer (Paris), S.T. Kuroda (Tokyo), B.-W. Schulze (Potsdam).

One of the most important chapters in modern functional analysis is the theory of approximate methods for solution of various mathematical problems. Besides providing considerably simplified approaches to numerical methods, the ideas of functional analysis have also given rise to essentially new computation schemes in problems of linear algebra, differential and integral equations, nonlinear analysis, and so on. The general theory of approximate methods includes many known fundamental results. We refer to the classical work of Kantorovich; the investigations of projection methods by Bogolyubov, Krylov, Keldysh and Petrov, much furthered by Mikhlin and Pol'skii; Tikho nov's methods for approximate solution of ill-posed problems; the general theory of difference schemes; and so on. During the past decade, the Voronezh seminar on functional analysis has systematically discussed various questions related to numerical methods; several advanced courses have been held at Voronezh Uni versity on the application of functional analysis to numerical mathe matics. Some of this research is summarized in the present monograph. The authors' aim has not been to give an exhaustive account, even of the principal known results. The book consists of five chapters."

Series of scalars, vectors, or functions are among the fundamental objects of mathematical analysis. When the arrangement of the terms is fixed, investigating a series amounts to investigating the sequence of its partial sums. In this case the theory of series is a part of the theory of sequences, which deals with their convergence, asymptotic behavior, etc. The specific character of the theory of series manifests itself when one considers rearrangements (permutations) of the terms of a series, which brings combinatorial considerations into the problems studied. The phenomenon that a numerical series can change its sum when the order of its terms is changed is one of the most impressive facts encountered in a university analysis course. The present book is devoted precisely to this aspect of the theory of series whose terms are elements of Banach (as well as other topological linear) spaces. The exposition focuses on two complementary problems. The first is to char acterize those series in a given space that remain convergent (and have the same sum) for any rearrangement of their terms; such series are usually called uncon ditionally convergent. The second problem is, when a series converges only for certain rearrangements of its terms (in other words, converges conditionally), to describe its sum range, i.e., the set of sums of all its convergent rearrangements."

Introduction I. General remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II. Notations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 III. Lie algebras: some basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Chapter 1 Operator calculus and Appell systems I. Boson calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 II. Holomorphic canonical calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 III. Canonical Appell systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Chapter 2 Representations of Lie groups I. Coordinates on Lie groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 II. Dual representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 III. Matrix elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 IV. Induced representations and homogeneous spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 General Appell systems Chapter 3 I. Convolution and stochastic processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 II. Stochastic processes on Lie groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 III. Appell systems on Lie groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Chapter 4 Canonical systems in several variables I. Homogeneous spaces and Cartan decompositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 II. Induced representation and coherent states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 III. Orthogonal polynomials in several variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Chapter 5 Algebras with discrete spectrum I. Calculus on groups: review of the theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 II. Finite-difference algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 III. q-HW algebra and basic hypergeometric functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 IV. su2 and Krawtchouk polynomials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 V. e2 and Lommel polynomials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Chapter 6 Nilpotent and solvable algebras I. Heisenberg algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 II. Type-H Lie algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Vll III. Upper-triangular matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 IV. Affine and Euclidean algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Chapter 7 Hermitian symmetric spaces I. Basic structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 II. Space of rectangular matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 III. Space of skew-symmetric matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 IV. Space of symmetric matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Chapter 8 Properties of matrix elements I. Addition formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 II. Recurrences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 III. Quotient representations and summation formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Chapter 9 Symbolic computations I. Computing the pi-matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 II. Adjoint group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 III. Recursive computation of matrix elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In this treatise we present the semigroup approach to quasilinear evolution equa of parabolic type that has been developed over the last ten years, approxi tions mately. It emphasizes the dynamic viewpoint and is sufficiently general and flexible to encompass a great variety of concrete systems of partial differential equations occurring in science, some of those being of rather 'nonstandard' type. In partic ular, to date it is the only general method that applies to noncoercive systems. Although we are interested in nonlinear problems, our method is based on the theory of linear holomorphic semigroups. This distinguishes it from the theory of nonlinear contraction semigroups whose basis is a nonlinear version of the Hille Yosida theorem: the Crandall-Liggett theorem. The latter theory is well-known and well-documented in the literature. Even though it is a powerful technique having found many applications, it is limited in its scope by the fact that, in concrete applications, it is closely tied to the maximum principle. Thus the theory of nonlinear contraction semigroups does not apply to systems, in general, since they do not allow for a maximum principle. For these reasons we do not include that theory."

The theory of vertex operator algebras and their representations has been showing its power in the solution of concrete mathematical problems and in the understanding of conceptual but subtle mathematical and physical struc- tures of conformal field theories. Much of the recent progress has deep connec- tions with complex analysis and conformal geometry. Future developments, especially constructions and studies of higher-genus theories, will need a solid geometric theory of vertex operator algebras. Back in 1986, Manin already observed in [Man) that the quantum theory of (super )strings existed (in some sense) in two entirely different mathematical fields. Under canonical quantization this theory appeared to a mathematician as the representation theories of the Heisenberg, Vir as oro and affine Kac- Moody algebras and their superextensions. Quantization with the help of the Polyakov path integral led on the other hand to the analytic theory of algebraic (super ) curves and their moduli spaces, to invariants of the type of the analytic curvature, and so on. He pointed out further that establishing direct mathematical connections between these two forms of a single theory was a "big and important problem. " On the one hand, the theory of vertex operator algebras and their repre- sentations unifies (and considerably extends) the representation theories of the Heisenberg, Virasoro and Kac-Moody algebras and their superextensions.

In this book we shall study linear functional equations of the form m bu(x) == Lak(X)U(Qk(X)) = f(x), (1) k=l where U is an unknown function from a given space F(X) of functions on a set X, Qk: X -+ X are given mappings, ak and f are given functions. Our approach is based on the investigation of the operators given by the left-hand side of equa tion (1). In what follows such operators will be called functional operators. We will pay special attention to the spectral properties of functional operators, first of all, to invertibility and the Noether property. Since the set X, the space F(X), the mappings Qk and the coefficients ak are arbitrary, the class of operators of the form (1) is very rich and some of its individ ual representatives are related with problems arising in various areas of mathemat ics and its applications. In addition to the classical theory of functional equations, among such areas one can indicate the theory of functional-differential equations with deviating argument, the theory of nonlocal problems for partial differential equations, the theory of boundary value problems for the equation of a vibrating string and equations of mixed type, a number of problems of the general theory of operator algebras and the theory of dynamical systems, the spectral theory of au tomorphisms of Banach algebras, and other problems."

Positivity is one of the most basic mathematical concepts. In many areas of mathematics (like analysis, real algebraic geometry, functional analysis, etc.) it shows up as positivity of a polynomial on a certain subset of R DEGREESn which itself is often given by polynomial inequalities. The main objective of the book is to give useful characterizations of such polynomials. It takes as starting point Hilbert's 17th Problem from 1900 and explains how E. Artin's solution of that problem eventually led to the development of real algebra towards the end of the 20th century. Beyond basic knowledge in algebra, only valuation theory as explained in the appendix is needed. Thus the monograph can also serve as the basis for a 2-semester course in real a

These are the proceedings of the conference "Symbolic Computation, Number Theory, Special Functions, Physics and Combinatorics" held at the Department of Mathematics, University of Florida, Gainesville, from November 11 to 13, 1999. The main emphasis of the conference was Com puter Algebra (i. e. symbolic computation) and how it related to the fields of Number Theory, Special Functions, Physics and Combinatorics. A subject that is common to all of these fields is q-series. We brought together those who do symbolic computation with q-series and those who need q-series in cluding workers in Physics and Combinatorics. The goal of the conference was to inform mathematicians and physicists who use q-series of the latest developments in the field of q-series and especially how symbolic computa tion has aided these developments. Over 60 people were invited to participate in the conference. We ended up having 45 participants at the conference, including six one hour plenary speakers and 28 half hour speakers. There were talks in all the areas we were hoping for. There were three software demonstrations."

Analysis on Lie Groups with Polynomial Growth is the first book to present a method for examining the surprising connection between invariant differential operators and almost periodic operators on a suitable nilpotent Lie group. It deals with the theory of second-order, right invariant, elliptic operators on a large class of manifolds: Lie groups with polynomial growth. In systematically developing the analytic and algebraic background on Lie groups with polynomial growth, it is possible to describe the large time behavior for the semigroup generated by a complex second-order operator with the aid of homogenization theory and to present an asymptotic expansion. Further, the text goes beyond the classical homogenization theory by converting an analytical problem into an algebraic one. This work is aimed at graduate students as well as researchers in the above areas. Prerequisites include knowledge of basic results from semigroup theory and Lie group theory.

The work of Hans Lewy (1904--1988) has had a profound influence in the direction of applied mathematics and partial differential equations, in particular, from the late 1920s. Two of the particulars are well known. The Courant--Friedrichs--Lewy condition (1928), or CFL condition, was devised to obtain existence and approximation results. This condition, relating the time and spatial discretizations for finite difference schemes, is now universally employed in the simulation of solutions of equations describing propagation phenomena. Lewy's example of a linear equation with no solution (1957), with its attendant consequence that most equations have no solution, was not merely an unexpected fact, but changed the viewpoint of the entire field. Lewy made pivotal contributions in many other areas, for example, the regularity theory of elliptic equations and systems, the Monge-- AmpSre Equation, the Minkowski Problem, the asymptotic analysis of boundary value problems, and several complex variables. He was among the first to study variational inequalities. In much of his work, his underlying philosophy was that simple tools of function theory could help one understand the essential concepts embedded in an issue, although at a cost in generality. This approach was extremely successful. In this two-volume work, most all of Lewy's papers are presented, in chronological order. They are preceded by several short essays about Lewy himself, prepared by Helen Lewy, Constance Reid, and David Kinderlehrer, and commentaries on his work by Erhard Heinz, Peter Lax, Jean Leray, Richard MacCamy, Fran?ois Treves, and Louis Nirenberg. Additionally, there are Lewy's own remarks on the occasion of his honorary degree from the University of Bonn.

This volume contains papers presented at the July, 1989 NATO Advanced Study Institute on Fourier Analysis and its Applications. The conference, held at the beautiful II Ciocco resort near Lucca, in the glorious Tuscany region of northern Italy, created a dynamic in teraction between world-renowned scientists working in the usually disparate communities of pure and applied Fourier analysts. The papers to be found herein include important new results in x-ray crystallography by Nobel Laureate Herbert Hauptman, the application of the new concept of bispectrum to system identification by renowned probabilist Athanasios Papoulis, fascinating appli cations of number theory in Fourier analysis by eminent electrical engineer Manfred R. Schroeder, and exciting concepts regarding polynomials with restricted coefficients by foremost mathematical problem solver Donald J. Newman. The remaining papers further illustrate the inherent power and beauty of classical Fourier analysis, whether the results presented were sought as an end in themselves, or whether these classical methods were employed as a tool in illustrating and solving a particular applied problem. From antenna design to concert hall acoustics to image and speech processing to unimodular polynomi als, each conference participant benefited significantly from his or her exposure, in many cases for the first time, to those scientists on the other end of the spectrum from them selves. The purpose of this volume is to pass those benefits on to the reader."

Tobias Nau addresses initial boundary value problems in cylindrical space domains with the aid of modern techniques from functional analysis and operator theory. In particular, the author uses concepts from Fourier analysis of functions with values in Banach spaces and the operator-valued functional calculus of sectorial operators. He applies abstract results to concrete problems in cylindrical space domains such as the heat equation subject to numerous boundary conditions and equations arising from fluid dynamics.

Originally published in 1999, "Wavelets Made Easy"offers a lucid and concise explanation of mathematical wavelets.Written at the level of a first course in calculus and linear algebra, its accessible presentation is designed for undergraduates in a variety of disciplines computer science, engineering, mathematics, mathematical sciences as well as for practicing professionals in these areas.

The presentsoftcover reprintretainsthecorrections fromthesecond printing (2001) andmakesthis uniquetext available to a wider audience. The first chapter startswith a description of the key features and applications of wavelets, focusing on Haar's wavelets but using only high-school mathematics. The next two chapters introduce one-, two-, and three-dimensional wavelets, with only the occasional use of matrix algebra.

The second part of this book provides the foundations of least-squares approximation, the discrete Fourier transform, and Fourier series. The third part explains the Fourier transform and then demonstrates how to apply basic Fourier analysis to designing and analyzing mathematical wavelets. Particular attention is paid to Daubechies wavelets.

Numerous exercises, a bibliography, and a comprehensive index combine to make this book an excellent text for the classroom as well as a valuable resource for self-study.

"

One of the fundamental questions of Banach space theory is whether every Banach space has a basis. A space with a basis gives us the feeling of familiarity and concreteness, and perhaps a chance to attempt the classification of all Banach spaces and other problems.

The main goals of this book are to:

introduce the reader to some of the basic concepts, results and applications of biorthogonal systems in infinite dimensional geometry of Banach spaces, and in topology and nonlinear analysis in Banach spaces;

to do so in a manner accessible to graduate students and researchers who have a foundation in Banach space theory;

expose the reader to some current avenues of research in biorthogonal systems in Banach spaces;

provide notes and exercises related to the topic, as well as suggesting open problems and possible directions of research.

The intended audience will have a basic background in functional analysis. The authors have included numerous exercises, as well as open problems that point to possible directions of research.

Like FEM, the Boundary Element Method (BEM) provides a general numerical tool for the solution of complex engineering problems. In the last decades, the range of its applications has remarkably been enlarged. Therefore dynamic and nonlinear problems can be tackled. However they still demand an explicit expression of a fundamental solution, which is only known in simple cases. In this respect, the present book proposes an alternative BEM-formulation based on the Fourier transform, which can be applied to almost all cases relevant in engineering mechanics. The basic principle is presented for the heat equation. Applications are taken from solid mechanics (e.g. poroelasticity, thermoelasticity). Transient and stationary examples are given as well as linear and nonlinear. Completed with a mathematical and mechanical glossary, the book will serve as a comprehensive text book linking applied mathematics to real world engineering problems.

A comprehensive exposition on analytic methods for solving science and engineering problems, written from the unifying viewpoint of distribution theory and enriched with many modern topics which are important to practioners and researchers. The book is ideal for a general scientific and engineering audience, yet it is mathematically precise.

Recent research has produced a large number of results concerning the Stone-Cech compactification or involving it in a central manner. The goal of this volume is to make many of these results easily accessible by collecting them in a single source together with the necessary introductory material. The author's interest in this area had its origin in his fascination with the classic text Rings of Continuous Functions by Leonard Gillman and Meyer Jerison. This excellent synthesis of algebra and topology appeared in 1960 and did much to draw attention to the Stone-Cech compactification {3X as a tool to investigate the relationships between a space X and the rings C(X) and C*(X) of real-valued continuous functions. Although in the approach taken here {3X is viewed as the object of study rather than as a tool, the influence of Rings of Continuous Functions is clearly evident. Three introductory chapters make the book essentially self-contained and the exposition suitable for the student who has completed a first course in topology at the graduate level. The development of the Stone Cech compactification and the more specialized topological prerequisites are presented in the first chapter. The necessary material on Boolean algebras, including the Stone Representation Theorem, is developed in Chapter 2. A very basic introduction to category theory is presented in the beginning of Chapter 10 and the remainder of the chapter is an introduction to the methods of categorical topology as it relates to the Stone-Cech compactification."

Irene Dorfman died in Moscow on April 6, 1994, shortly after seeing her beautiful book on Dirac structures [I]. The present volume contains a collection of papers aiming at celebrating her outstanding contributions to mathematics. Her most important discoveries are associated with the algebraic structures arising in the study of integrable equations. Most of the articles contained in this volume are in the same spirit. Irene, working as a student of Israel Gel'fand made the fundamental dis- covery that integrability is closely related to the existence of bi-Hamiltonian structures [2], [3]. These structures were discovered independently, and al- most simultaneously, by Magri [4] (see also [5]). Several papers in this book are based on this remarkable discovery. In particular Fokas, Olver, Rosenau construct large classes on integrable equations using bi-Hamiltonian struc- tures, Fordy, Harris derive such structures by considering the restriction of isospectral flows to stationary manifolds and Fuchssteiner discusses similar structures in a rather abstract setting.

These volumes are companions to the treatise; "Fundamentals of the Theory of Operator Algebras," which appeared as Volume 100 - I and II in the series, Pure and Applied Mathematics, published by Academic Press in 1983 and 1986, respectively. As stated in the preface to those volumes, "Their primary goal is to teach the sub ject and lead the reader to the point where the vast recent research literature, both in the subject proper and in its many applications, becomes accessible." No attempt was made to be encyclopCEdic; the choice of material was made from among the fundamentals of what may be called the "classical" theory of operator algebras. By way of supplementing the topics selected for presentation in "Fundamentals," a substantial list of exercises comprises the last section of each chapter. An equally important purpose of those exer cises is to develop "hand-on" skills in use of the techniques appearing in the text. As a consequence, each exercise was carefully designed to depend only on the material that precedes it, and separated into segments each of which is realistically capable of solution by an at tentive, diligent, well-motivated reader."

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.