From the reviews: "... The book under review consists of two monographs on geometric aspects of group theory ... Together, these two articles form a wide-ranging survey of combinatorial group theory, with emphasis very much on the geometric roots of the subject. This will be a useful reference work for the expert, as well as providing an overview of the subject for the outsider or novice. Many different topics are described and explored, with the main results presented but not proved. This allows the interested reader to get the flavour of these topics without becoming bogged down in detail. Both articles give comprehensive bibliographies, so that it is possible to use this book as the starting point for a more detailed study of a particular topic of interest. ..." Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society, 1996

In recent years geometry seems to have lost large parts of its former central position in mathematics teaching in most countries. However, new trends have begun to counteract this tendency. There is an increasing awareness that geometry plays a key role in mathematics and learning mathematics. Although geometry has been eclipsed in the mathematics curriculum, research in geometry has blossomed as new ideas have arisen from inside mathematics and other disciplines, including computer science. Due to reassessment of the role of geometry, mathematics educators and mathematicians face new challenges. In the present ICMI study, the whole spectrum of teaching and learning of geometry is analysed. Experts from all over the world took part in this study, which was conducted on the basis of recent international research, case studies, and reports on actual school practice. This book will be of particular interest to mathematics educators and mathematicians who are involved in the teaching of geometry at all educational levels, as well as to researchers in mathematics education.

UNDERSTANDING NONLINEAR DYNAMICS is based on an undergraduate course taught for many years to students in the biological sciences. The text provides a clear and accessible development of many concepts from contemporary dynamics, including stability and multistability, cellular automata and excitable media, fractals, cycles, and chaos. A chapter on time-series analysis builds on this foundation to provide an introduction to techniques for extracting information about dynamics from data. The text will be useful for courses offered in the life sciences or other applied science programs, or as a supplement to emphasize the application of subjects presented in mathematics or physics courses. Extensive examples are derived from the experimental literature, and numerous exercise sets can be used in teaching basic mathematical concepts and their applications. Concrete applications of the mathematics are illustrated in such areas as biochemistry, neurophysiology, cardiology, and ecology. The text also provides an entry point for researchers not familiar with mathematics but interested in applications of nonlinear dynamics to the life sciences.

The Blaubeuren Conference "Theory and Practice of Geometric Modeling" has become a meeting place for leading experts from industrial and academic research institutions, CAD system developers and experienced users to exchange new ideas and to discuss new concepts and future directions in geometric modeling. The relaxed and calm atmosphere of the Heinrich-Fabri-Institute in Blaubeuren provides the appropriate environment for profound and engaged discussions that are not equally possible on other occasions. Real problems from current industrial projects as well as theoretical issues are addressed on a high scientific level. This book is the result of the lectures and discussions during the conference which took place from October 14th to 18th, 1996. The contents is structured in 4 parts: Mathematical Tools Representations Systems Automated Assembly. The editors express their sincere appreciation to the contributing authors, and to the members of the program committee for their cooperation, the careful reviewing and their active participation that made the conference and this book a success.

Any topological theory of knots and links should be based on simple ideas of intersection and linking. In this book, a general theory of link bordism in manifolds and universal constructions of linking numbers in oriented 3-manifolds are developed. In this way, classical concepts of link theory in the 3-spheres are generalized to a certain class of oriented 3-manifolds (submanifolds of rational homology 3-spheres). The techniques needed are described in the book but basic knowledge in topology and algebra is assumed. The book should be of interst to those working in topology, in particular knot theory and low-dimensional topology.

The main purpose of this book is to present the basic theory and some recent de velopments concerning the Cauchy problem for higher order abstract differential equations u(n)(t) + ~ AiU(i)(t) = 0, t ~ 0, { U(k)(O) = Uk, 0 ~ k ~ n-l. where AQ, Ab . . . , A - are linear operators in a topological vector space E. n 1 Many problems in nature can be modeled as (ACP ). For example, many n initial value or initial-boundary value problems for partial differential equations, stemmed from mechanics, physics, engineering, control theory, etc. , can be trans lated into this form by regarding the partial differential operators in the space variables as operators Ai (0 ~ i ~ n - 1) in some function space E and letting the boundary conditions (if any) be absorbed into the definition of the space E or of the domain of Ai (this idea of treating initial value or initial-boundary value problems was discovered independently by E. Hille and K. Yosida in the forties). The theory of (ACP ) is closely connected with many other branches of n mathematics. Therefore, the study of (ACPn) is important for both theoretical investigations and practical applications. Over the past half a century, (ACP ) has been studied extensively.

Interest in the study of geometry is currently enjoying a resurgence-understandably so, as the study of curves was once the playground of some very great mathematicians. However, many of the subject's more exciting aspects require a somewhat advanced mathematics background. For the "fun stuff" to be accessible, we need to offer students an introduction with modest prerequisites, one that stimulates their interest and focuses on problem solving.

Integrating parametric, algebraic, and projective curves into a single text, Geometry of Curves offers students a unique approach that provides a mathematical structure for solving problems, not just a catalog of theorems. The author begins with the basics, then takes students on a fascinating journey from conics, higher algebraic and transcendental curves, through the properties of parametric curves, the classification of limaçons, envelopes, and finally to projective curves, their relationship to algebraic curves, and their application to asymptotes and boundedness.

The uniqueness of this treatment lies in its integration of the different types of curves, its use of analytic methods, and its generous number of examples, exercises, and illustrations.
The result is a practical text, almost entirely self-contained, that not only imparts a deeper understanding of the theory, but inspires a heightened appreciation of geometry and interest in more advanced studies.

The present book contains the lecture notes from a "Nachdiplomvorlesung," a topics course adressed to Ph. D. students, at the ETH ZUrich during the winter term 95/96. Consequently, these notes are arranged according to the requirements of organizing the material for oral exposition, and the level of difficulty and the exposition were adjusted to the audience in Zurich. The aim of the course was to introduce some geometric and analytic concepts that have been found useful in advancing our understanding of spaces of nonpos itive curvature. In particular in recent years, it has been realized that often it is useful for a systematic understanding not to restrict the attention to Riemannian manifolds only, but to consider more general classes of metric spaces of generalized nonpositive curvature. The basic idea is to isolate a property that on one hand can be formulated solely in terms of the distance function and on the other hand is characteristic of nonpositive sectional curvature on a Riemannian manifold, and then to take this property as an axiom for defining a metric space of nonposi tive curvature. Such constructions have been put forward by Wald, Alexandrov, Busemann, and others, and they will be systematically explored in Chapter 2. Our focus and treatment will often be different from the existing literature. In the first Chapter, we consider several classes of examples of Riemannian manifolds of nonpositive curvature, and we explain how conditions about nonpos itivity or negativity of curvature can be exploited in various geometric contexts."

In this study extending classical Markov chain theory to handle fluctuating transition matrices, the author develops a theory of Markov set-chains and provides numerous examples showing how that theory can be applied. Chapters are concluded with a discussion of related research. Readers who can benefit from this monograph are those interested in, or involved with, systems whose data is imprecise or that fluctuate with time. A background equivalent to a course in linear algebra and one in probability theory should be sufficient.

There are many reasons for writing this first volume of strategic activities on fractals. The most pervasive is the compelling desire to provide students of mathematics with a set of accessible, hands-on experiences with fractals and their underlying mathematical principles and characteristics. Another is to show how fractals connect to many different aspects of mathematics and how the study of fractals can bring these ideas together. A third is to share the beauty of their structure and shape both through what the eye sees and what the mind visualizes. Fractals have captured the attention, enthusiasm, and interest of many people around the world. To the casual observer, their color, beauty, and geometric structure captivates the visual senses like few other things they have ever experienced in mathematics. To the computer scientist, fractals offer a rich environment in which to explore, create, and build a new visual world as an artist creating a new work. To the student, fractals bring mathematics out of past history and into the twenty-first century. To the mathematics teacher, fractals offer a unique, new opportunity to illustrate both the dynamics of mathematics and its many connecting links.

The book describes some interactions of topology with other areas of mathematics and it requires only basic background. The first chapter deals with the topology of pointwise convergence and proves results of Bourgain, Fremlin, Talagrand and Rosenthal on compact sets of Baire class-1 functions. In the second chapter some topological dynamics of beta-N and its applications to combinatorial number theory are presented. The third chapter gives a proof of the Ivanovskii-Kuzminov-Vilenkin theorem that compact groups are dyadic. The last chapter presents Marjanovic's classification of hyperspaces of compact metric zerodimensional spaces.

The closed orbits of three-dimensional flows form knots and links. This book develops the tools - template theory and symbolic dynamics - needed for studying knotted orbits. This theory is applied to the problems of understanding local and global bifurcations, as well as the embedding data of orbits in Morse-smale, Smale, and integrable Hamiltonian flows. The necesssary background theory is sketched; however, some familiarity with low-dimensional topology and differential equations is assumed.

The articles in this volume were written to commemorate Reinhold Remmert's 60th birthday in June, 1990. They are surveys, meant to facilitate access to some of the many aspects of the theory of complex manifolds, and demonstrate the interplay between complex analysis and many other branches of mathematics, algebraic geometry, differential topology, representations of Lie groups, and mathematical physics being only the most obvious of these branches. Each of these articles should serve not only to describe the particular circle of ideas in complex analysis with which it deals but also as a guide to the many mathematical ideas related to its theme.

This book is for those interested in dynamical systems. It assumes a solid undergraduate training in mathematics. Geometrical methods are developed to study the process of iteration, which involves taking the output of a function and feeding it back as input. Iteration processes are used to produce fractals and wavelets, and to numerically approximate solutions to ordinary and partical differential equations. Each iteration procedure generates a discrete dynamical system. These systems are at the heart of many numerical algorithms. Essentially all mathematical models of evolving physical systems can be viewed as discrete dynamical systems. This book attempts to present the fundamental ideas of discrete dynamical systems as clearly and geometrically as possible. Illustrative examples of dynamical systems are presented in the first chapter. The second chapter gives a review of the typology of metric spaces. The third presents basic results and establishes a philosophy of dynamics which is strongly influenced by the work of Charles Conley. The stable manifold and local structural stability theorems are presented in the fourth chapter. Invariant sets and isolating blocks are defined in the fifth. The sixth develops what is called the Conley Index in the context of discrete dynamics, and the final chpater covers measure-preserving and symplectic maps. The book would be suitable for use as a main text for a graduate course in dynamical systems, and as a reference for engineers and scientists.

This is the softcover reprint of the English translation of 1971 (available from Springer since 1989) of the first 4 chapters of Bourbaki's Topologie générale. It gives all the basics of the subject, starting from definitions. Important classes of topological spaces are studied, uniform structures are introduced and applied to topological groups. Real numbers are constructed and their properties established. Part II, comprising the later chapters, Ch. 5-10, is also available in English in softcover.

This beautiful model to cut out and glue together is the result of arranging five interpenetrating cubes in a highly symmetrical way Each cube is printed in its own colour and so it is easy to see that exactly two cubes meet at every vertex and that there are twelve surfaces defining each face of each cube. There is a strong internal frame and multiple divisions in the golden ratio to discover. Simple and logical instructions followed carefully yield extraordinary results.

This book contains a collection of articles corresponding to some of the talks delivered at the Foundations of Computational Mathematics conference held at IMPA in Rio de Janeiro in January 1997. Some ofthe others are published in the December 1996 issue of the Journal of Complexity. Both of these publications were available and distributed at the meeting. Even in this aspect we hope to have achieved a synthesis of the mathematics and computer science cultures as well as of the disciplines. The reaction to the Park City meeting on Mathematics of Numerical Analy sis: Real Number Algorithms which was chaired by Steve Smale and had around 275 participants, was very enthusiastic. At the suggestion of Narendra Karmar mar a lunch time meeting of Felipe Cucker, Arieh Iserles, Narendra Karmarkar, Jim Renegar, Mike Shub and Steve Smale decided to try to hold a periodic meeting entitled "Foundations of Computational Mathematics" and to form an organization with the same name whose primary purpose will be to hold the meeting. This is then the first edition of FoCM as such. It has been organized around a small collection of workshops, namely - Systems of algebraic equations and computational algebraic geometry - Homotopy methods and real machines - Information-based complexity - Numerical linear algebra - Approximation and PDEs - Optimization - Differential equations and dynamical systems - Relations to computer science - Vision and related computational tools There were also twelve plenary speakers."

This volume presents the proceedings of a series of lectures hosted by the Math ematics Department of The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, March 22-24, 1995, under the title "Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations in Geometry and Physics" . While the relevance of partial differential equations to problems in differen tial geometry has been recognized since the early days of the latter subject, the idea that differential equations of differential-geometric origin can be useful in the formulation of physical theories is a much more recent one. Perhaps the earliest emergence of systems of nonlinear partial differential equations having deep geo metric and physical importance were the Einstein equations of general relativity (1915). Several basic aspects of the initial value problem for the Einstein equa tions, such as existence, regularity and stability of solutions remain prime research areas today. eighty years after Einstein's work. An even more recent development is the realization that structures originally the context of models in theoretical physics may turn out to have introduced in important geometric or topological applications. Perhaps its emergence can be traced back to 1954, with the introduction of a non-abelian version of Maxwell's equations as a model in elementary-particle physics, by the physicists C.N. Yang and R. Mills. The rich geometric structure ofthe Yang-Mills equations was brought to the attention of mathematicians through work of M.F. Atiyah: "J. Hitchin, I."

Geometry undoubtedly plays a central role in modern mathematics. And it is not only a physiological fact that 80 % of the information obtained by a human is absorbed through the eyes. It is easier to grasp mathematical con- cepts and ideas visually than merely to read written symbols and formulae. Without a clear geometric perception of an analytical mathematical problem our intuitive understanding is restricted, while a geometric interpretation points us towards ways of investigation. Minkowski's convexity theory (including support functions, mixed volu- mes, finite-dimensional normed spaces etc.) was considered by several mathe- maticians to be an excellent and elegant, but useless mathematical device. Nearly a century later, geometric convexity became one of the major tools of modern applied mathematics. Researchers in functional analysis, mathe- matical economics, optimization, game theory and many other branches of our field try to gain a clear geometric idea, before they start to work with formulae, integrals, inequalities and so on. For examples in this direction, we refer to [MalJ and [B-M 2J. Combinatorial geometry emerged this century. Its major lines of investi- gation, results and methods were developed in the last decades, based on seminal contributions by O. Helly, K. Borsuk, P. Erdos, H. Hadwiger, L. Fe- jes T6th, V. Klee, B. Griinbaum and many other excellent mathematicians.

Peter Dembowski was born in Berlin on April 1, 1928. After studying mathematics at the University of Frankfurt of Main, he pursued his graduate studies at Brown Unviersity and the University of Illinois, mainly with R. Baer. Dembowski returned to Frankfurt in 1956. Shortly before his premature death in January 1971, he had been appointed to a chair at the University of Tuebingen. Dembowski taught at the universities of Frankfurt and Tuebingen and - as visiting Professor - in London (Queen Mary College), Rome, and Madison, WI. Dembowski's chief research interest lay in the connections between finite geometries and group theory. His book "Finite Geometries" brought together essentially all that was known at that time about finite geometrical structures, including key results of the author, in a unified and structured perspective. This book became a standard reference as soon as it appeared in 1968. It influenced the expansion of combinatorial geometric research, and left its trace also in neighbouring areas.

The aim of cyclic cohomology theories is the approximation of K-theory by cohomology theories defined by natural chain complexes. The basic example is the approximation of topological K-theory by de Rham cohomology via the classical Chern character. A cyclic cohomology theory for operator algebras is developed in the book, based on Connes' work on noncommutative geometry. Asymptotic cyclic cohomology faithfully reflects the basic properties and features of operator K-theory. It thus becomes a natural target for a Chern character. The central result of the book is a general Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch theorem in noncommutative geometry with values in asymptotic cyclic homology. Besides this, the book contains numerous examples and calculations of asymptotic cyclic cohomology groups.

From the reviews:"The book...is a thorough and very readable introduction to the arithmetic of function fields of one variable over a finite field, by an author who has made fundamental contributions to the field. It serves as a definitive reference volume, as well as offering graduate students with a solid understanding of algebraic number theory the opportunity to quickly reach the frontiers of knowledge in an important area of mathematics...The arithmetic of function fields is a universe filled with beautiful surprises, in which familiar objects from classical number theory reappear in new guises, and in which entirely new objects play important roles. Goss'clear exposition and lively style make this book an excellent introduction to this fascinating field." MR 97i:11062

The book introduces conceptually simple geometric ideas based on the existence of fundamental domains for metric G- spaces. A list of the problems discussed includes Borsuk-Ulam type theorems for degrees of equivariant maps in finite and infinite dimensional cases, extensions of equivariant maps and equivariant homotopy classification, genus and G-category, elliptic boundary value problem, equivalence of p-group representations.
The new results and geometric clarification of several known theorems presented here will make it interesting and useful for specialists in equivariant topology and its applications to non-linear analysis and representation theory.

This is a new in paperback version of a very successful monograph first published in 1980. The book presents a survey of the geometric quantization theory of Konstant and Souriau. For this new paperback edition the text has been extensively rewritten and brought up-to-date, with the addition of many new examples, and an expansion of the material on field theory.

The book is characterized by the illustration of cases of fractal, self-similar and multi-scale structures taken from the mechanics of solid and porous materials, which have a technical interest. In addition, an accessible and self-consistent treatment of the mathematical technique of fractional calculus is provided, avoiding useless complications.