The connections between origami, mathematics, science, technology, and education have been a topic of considerable interest now for several decades. While many individuals have happened upon discrete connections among these fields during the twentieth century, the field really took off when previously isolated individuals began to make stronger connections with each other through a series of conferences exploring the links between origami and "the outside world." The Fourth International Meeting on Origami in Science, Mathematics, and Education (4OSME), held in September, 2006, at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, brought together an unprecedented number of researchers presenting on topics ranging from mathematics, to technology, to educational uses of origami, to fine art, and to computer programs for the design of origami. Selected papers based on talks presented at that conference make up the book you hold in your hands.

"Based on the proceedings of the Special Session on Geometry and Physics held over a six month period at the University of Aarhus, Denmark and on articles from the Summer school held at Odense University, Denmark. Offers new contributions on a host of topics that involve physics, geometry, and topology. Written by more than 50 leading international experts."

This important reference - based on the proceedings of the Special Session on Geometry and Physics held over a six-month period at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and on articles from the summer school held at Odense University, Denmark - offers new contributions on a host of topics that involve physics, geometry, and topology. Written by more than 50 leading international experts, Geometry and Physics presents the Seiberg-Witten invariants that facilitate the solution of open problems in Donaldson's theory...describes applications of the Seiberg-Witten invariants...analyzes moduli spaces of semi-stable bundles over Riemann surfaces...addresses operator algebras and topology...demonstrates the planar topological aspects of subfactors...examines symplectic geometry and Einstein metrics...discusses novel ways of computing curvature and holonomy for the determinant line bundle...elucidates the new topic of finite type invariants of three-manifolds and relations with nonperturbative quantum invariants...delineates recent work on a purely topological approach to physics-inspired invariants...and much more. Generously illustrated and containing over 800 key bibliographic citations, Geometry and Physics is an indispensable resource for geometers, topologists, mathematical and theoretical physicists, and graduate-level students in these disciplines.

Features Written in an accessible style for non-experts yet extensive enough for experts Serves as a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the theory of graph polynomials for researchers in mathematics, physics, and computer science Provides an extensive reference volume for the evaluations, theorems, and properties of the Tutte polynomial and related graph, matroid, and knot invariants Offers broad coverage, touching on the wide range of applications of the Tutte polynomial and its various specializations

This book is a collection of exercises for courses in higher algebra, linear algebra and geometry. It is helpful for postgraduate students in checking the solutions and answers to the exercises.

Based on a conference held in honor of Professor Tarow Indow, this volume is organized into three major topics concerning the use of geometry in perception:
* space -- referring to attempts to represent the subjective space within which we locate ourselves and perceive objects to reside;
* color -- dealing with attempts to represent the structure of color percepts as revealed by various experimental procedures; and
* scaling -- focusing on the organization of various bodies of data -- in this case perceptual -- through scaling techniques, primarily multidimensional ones.
These topics provide a natural organization of the work in the field, as well as one that corresponds to the major aspects of Indow's contributions. This book's goal is to provide the reader with an overview of the issues in each of the areas, and to present current results from the laboratories of leading researchers in these areas.

First published in 1987, the seven chapters that comprise this book review contemporary work on the geometric side of robotics. The first chapter defines the fundamental goal of robotics in very broad terms and outlines a research agenda each of whose items constitutes a substantial area for further research. The second chapter presents recently developed techniques that have begun to address the geometric side of this research agenda and the third reviews several applied geometric ideas central to contemporary work on the problem of motion planning. The use of Voronoi diagrams, a theme opened in these chapters, is explored further later in the book. The fourth chapter develops a theme in computational geometry having obvious significance for the simplification of practical robotics problems - the approximation or decomposition of complex geometric objects into simple ones. The final chapters treat two examples of a class of geometric 'reconstruction' problem that have immediate application to computer-aided geometric design systems.

This volume contains the proceedings of the special session on Modern Methods in Continuum Theory presented at the 100th Annual Joint Mathematics Meetings held in Cincinnati, Ohio. It also features the Houston Problem Book which includes a recently updated set of 200 problems accumulated over several years at the University of Houston.;These proceedings and problems are aimed at pure and applied mathematicians, topologists, geometers, physicists and graduate-level students in these disciplines.

Many disciplines are concerned with manipulating geometric (or spatial) objects in the computer - such as geology, cartography, computer aided design (CAD), etc. - and each of these have developed their own data structures and techniques, often independently. Nevertheless, in many cases the object types and the spatial queries are similar, and this book attempts to find a common theme.

A traditional approach to developing multivariate statistical theory is algebraic. Sets of observations are represented by matrices, linear combinations are formed from these matrices by multiplying them by coefficient matrices, and useful statistics are found by imposing various criteria of optimization on these combinations. Matrix algebra is the vehicle for these calculations. A second approach is computational. Since many users find that they do not need to know the mathematical basis of the techniques as long as they have a way to transform data into results, the computation can be done by a package of computer programs that somebody else has written. An approach from this perspective emphasizes how the computer packages are used, and is usually coupled with rules that allow one to extract the most important numbers from the output and interpret them. Useful as both approaches are--particularly when combined--they can overlook an important aspect of multivariate analysis. To apply it correctly, one needs a way to conceptualize the multivariate relationships that exist among variables.
This book is designed to help the reader develop a way of thinking about multivariate statistics, as well as to understand in a broader and more intuitive sense what the procedures do and how their results are interpreted. Presenting important procedures of multivariate statistical theory geometrically, the author hopes that this emphasis on the geometry will give the reader a coherent picture into which all the multivariate techniques fit.

The aim of this work is to apply variational methods and critical point theory on infinite dimensional manifolds, to some problems in Lorentzian Geometry which have a variational nature, such as existence and multiplicity results on geodesics and Relations between such geodesics and the topology of the manifold (in the spirit of Morse Theory). In particular Ljusternik-Schnirelmann critical point theory and Morse theory are exploited. Moreover, the results for general Lorentzian manifolds should be applied to physically relevant space-times of General Relativity, like Schwarzschild and Kerr space-times.

Based on the Working Conference on Boundary Control and Boundary Variation held in Sophia-Antipolis, France, this work provides important examinations of shape optimization and boundary control of hyperbolic systems, including free boundary problems and stabilization. It offers a new approach to large and nonlinear variation of the boundary using global Eulerian co-ordinates and intrinsic geometry.

Multifractal theory was introduced by theoretical physicists in 1986. Since then, multifractals have increasingly been studied by mathematicians. This new work presents the latest research on random results on random multifractals and the physical thermodynamical interpretation of these results. As the amount of work in this area increases, Lars Olsen presents a unifying approach to current multifractal theory. Featuring high quality, original research material, this important new book fills a gap in the current literature available, providing a rigorous mathematical treatment of multifractal measures.

This volume contains papers presented at the 27th Taniguchi International Symposium, held in Sanda, Japan - focusing on the study of moduli spaces of various geometric objects such as Einstein metrics, conformal structures, and Yang-Mills connections from algebraic and analytic points of view.;Written by over 15 authorities from around the world, Einstein Metrics and Yang-Mills Connections...: discusses current topics in Kaehler geometry, including Kaehler-Einstein metrics, Hermitian-Einstein connections and a new Kaehler version of Kawamata-Viehweg's vanishing theorem; explores algebraic geometric treatments of holomorphic vector bundles on curves and surfaces; addresses nonlinear problems related to Mong-Ampere and Yamabe-type equations as well as nonlinear equations in mathematical physics; and covers interdisciplinary topics such as twistor theory, magnetic monopoles, KP-equations, Einstein and Gibbons-Hawking metrics, and supercommutative algebras of superdifferential operators.;Providing a wide array of original research articles not published elsewhere Einstein Metrics and Yang-Mills Connections is for research mathematicians, including topologists and differential and algebraic geometers, theoretical physicists, and graudate-level students in these disciplines.

The Mordell conjecture (Faltings's theorem) is one of the most important achievements in Diophantine geometry, stating that an algebraic curve of genus at least two has only finitely many rational points. This book provides a self-contained and detailed proof of the Mordell conjecture following the papers of Bombieri and Vojta. Also acting as a concise introduction to Diophantine geometry, the text starts from basics of algebraic number theory, touches on several important theorems and techniques (including the theory of heights, the Mordell-Weil theorem, Siegel's lemma and Roth's lemma) from Diophantine geometry, and culminates in the proof of the Mordell conjecture. Based on the authors' own teaching experience, it will be of great value to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in algebraic geometry and number theory, as well as researchers interested in Diophantine geometry as a whole.

The Only Undergraduate Textbook to Teach Both Classical and Virtual Knot Theory An Invitation to Knot Theory: Virtual and Classical gives advanced undergraduate students a gentle introduction to the field of virtual knot theory and mathematical research. It provides the foundation for students to research knot theory and read journal articles on their own. Each chapter includes numerous examples, problems, projects, and suggested readings from research papers. The proofs are written as simply as possible using combinatorial approaches, equivalence classes, and linear algebra. The text begins with an introduction to virtual knots and counted invariants. It then covers the normalized f-polynomial (Jones polynomial) and other skein invariants before discussing algebraic invariants, such as the quandle and biquandle. The book concludes with two applications of virtual knots: textiles and quantum computation.

This advanced textbook on linear algebra and geometry covers a wide range of classical and modern topics. Differing from existing textbooks in approach, the work illustrates the many-sided applications and connections of linear algebra with functional analysis, quantum mechanics and algebraic and differential geometry. The subjects covered in some detail include normed linear spaces, functions of linear operators, the basic structures of quantum mechanics and an introduction to linear programming. Also discussed are Kahler's metic, the theory of Hilbert polynomials, and projective and affine geometries. Unusual in its extensive use of applications in physics to clarify each topic, this comprehensice volume should be of particular interest to advanced undergraduates and graduates in mathematics and physics, and to lecturers in linear and multilinear algebra, linear programming and quantum mechanics.

Reconciliation of Geometry and Perception in Radiation Physics approaches the topic of projective geometry as it applies to radiation physics and attempts to negate its negative reputation. With an original outlook and transversal approach, the book emphasizes common geometric properties and their potential transposition between domains. After defining both radiation and geometric properties, authors Benoit and Pierre Beckers explain the necessity of reconciling geometry and perception in fields like architectural and urban physics, which are notable for the regularity of their forms and the complexity of their interactions.

Offering the insights of L.S. Pontryagin, one of the foremost thinkers in modern mathematics, the second volume in this four-volume set examines the nature and processes that make up topological groups. Already hailed as the leading work in this subject for its abundance of examples and its thorough explanations, the text is arranged so that readers can follow the material either sequentially or schematically. Stand-alone chapters cover such topics as topological division rings, linear representations of compact topological groups, and the concept of a lie group.

The study of nonlinear dynamical systems has been gathering momentum since the late 1950s. It now constitutes one of the major research areas of modern theoretical physics. The twin themes of fractals and chaos, which are linked by attracting sets in chaotic systems that are fractal in structure, are currently generating a great deal of excitement. The degree of structure robustness in the presence of stochastic and quantum noise is thus a topic of interest. Chaos, Noise and Fractals discusses the role of fractals in quantum mechanics, the influence of phase noise in chaos and driven optical systems, and the arithmetic of chaos. The book represents a balanced overview of the field and is a worthy addition to the reading lists of researchers and students interested in any of the varied, and sometimes bizarre, aspects of this intriguing subject.

This volume, first published in 2000, presents a classical approach to the foundations and development of the geometry of vector fields, describing vector fields in three-dimensional Euclidean space, triply-orthogonal systems and applications in mechanics. Topics covered include Pfaffian forms, systems in n-dimensional space, and foliations and their Godbillion-Vey invariant. There is much interest in the study of geometrical objects in n-dimensional Euclidean space and this volume provides a useful and comprehensive presentation.

This book presents to the reader a modern axiomatic construction of three-dimensional Euclidean geometry in a rigorous and accessible form. It is helpful for high school teachers who are interested in the modernization of the teaching of geometry.

Exploring theories and applications developed during the last 30 years, Digital Geometry in Image Processing presents a mathematical treatment of the properties of digital metric spaces and their relevance in analyzing shapes in two and three dimensions. Unlike similar books, this one connects the two areas of image processing and digital geometry, highlighting important results of digital geometry that are currently used in image analysis and processing.

The book discusses different digital geometries in multi-dimensional integral coordinate spaces. It also describes interesting properties of the geometries, including metric and topological properties, shapes of circles and spheres, proximity to Euclidean norms, and number theoretic representations of geometric objects such as straight lines and circles. The authors all active researchers in image processing and digital geometry demonstrate how these concepts and properties are useful in various techniques for image processing and analysis. In particular, the book covers applications in object representation and shape analysis.

With many figures (some in color) and end-of-chapter exercises, this book provides an in-depth, unified account of digital metrics, the characterization of digital curves and straight lines, and their uses in shape analysis. It gives you insight on the latest two- and three-dimensional image processing applications."

Geometry processing, or mesh processing, is a fast-growing area of research that uses concepts from applied mathematics, computer science, and engineering to design efficient algorithms for the acquisition, reconstruction, analysis, manipulation, simulation, and transmission of complex 3D models. Applications of geometry processing algorithms already cover a wide range of areas from multimedia, entertainment, and classical computer-aided design, to biomedical computing, reverse engineering, and scientific computing.

Over the last several years, triangle meshes have become increasingly popular, as irregular triangle meshes have developed into a valuable alternative to traditional spline surfaces. This book discusses the whole geometry processing pipeline based on triangle meshes. The pipeline starts with data input, for example, a model acquired by 3D scanning techniques. This data can then go through processes of error removal, mesh creation, smoothing, conversion, morphing, and more. The authors detail techniques for those processes using triangle meshes. A supplemental website contains downloads and additional information.

Focusing on Sobolev inequalities and their applications to analysis on manifolds and Ricci flow, Sobolev Inequalities, Heat Kernels under Ricci Flow, and the Poincare Conjecture introduces the field of analysis on Riemann manifolds and uses the tools of Sobolev imbedding and heat kernel estimates to study Ricci flows, especially with surgeries. The author explains key ideas, difficult proofs, and important applications in a succinct, accessible, and unified manner. The book first discusses Sobolev inequalities in various settings, including the Euclidean case, the Riemannian case, and the Ricci flow case. It then explores several applications and ramifications, such as heat kernel estimates, Perelman's W entropies and Sobolev inequality with surgeries, and the proof of Hamilton's little loop conjecture with surgeries. Using these tools, the author presents a unified approach to the Poincare conjecture that clarifies and simplifies Perelman's original proof. Since Perelman solved the Poincare conjecture, the area of Ricci flow with surgery has attracted a great deal of attention in the mathematical research community. Along with coverage of Riemann manifolds, this book shows how to employ Sobolev imbedding and heat kernel estimates to examine Ricci flow with surgery.