Specialized as it might be, continuum theory is one of the most intriguing areas in mathematics. However, despite being popular journal fare, few books have thoroughly explored this interesting aspect of topology.

In Topics on Continua, Sergio Macias, one of the field's leading scholars, presents four of his favorite continuum topics: inverse limits, Jones's set function "T," homogenous continua, and "n"-fold hyperspaces, and in doing so, presents the most complete set of theorems and proofs ever contained in a single topology volume. Many of the results presented have previously appeared only in research papers, and some appear here for the first time.

After building the requisite background and exploring the inverse limits of continua, the discussions focus on Professor Jones's set function "T "and continua for which "T" is continuous. An introduction to topological groups and group actions lead to a proof of Effros's Theorem, followed by a presentation of two decomposition theorems. The author then offers an in-depth study of "n"-fold hyperspaces. This includes their general properties, conditions that allow points of "n"-fold symmetric products to be arcwise accessible from their complement, points that arcwise disconnect the "n"-fold hyperspaces, the "n"-fold hyperspaces of graphs, and theorems relating "n"-fold hyperspaces and cones. The concluding chapter presents a series of open questions on each topic discussed in the book.

With more than a decade of teaching experience, Macias is able to put forth exceptionally cogent discussions that not only give beginning mathematicians a strong grounding in continuum theory, but also form an authoritative, single-source guidethrough some of topology's most captivating facets.

This invaluable book is based on the notes of a graduate course on differential geometry which the author gave at the Nankai Institute of Mathematics. It consists of two parts: the first part contains an introduction to the geometric theory of characteristic classes due to Shiing-shen Chern and Andre Weil, as well as a proof of the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem based on the Mathai-Quillen construction of Thom forms; the second part presents analytic proofs of the Poincare-Hopf index formula, as well as the Morse inequalities based on deformations introduced by Edward Witten.

Groups as abstract structures were first recognized by mathematicians in the nineteenth century. Groups are, of course, sets given with appropriate "multiplications," and they are often given together with actions on interesting geometric objects. But groups are also interesting geometric objects by themselves. More precisely, a finitely-generated group can be seen as a metric space, the distance between two points being defined "up to quasi-isometry" by some "word length," and this gives rise to a very fruitful approach to group theory.
In this book, Pierre de la Harpe provides a concise and engaging introduction to this approach, a new method for studying infinite groups via their intrinsic geometry that has played a major role in mathematics over the past two decades. A recognized expert in the field, de la Harpe uses a hands-on presentation style, illustrating key concepts of geometric group theory with numerous concrete examples.
The first five chapters present basic combinatorial and geometric group theory in a unique way, with an emphasis on finitely-generated versus finitely-presented groups. In the final three chapters, de la Harpe discusses new material on the growth of groups, including a detailed treatment of the "Grigorchuk group," an infinite finitely-generated torsion group of intermediate growth which is becoming more and more important in group theory. Most sections are followed by exercises and a list of problems and complements, enhancing the book's value for students; problems range from slightly more difficult exercises to open research questions in the field. An extensive list of references directs readers to more advanced results as well as connectionswith other subjects.