The present volume grew out of the Heidelberg Knot Theory Semester, organized by the editors in winter 2008/09 at Heidelberg University. The contributed papers bring the reader up to date on the currently most actively pursued areas of mathematical knot theory and its applications in mathematical physics and cell biology. Both original research and survey articles are presented; numerous illustrations support the text. The book will be of great interest to researchers in topology, geometry, and mathematical physics, graduate students specializing in knot theory, and cell biologists interested in the topology of DNA strands.

This well-organized and coherent collection of papers leads the reader to the frontiers of  present research in the theory of nonlinear partial differential equations and the calculus of variations and offers insight into some exciting developments. In addition, most articles also provide an excellent introduction to their background, describing extensively as they do the history of those problems presented, as well as the state of the art and offer a well-chosen guide to the literature. Part I contains the contributions of geometric nature: From spectral theory on regular and singular spaces to regularity theory of solutions of variational problems. Part II consists of articles on partial differential equations which originate from problems in physics, biology and stochastics. They cover elliptic, hyperbolic and parabolic cases.

Over the past fifteen years, the geometrical and topological methods of the theory of manifolds have as- sumed a central role in the most advanced areas of pure and applied mathematics as well as theoretical physics. The three volumes of Modern Geometry - Methods and Applications contain a concrete exposition of these methods together with their main applications in mathematics and physics. This third volume, presented in highly accessible languages, concentrates in homology theory. It contains introductions to the contemporary methods for the calculation of homology groups and the classification of manifesto. Both scientists and students of mathematics as well as theoretical physics will find this book to be a valuable reference and text.

This book presents very recent results involving an extensive use of analytical tools in the study of geometrical and topological properties of complete Riemannian manifolds. It analyzes in detail an extension of the Bochner technique to the non compact setting, yielding conditions which ensure that solutions of geometrically significant differential equations either are trivial (vanishing results) or give rise to finite dimensional vector spaces (finiteness results). The book develops a range of methods from spectral theory and qualitative properties of solutions of PDEs to comparison theorems in Riemannian geometry and potential theory.

All needed tools are described in detail, often with an original approach. Some of the applications presented concern the topology at infinity of submanifolds, Lp cohomology, metric rigidity of manifolds with positive spectrum, and structure theorems for KAhler manifolds.

The book is essentially self-contained and supplies in an original presentation the necessary background material not easily available in book form.

After A. Ungar had introduced vector algebra and Cartesian coordinates into hyperbolic geometry in his earlier books, along with novel applications in Einstein's special theory of relativity, the purpose of his new book is to introduce hyperbolic barycentric coordinates, another important concept to embed Euclidean geometry into hyperbolic geometry. It will be demonstrated that, in full analogy to classical mechanics where barycentric coordinates are related to the Newtonian mass, barycentric coordinates are related to the Einsteinian relativistic mass in hyperbolic geometry. Contrary to general belief, Einstein's relativistic mass hence meshes up extraordinarily well with Minkowski's four-vector formalism of special relativity. In Euclidean geometry, barycentric coordinates can be used to determine various triangle centers. While there are many known Euclidean triangle centers, only few hyperbolic triangle centers are known, and none of the known hyperbolic triangle centers has been determined analytically with respect to its hyperbolic triangle vertices. In his recent research, the author set the ground for investigating hyperbolic triangle centers via hyperbolic barycentric coordinates, and one of the purposes of this book is to initiate a study of hyperbolic triangle centers in full analogy with the rich study of Euclidean triangle centers. Owing to its novelty, the book is aimed at a large audience: it can be enjoyed equally by upper-level undergraduates, graduate students, researchers and academics in geometry, abstract algebra, theoretical physics and astronomy. For a fruitful reading of this book, familiarity with Euclidean geometry is assumed. Mathematical-physicists and theoretical physicists are likely to enjoy the study of Einstein's special relativity in terms of its underlying hyperbolic geometry. Geometers may enjoy the hunt for new hyperbolic triangle centers and, finally, astronomers may use hyperbolic barycentric coordinates in the velocity space of cosmology.

This work presents some classical as well as some very recent results and techniques concerning the spectral geometry corresponding to the Laplace-Beltrami operator and the Hodge-de Rham operators. It treats many topics that are not usually dealt with in this field, such as the continuous dependence of the eigenvalues with respect to the Riemannian metric in the CINFINITY-topology, and some of their consequences, such as Uhlenbeck's genericity theorem; examples of non-isometric flat tori in all dimensions greater than or equal to four; Gordon's classical technique for constructing isospectral closed Riemannian manifolds; a detailed presentation of Sunada's technique and Pesce's approach to isospectrality; Gordon and Webb's example of non-isometric convex domains in Rn (n>=4) that are isospectral for both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions; the Chanillo-TrA]ves estimate for the first positive eigenvalue of the Hodge-de Rham operator, etc. Significant applications are developed, and many open problems, references and suggestions for further reading are given. Several themes for additional research are pointed out. Audience: This volume is designed as an introductory text for mathematicians and physicists interested in global analysis, analysis on manifolds, differential geometry, linear and multilinear algebra, and matrix theory. It is accessible to readers whose background includes basic Riemannian geometry and functional analysis. These mathematical prerequisites are covered in the first two chapters, thus making the book largely self-contained.

The theories of V. V. Wagner (1908-1981) on abstractions of systems of binary relations are presented here within their historical and mathematical contexts. This book contains the first translation from Russian into English of a selection of Wagner's papers, the ideas of which are connected to present-day mathematical research. Along with a translation of Wagner's main work in this area, his 1953 paper 'Theory of generalised heaps and generalised groups,' the book also includes translations of three short precursor articles that provide additional context for his major work. Researchers and students interested in both algebra (in particular, heaps, semiheaps, generalised heaps, semigroups, and groups) and differential geometry will benefit from the techniques offered by these translations, owing to the natural connections between generalised heaps and generalised groups, and the role played by these concepts in differential geometry. This book gives examples from present-day mathematics where ideas related to Wagner's have found fruitful applications.

Simplicial Structures in Topology provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to the subject. Ideas are developed in the first four chapters. The fifth chapter studies closed surfaces and gives their classification. The last chapter of the book is devoted to homotopy groups, which are used in short introduction on obstruction theory. The text is more in tune with the original development of algebraic topology as given by Henry Poincare (singular homology is discussed). Illustrative examples throughout and extensive exercises at the end of each chapter for practice enhance the text. Advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students will benefit from this book. Researchers and professionals interested in topology and applications of mathematics will also find this book useful.

The theory of elliptic curves and modular forms provides a fruitful meeting ground for such diverse areas as number theory, complex analysis, algebraic geometry, and representation theory. This book starts out with a problem from elementary number theory and proceeds to lead its reader into the modern theory, covering such topics as the Hasse-Weil L-function and the conjecture of Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer. The second edition of this text includes an updated bibliography indicating the latest, dramatic changes in the direction of proving the Birch and Swinnerton conjecture. It also discusses the current state of knowledge of elliptic curves.

Featuring the work of twenty-three internationally-recognized experts, this volume explores the trace formula, spectra of locally symmetric spaces, p-adic families, and other recent techniques from harmonic analysis and representation theory. Each peer-reviewed submission in this volume, based on the Simons Foundation symposium on families of automorphic forms and the trace formula held in Puerto Rico in January-February 2014, is the product of intensive research collaboration by the participants over the course of the seven-day workshop. The goal of each session in the symposium was to bring together researchers with diverse specialties in order to identify key difficulties as well as fruitful approaches being explored in the field. The respective themes were counting cohomological forms, p-adic trace formulas, Hecke fields, slopes of modular forms, and orbital integrals.

In a broad sense design science is the grammar of a language of images rather than of words. Modem communication techniques enable us to transmit and reconstitute images without needing to know a specific verbal sequence language such as the Morse code or Hungarian. Inter national traffic signs use international image symbols which are not An image language differs specific to any particular verbal language. from a verbal one in that the latter uses a linear string of symbols, whereas the former is multidimensional. Architectural renderings commonly show projections onto three mutually perpendicular planes, or consist of cross sections at different altitudes capable of being stacked and representing different floor plans. Such renderings make it difficult to imagine buildings compris ing ramps and other features which disguise the separation between and consequently limit the creative process of the architect. floors, Analogously, we tend to analyze natural structures as if nature had used similar stacked renderings, rather than, for instance, a system of packed spheres, with the result that we fail to perceive the system of organization determining the form of such structures."

This book is a visually compelling journey through the unique geometric discoveries of Frank Chester, a contemporary sacred geometer, artist, and sculptor. This art-style book with highly polished design elements leads the reader from discovery to discovery, complemented by original text from the author, a PhD who has studied Frank's work from its inception, when it was just seven sticks in a ball of mud on the banks of the American River... From the back cover: The ancient tradition of Sacred Geometry is still alive and well in the person of Frank Chester. He has discovered a new geometric form that unites the five Platonic solids and provides some startling indications about the form and function of the human heart. This new form, called the Chestahedron, was discovered in 2000, and is a seven-sided polyhedron with surfaces of equal area. Frank has been exploring the form and its significance for over a decade. His work has potential implications across a number of areas, from physiology to architecture, sculpture, geology, and beyond. Inspired by the work of Rudolf Steiner, Frank sees a deep connection between form and spirit. This book gives a brief, highly visual overview of some of Frank's discoveries, and presents a compelling series of indications for future research.

Finite Geometries stands out from recent textbooks about the subject of finite geometries by having a broader scope. The authors thoroughly explain how the subject of finite geometries is a central part of discrete mathematics. The text is suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses. Additionally, it can be used as reference material on recent works. The authors examine how finite geometries' applicable nature led to solutions of open problems in different fields, such as design theory, cryptography and extremal combinatorics. Other areas covered include proof techniques using polynomials in case of Desarguesian planes, and applications in extremal combinatorics, plus, recent material and developments. Features: Includes exercise sets for possible use in a graduate course Discusses applications to graph theory and extremal combinatorics Covers coding theory and cryptography Translated and revised text from the Hungarian published version

Writing a new book on the classic subject of Special Relativity, on which numerous important physicists have contributed and many books have already been written, can be like adding another epicycle to the Ptolemaic cosmology. Furthermore, it is our belief that if a book has no new elements, but simply repeats what is written in the existing literature, perhaps with a different style, then this is not enough to justify its publication. However, after having spent a number of years, both in class and research with relativity, I have come to the conclusion that there exists a place for a new book. Since it appears that somewhere along the way, mathem- ics may have obscured and prevailed to the degree that we tend to teach relativity (and I believe, theoretical physics) simply using "heavier" mathematics without the inspiration and the mastery of the classic physicists of the last century. Moreover current trends encourage the application of techniques in producing quick results and not tedious conceptual approaches resulting in long-lasting reasoning. On the other hand, physics cannot be done a la carte stripped from philosophy, or, to put it in a simple but dramatic context A building is not an accumulation of stones As a result of the above, a major aim in the writing of this book has been the distinction between the mathematics of Minkowski space and the physics of r- ativity."

Approach your problems from the right end It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is and begin with the answers. Then one day, that they can't see the problem. perhaps you will find the final question. G. K. Chesterton. The Scandal of Father 'The Hermit Gad in Crane Feathers' in R. Brown'The point of a Pin'. van Gulik's TheChinese Maze Murders. Growing specialization and diversification have brought a host of monographs and textbooks on increasingly specialized topics. However, the "tree" of knowledge of mathematics and related fields does not grow only by putting forth new branches. It also happens, quite often in fact, that branches which were thought to be completely disparate are suddenly seen to be related. Further, the kind and level of sophistication of mathematics applied in various sciences has changed drastically in recent years: measure theory is used (non-trivially) in regional and theoretical economics; algebraic geometry interacts with physics; the Minkowsky lemma, coding theory and the structure of water meet one another in packing and covering theory; quantum fields, crystal defects and mathematical programming profit from homotopy theory; Lie algebras are relevant to filtering; and prediction and electrical engineering can use Stein spaces. And in addition to this there are such new emerging SUbdisciplines as "experimental mathematics," "CFD," "completely integrable systems," "chaos, synergetics and large-scale order," which are almost impossible to fit into the existing classification schemes. They draw upon widely different sections of mathematics.

Codes on Euclidean spheres are often referred to as spherical codes. They are of interest from mathematical, physical and engineering points of view. Mathematically the topic belongs to the realm of algebraic combinatorics, with close connections to number theory, geometry, combinatorial theory, and - of course - to algebraic coding theory. The connections to physics occur within areas like crystallography and nuclear physics. In engineering spherical codes are of central importance in connection with error-control in communication systems. In that context the use of spherical codes is often referred to as "coded modulation."

The book offers a first complete treatment of the mathematical theory of codes on Euclidean spheres. Many new results are published here for the first time. Engineering applications are emphasized throughout the text. The theory is illustrated by many examples. The book also contains an extensive table of best known spherical codes in dimensions 3-24, including exact constructions.

This is a monograph on fixed point theory, covering the purely metric aspects of the theory-particularly results that do not depend on any algebraic structure of the underlying space. Traditionally, a large body of metric fixed point theory has been couched in a functional analytic framework. This aspect of the theory has been written about extensively. There are four classical fixed point theorems against which metric extensions are usually checked. These are, respectively, the Banach contraction mapping principal, Nadler's well known set-valued extension of that theorem, the extension of Banach's theorem to nonexpansive mappings, and Caristi's theorem. These comparisons form a significant component of this book. This book is divided into three parts. Part I contains some aspects of the purely metric theory, especially Caristi's theorem and a few of its many extensions. There is also a discussion of nonexpansive mappings, viewed in the context of logical foundations. Part I also contains certain results in hyperconvex metric spaces and ultrametric spaces. Part II treats fixed point theory in classes of spaces which, in addition to having a metric structure, also have geometric structure. These specifically include the geodesic spaces, length spaces and CAT(0) spaces. Part III focuses on distance spaces that are not necessarily metric. These include certain distance spaces which lie strictly between the class of semimetric spaces and the class of metric spaces, in that they satisfy relaxed versions of the triangle inequality, as well as other spaces whose distance properties do not fully satisfy the metric axioms.

This monograph systematically explores the theory of rational maps between spheres in complex Euclidean spaces and its connections to other areas of mathematics. Synthesizing research from the last forty years, the author aims for accessibility by balancing abstract concepts with concrete examples. Numerous computations are worked out in detail, and more than 100 optional exercises are provided throughout for readers wishing to better understand challenging material. The text begins by presenting core concepts in complex analysis and a wide variety of results about rational sphere maps. The subsequent chapters discuss combinatorial and optimization results about monomial sphere maps, groups associated with rational sphere maps, relevant complex and CR geometry, and some geometric properties of rational sphere maps. Fifteen open problems appear in the final chapter, with references provided to appropriate parts of the text. These problems will encourage readers to apply the material to future research. Rational Sphere Maps will be of interest to researchers and graduate students studying several complex variables and CR geometry. Mathematicians from other areas, such as number theory, optimization, and combinatorics, will also find the material appealing. See the author's research web page for a list of typos, clarifications, etc.: https://faculty.math.illinois.edu/~jpda/research.html

This book is centered around higher algebraic structures stemming from the work of Murray Gerstenhaber and Jim Stasheff that are now ubiquitous in various areas of mathematics such as algebra, algebraic topology, differential geometry, algebraic geometry, mathematical physics and in theoretical physics such as quantum field theory and string theory. These higher algebraic structures provide a common language essential in the study of deformation quantization, theory of algebroids and groupoids, symplectic field theory, and much more. Each contribution in this volume expands on the ideas of Gerstenhaber and Stasheff. The volume is intended for post-graduate students, mathematical and theoretical physicists, and mathematicians interested in higher structures.

This volume, dedicated to Bertram Kostant on the occasion of his 65th birthday, is a collection of 22 invited papers by leading mathematicians working in Lie theory, geometry, algebra, and mathematical physics. Kostant 's fundamental work in all these areas has provided deep new insights and connections, and has created new fields of research. The papers gathered here present original research articles as well as expository papers, broadly reflecting the range of Kostant 's work.

The volume is a follow-up to the INdAM meeting "Special metrics and quaternionic geometry" held in Rome in November 2015. It offers a panoramic view of a selection of cutting-edge topics in differential geometry, including 4-manifolds, quaternionic and octonionic geometry, twistor spaces, harmonic maps, spinors, complex and conformal geometry, homogeneous spaces and nilmanifolds, special geometries in dimensions 5-8, gauge theory, symplectic and toric manifolds, exceptional holonomy and integrable systems. The workshop was held in honor of Simon Salamon, a leading international scholar at the forefront of academic research who has made significant contributions to all these subjects. The articles published here represent a compelling testimony to Salamon's profound and longstanding impact on the mathematical community. Target readership includes graduate students and researchers working in Riemannian and complex geometry, Lie theory and mathematical physics.

This volume provides an introduction to the geometry of manifolds equipped with additional structures connected with the notion of symmetry. The content is divided into five chapters. Chapter I presents the elements of differential geometry which are used in subsequent chapters. Part of the chapter is devoted to general topology, part to the theory of smooth manifolds, and the remaining sections deal with manifolds with additional structures. Chapter II is devoted to the basic notions of the theory of spaces. One of the main topics here is the realization of affinely connected symmetric spaces as totally geodesic submanifolds of Lie groups. In Chapter IV, the most important classes of vector bundles are constructed. This is carried out in terms of differential forms. The geometry of the Euler class is of special interest here. Chapter V presents some applications of the geometrical concepts discussed. In particular, an introduction to modern methods of integration of nonlinear differential equations is given, as well as considerations involving the theory of hydrodynamic-type Poisson brackets with connections to interesting algebraic structures. For mathematicians and mathematical physicists wishing to obtain a good introduction to the geometry of manifolds. This volume can also be recommended as a supplementary graduate text.

The history of the development of Euclidean, non-Euclidean, and relativistic ideas of the shape of the universe, is presented in this lively account by Jeremy Gray. The parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry occupies a unique position in the history of mathematics. In this book, Jeremy Gray reviews the failure of classical attempts to prove the postulate and then proceeds to show how the work of Gauss, Lobachevskii, and Bolyai, laid the foundations of modern differential geometry, by constructing geometries in which the parallel postulate fails. These investigations in turn enabled the formulation of Einstein's theories of special and general relativity, which today form the basis of our conception of the universe. The author has made every attempt to keep the pre-requisites to a bare minimum. This immensely readable account, contains historical and mathematical material which make it suitable for undergraduate students in the history of science and mathematics. For the second edition, the author has taken the opportunity to update much of the material, and to add a chapter on the emerging story of the Arabic contribution to this fascinating aspect of the history of mathematics.

This proceedings volume presents selected, peer-reviewed contributions from the 26th National School on Algebra, which was held in Constanta, Romania, on August 26-September 1, 2018. The works cover three fields of mathematics: algebra, geometry and discrete mathematics, discussing the latest developments in the theory of monomial ideals, algebras of graphs and local positivity of line bundles. Whereas interactions between algebra and geometry go back at least to Hilbert, the ties to combinatorics are much more recent and are subject of immense interest at the forefront of contemporary mathematics research. Transplanting methods between different branches of mathematics has proved very fruitful in the past - for example, the application of fixed point theorems in topology to solving nonlinear differential equations in analysis. Similarly, combinatorial structures, e.g., Newton-Okounkov bodies, have led to significant advances in our understanding of the asymptotic properties of line bundles in geometry and multiplier ideals in algebra. This book is intended for advanced graduate students, young scientists and established researchers with an interest in the overlaps between different fields of mathematics. A volume for the 24th edition of this conference was previously published with Springer under the title "Multigraded Algebra and Applications" (ISBN 978-3-319-90493-1).

This book presents problems and solutions in calculus with curvilinear coordinates. Vector analysis can be performed in different coordinate systems, an optimal system considers the symmetry of the problem in order to reduce calculatory difficulty. The book presents the material in arbitrary orthogonal coordinates, and includes the discussion of parametrization methods as well as topics such as potential theory and integral theorems. The target audience primarily comprises university teachers in engineering mathematics, but the book may also be beneficial for advanced undergraduate and graduate students alike.