This book consists essentially of notes which were written for an Advanced Course on Classifying Spaces and Cohomology of Groups. The course took place at the Centre de Recerca Mathematica (CRM) in Bellaterra from May 27 to June 2, 1998 and was part of an emphasis semester on Algebraic Topology. It consisted of two parallel series of 6 lectures of 90 minutes each and was intended as an introduction to new homotopy theoretic methods in group cohomology. The first part of the book is concerned with methods of decomposing the classifying space of a finite group into pieces made of classifying spaces of appropriate subgroups. Such decompositions have been used with great success in the last 10-15 years in the homotopy theory of classifying spaces of compact Lie groups and p-compact groups in the sense of Dwyer and Wilkerson. For simplicity the emphasis here is on finite groups and on homological properties of various decompositions known as centralizer resp. normalizer resp. subgroup decomposition. A unified treatment of the various decompositions is given and the relations between them are explored. This is preceeded by a detailed discussion of basic notions such as classifying spaces, simplicial complexes and homotopy colimits.

Presented here are papers from the 1993 Como meeting on groups of Lie type and their geometries. The meeting was attended by many leading figures, as well as younger researchers in this area, and this book brings together many of their excellent contributions. Themes represented here include: subgroups of finite and algebraic groups; buildings and other geometries associated to groups of Lie type or Coxeter groups; generation and applications. This book will be a necessary addition to the library of all researchers in group theory and related areas.

Although group theory is a mathematical subject, it is indispensable to many areas of modern theoretical physics, from atomic physics to condensed matter physics, particle physics to string theory. In particular, it is essential for an understanding of the fundamental forces. Yet until now, what has been missing is a modern, accessible, and self-contained textbook on the subject written especially for physicists. Group Theory in a Nutshell for Physicists fills this gap, providing a user-friendly and classroom-tested text that focuses on those aspects of group theory physicists most need to know. From the basic intuitive notion of a group, A. Zee takes readers all the way up to how theories based on gauge groups could unify three of the four fundamental forces. He also includes a concise review of the linear algebra needed for group theory, making the book ideal for self-study. * Provides physicists with a modern and accessible introduction to group theory* Covers applications to various areas of physics, including field theory, particle physics, relativity, and much more* Topics include finite group and character tables; real, pseudoreal, and complex representations; Weyl, Dirac, and Majorana equations; the expanding universe and group theory; grand unification; and much more* The essential textbook for students and an invaluable resource for researchers* Features a brief, self-contained treatment of linear algebra* An online illustration package is available to professors* Solutions manual (available only to professors)

The ICMS Workshop on Geometric and Combinatorial Methods in Group Theory, held at Heriot-Watt University in 1993, brought together some of the leading research workers in the subject. Some of the survey articles and contributed papers presented at the meeting are collected in this volume. The former cover a number of areas of current interest and include papers by: S. M. Gersten, R. I. Grigorchuk, P. H. Kropholler, A. Lubotzky, A. A. Razborov and E. Zelmanov. The contributed articles, all refereed, range over a wide number of topics in combinatorial and geometric group theory and related topics. The volume represents a summary of the state of knowledge of the field, and as such will be indispensable to all research workers in the area.

This book consists of an expanded set of lectures on algebraic aspects of quantum groups. It particularly concentrates on quantized coordinate rings of algebraic groups and spaces and on quantized enveloping algebras of semisimple Lie algebras. Large parts of the material are developed in full textbook style, featuring many examples and numerous exercises; other portions are discussed with sketches of proofs, while still other material is quoted without proof.

Lie linksbetweentorus and Toroidal arethe complex missing groups any groups such and of Lie as complex pseudoconvexity groups. Manyphenomena groups the of beunderstood thestructure can onlythrough concept cohomologygroups of different behavior ofthe oftoroidal The cohomology complex groups groups. the of their toroidal Lie be characterized can by properties groups - groups in their centers. pearing book. So the oldest have not been treated in a Toroidal systematically groups in it who worked in this field and the mathematician youngest working living aboutthemain results these decidedto a concerning comprehensivesurvey give and to discuss problems. open groups of the torus As the Toroidal are generalization groups. groups non-compact and Grauert. As in the sense ofAndreotti manifolds are convex complex they others have similarbehaviorto Lie someofthem a complextori, complex groups whencec- different with for non-Hausdorff are example cohomology groups, mustbe used. newmethods pletely of is to describe the fundamental The aim of these lecture notes properties the reductiontheorem toroidal As a result ofthe qua- meromorphic groups. basic ends inthethird varieties of interest.Their Abelian are special description MainTheorem. withthe chapter wide atthe - ofSOPHus LIE -wasintroducedtoa This inhonour public theory " 1999. after Lie" in on Conference 100Years Leipzig, July 8-9, Sophus HUMBOLDT wishes to thank the ALEXANDER VON The first-named author FOUNDATION for partial support. December 1998 Hannoverand Toyama, YukitakaAbeandKlaus Kopfermann Contents 1 Introduction ..................................................... of Toroidal 3 1. The Concept Groups ............................. 1.1 and toroidal coordinates 3 Irrationality ........................ Toroidal 3 ........................................... groups 7 Complex homomorphisms .................................. Toroidal coordinates and C*n-q -fibre bundles 9 .................

From the reviews:"This book (...) defines the boundaries of the subject now called combinatorial group theory. (...)it is a considerable achievement to have concentrated a survey of the subject into 339 pages. This includes a substantial and useful bibliography; (over 1100 (items)). ...the book is a valuable and welcome addition to the literature, containing many results not previously available in a book. It will undoubtedly become a standard reference." Mathematical Reviews, AMS, 1979

Sporadic Groups is the first step in a programme to provide a uniform, self-contained treatment of the foundational material on the sporadic finite simple groups. The classification of the finite simple groups is one of the premier achievements of modern mathematics. The classification demonstrates that each finite simple group is either a finite analogue of a simple Lie group or one of 26 pathological sporadic groups. Sporadic Groups provides for the first time a self-contained treatment of the foundations of the theory of sporadic groups accessible to mathematicians with a basic background in finite groups such as in the author's text Finite Group Theory. Introductory material useful for studying the sporadics, such as a discussion of large extraspecial 2-subgroups and Tits' coset geometries, opens the book. A construction of the Mathieu groups as the automorphism groups of Steiner systems follows. The Golay and Todd modules, and the 2-local geometry for M24 are discussed. This is followed by the standard construction of Conway of the Leech lattice and the Conway group. The Monster is constructed as the automorphism group of the Griess algebra using some of the best features of the approaches of Griess, Conway, and Tits, plus a few new wrinkles. Researchers in finite group theory will find this text invaluable. The subjects treated will interest combinatorists, number theorists, and conformal field theorists.

Research in computational group theory, an active subfield of computational algebra, has emphasised three areas: finite permutation groups, finite solvable groups, and finitely presented groups. This book deals with the third of these areas. The author emphasises the connections with fundamental algorithms from theoretical computer science, particularly the theory of automata and formal languages, computational number theory, and computational commutative algebra. The LLL lattice reduction algorithm and various algorithms for Hermite and Smith normal forms from computational number theory are used to study the abelian quotients of a finitely presented group. The work of Baumslag, Cannonito and Miller on computing nonabelian polycyclic quotients is described as a generalisation of Buchberger's Groebner basis methods to right ideals in the integral group ring of a polycyclic group. Researchers in computational group theory, mathematicians interested in finitely presented groups and theoretical computer scientists will find this book useful.

The book contains the first systematic exposition of the current known theory of K-loops, as well as some new material. In particular, big classes of examples are constructed. The theory for sharply 2-transitive groups is generalized to the theory of Frobenius groups with many involutions. A detailed discussion of the relativistic velocity addition based on the author's construction of K-loops from classical groups is also included. The first chapters of the book can be used as a text, the later chapters are research notes, and only partially suitable for the classroom. The style is concise, but complete proofs are given. The prerequisites are a basic knowledge of algebra such as groups, fields, and vector spaces with forms.

The geometric and algebraic aspects of two-dimensional homotopy theory are both important areas of current research. Basic work on two-dimensional homotopy theory dates back to Reidemeister and Whitehead. The contributors to this book consider the current state of research beginning with introductory chapters on low-dimensional topology and covering crossmodules, Peiffer-Reid identities, and concretely discussing P2 theory. The chapters have been skillfully woven together to form a coherent picture, and the geometric nature of the subject is illustrated by over 100 diagrams. The final chapters round off neatly with a look at the present status of the conjectures of Zeeman, Whitehead and Andrews-Curtis.

This text offers a clear, efficient exposition of Galois Theory with complete proofs and exercises. Topics include: cubic and quartic formulas; Fundamental Theory of Galois Theory; insolvability of the quintic; Galois's Great Theorem (solvability by radicals of a polynomial is equivalent to solvability of its Galois Group); and computation of Galois groups of cubics and quartics. There are appendices on group theory, ruler-compass constructions, and the early history of Galois Theory. This book provides a concise introduction to Galois Theory suitable for first-year graduate students, either as a text for a course or for study outside the classroom. This new edition has been completely rewritten in an attempt to make proofs clearer by providing more details. The book now begins with a short section on symmetry groups of polygons in the plane, for there is an analogy between polygons and their symmetry groups and polynomials and their Galois groups; this analogy can serve as a guide by helping readers organize the various field theoretic definitions and constructions. The exposition has been reorganized so that the discussion of solvability by radicals now appears later and several new theorems not found in the first edition are included (e.g., Casus Irreducibilis).

This book covers a topic of great interest in abstract algebra. It gives an account of invariant theory for the action of a finite group on the ring of polynomial functions on a linear representation, both in characteristic zero and characteristic p. Heavy use is made of techniques from commutative algebra, and these are developed as needed. Special attention is paid to the role played by pseudoreflections, which arise because they correspond to the divisors in the polynomial ring that ramify over the invariants. The author includes the recent proof of the Carlisle-Kropholler conjecture.

Representation theory has applications to number theory, combinatorics and many areas of algebra. The aim of this text is to present some of the key results in the representation theory of finite groups. Professor Alperin concentrates on local representation theory, emphasizing module theory throughout. In this way many deep results can be obtained rather quickly. After two introductory chapters, the basic results of Green are proved, which in turn lead in due course to Brauer's First Main Theorem. A proof of the module form of Brauer's Second Main Theorem is then presented, followed by a discussion of Feit's work connecting maps and the Green correspondence. The work concludes with a treatment, new in part, of the Brauer-Dade theory. Exercises are provided at the end of most sections; the results of some are used later in the text.

These two volumes contain survey papers given at the 1991 international symposium on geometric group theory, and they represent some of the latest thinking in this area. Many of the world's leading figures in this field attended the conference, and their contributions cover a wide diversity of topics. Volume I contains reviews of such subjects as isoperimetric and isodiametric functions, geometric invariants of a groups, Brick's quasi-simple filtrations for groups and 3-manifolds, string rewriting, and algebraic proof of the torus theorem, the classification of groups acting freely on R-trees, and much more. Volume II consists solely of a ground breaking paper by M. Gromov on finitely generated groups.

In the large and thriving field of compact transformation groups an important role has long been played by cohomological methods. This book aims to give a contemporary account of such methods, in particular the applications of ordinary cohomology theory and rational homotopy theory with principal emphasis on actions of tori and elementary abelian p-groups on finite-dimensional spaces. For example, spectral sequences are not used in Chapter 1, where the approach is by means of cochain complexes; and much of the basic theory of cochain complexes needed for this chapter is outlined in an appendix. For simplicity, emphasis is put on G-CW-complexes; the refinements needed to treat more general finite-dimensional (or finitistic) G-spaces are often discussed separately. Subsequent chapters give systematic treatments of the Localization Theorem, applications of rational homotopy theory, equivariant Tate cohomology and actions on Poincaré duality spaces. Many shorter and more specialized topics are included also. Chapter 2 contains a summary of the main definitions and results from Sullivan's version of rational homotopy theory which are used in the book.

The theory of groups is simultaneously a branch of abstract algebra and the study of symmetry. Designed to support a reader engaged in a first serious group theory course, or a mathematically mature reader approaching the subject for the first time, this book reviews the essentials. It recaps the basic definitions and results, up to and including Lagrange's Theorem, and then continues to explore topics such as the isomorphism theorems and group actions. Later chapters include material on chain conditions and finiteness conditions, free groups and the theory of presentations. In addition, a novel chapter of "entertainments" takes the basic theory and plays with it to obtain an assortment of results that will show a little of what can be done with the theoretical machinery. Adopting the slightly irreverent tone of Geoff Smith's previous book, Introductory Mathematics: Algebra and Analysis, this book is a key reference that will both stimulate and entertain its readers.

In this graduate textbook Professor Humphreys presents a concrete and up-to-date introduction to the theory of Coxeter groups. He assumes that the reader has a good knowledge of algebra, but otherwise the book is self contained. The first part is devoted to establishing concrete examples; the author begins by developing the most important facts about finite reflection groups and related geometry, and showing that such groups have a Coxeter representation. In the next chapter these groups are classified by Coxeter diagrams, and actual realizations of these groups are discussed. Chapter 3 discusses the polynomial invariants of finite reflection groups, and the first part ends with a description of the affine Weyl groups and the way they arise in Lie theory. The second part (which is logically independent of, but motivated by, the first) starts by developing the properties of the Coxeter groups. Chapter 6 shows how earlier examples and others fit into the general classification of Coxeter diagrams. Chapter 7 is based on the very important work of Kazhdan and Lusztig and the last chapter presents a number of miscellaneous topics of a combinatorial nature.

Since the classification of finite simple groups was announced in 1980 the subject has continued to expand opening many new areas of research. This volume contains a collection of papers, both survey and research, arising from the 1990 Durham conference in which the excellent progress of the decade was surveyed and new goals considered. The material is divided into eight sections: sporadic groups; moonshine; local and geometric methods in group theory; geometries and related groups; finite and algebraic groups of Lie type; finite permutation groups; further aspects of Lie groups; related topics. The list of contributors is impressive and the subjects covered include many of the fascinating developments in group theory that have occurred in recent years. It will be an invaluable document for mathematicians working in group theory, combinatorics and geometry.

This book addresses both probabilists working on diffusion processes and analysts interested in linear parabolic partial differential equations with singular coefficients. The central question discussed is whether a given diffusion operator, i.e., a second order linear differential operator without zeroth order term, which is a priori defined on test functions over some (finite or infinite dimensional) state space only, uniquely determines a strongly continuous semigroup on a corresponding weighted Lp space. Particular emphasis is placed on phenomena causing non-uniqueness, as well as on the relation between different notions of uniqueness appearing in analytic and probabilistic contexts.

This volume contains a selection of refereed papers presented in honour of A.M. Macbeath, one of the leading researchers in the area of discrete groups. The subject has been of much current interest of late as it involves the interaction of a number of diverse topics such as group theory, hyperbolic geometry, and complex analysis.

This monograph is concerned with the interplay between the theory of operator semigroups and spectral theory. The basics on operator semigroups are concisely covered in this self-contained text. Part I deals with the Hille--Yosida and Lumer--Phillips characterizations of semigroup generators, the Trotter--Kato approximation theorem, Kato 's unified treatment of the exponential formula and the Trotter product formula, the Hille--Phillips perturbation theorem, and Stone 's representation of unitary semigroups. Part II explores generalizations of spectral theory 's connection to operator semigroups.

These volumes contain selected papers presented at the international conference on group theory held in St Andrews in 1989. The themes of the conference were combinatorial and computational group theory; four leading group theorists (J. A. Green, N. D. Gupta, O. H. Kegel and J. G. Thompson) gave courses whose content is reproduced here. Also included are refereed papers presented at the meeting. The many articles with their wealth of references demonstrate the richness and vitality of modern group theory and its varied connections with other areas of mathematics. These will be essential references for research and postgraduate mathematicians whose work involves group theory.

These volumes contain selected papers presented at the international conference on group theory held in St Andrews in 1989. The themes of the conference were combinatorial and computational group theory; four leading group theorists (J. A. Green, N. D. Gupta, O. H. Kegel and J. G. Thompson) gave courses whose content is reproduced here. Also included are refereed papers presented at the meeting. The many articles with their wealth of references demonstrate the richness and vitality of modern group theory and its varied connections with other areas of mathematics. These will be essential references for research and postgraduate mathematicians whose work involves group theory.

This volume contains a re-edition of Max Koecher's famous Minnesota Notes. The main objects are homogeneous, but not necessarily convex, cones. They are described in terms of Jordan algebras. The central point is a correspondence between semisimple real Jordan algebras and so-called omega-domains. This leads to a construction of half-spaces which give an essential part of all bounded symmetric domains. The theory is presented in a concise manner, with only elementary prerequisites. The editors have added notes on each chapter containing an account of the relevant developments of the theory since these notes were first written.