Stochastic systems provide powerful abstract models for a variety of important real-life applications: for example, power supply, traffic flow, data transmission. They (and the real systems they model) are often subject to phase transitions, behaving in one way when a parameter is below a certain critical value, then switching behaviour as soon as that critical value is reached. In a real system, we do not necessarily have control over all the parameter values, so it is important to know how to find critical points and to understand system behaviour near these points. This book is a modern presentation of the 'semimartingale' or 'Lyapunov function' method applied to near-critical stochastic systems, exemplified by non-homogeneous random walks. Applications treat near-critical stochastic systems and range across modern probability theory from stochastic billiards models to interacting particle systems. Spatially non-homogeneous random walks are explored in depth, as they provide prototypical near-critical systems.

This book explores the theory and application of locally nilpotent derivations, a subject motivated by questions in affine algebraic geometry and having fundamental connections to areas such as commutative algebra, representation theory, Lie algebras and differential equations. The author provides a unified treatment of the subject, beginning with 16 First Principles on which the theory is based. These are used to establish classical results, such as Rentschler's Theorem for the plane and the Cancellation Theorem for Curves. More recent results, such as Makar-Limanov's theorem for locally nilpotent derivations of polynomial rings, are also discussed. Topics of special interest include progress in classifying additive actions on three-dimensional affine space, finiteness questions (Hilbert's 14th Problem), algorithms, the Makar-Limanov invariant, and connections to the Cancellation Problem and the Embedding Problem. A lot of new material is included in this expanded second edition, such as canonical factorization of quotient morphisms, and a more extended treatment of linear actions. The reader will also find a wealth of examples and open problems and an updated resource for future investigations.

The Langlands Programme is one of the most important areas in modern pure mathematics. The importance of this volume lies in its potential to recast many aspects of the programme in an entirely new context. For example, the morphisms in the monomial category of a locally p-adic Lie group have a distributional description, due to Bruhat in his thesis. Admissible representations in the programme are often treated via convolution algebras of distributions and representations of Hecke algebras. The monomial embedding, introduced in this book, elegantly fits together these two uses of distribution theory. The author follows up this application by giving the monomial category treatment of the Bernstein Centre, classified by Deligne-Bernstein-Zelevinsky.This book gives a new categorical setting in which to approach well-known topics. Therefore, the context used to explain examples is often the more generally accessible case of representations of finite general linear groups. For example, Galois base-change and epsilon factors for locally p-adic Lie groups are illustrated by the analogous Shintani descent and Kondo-Gauss sums, respectively. General linear groups of local fields are emphasized. However, since the philosophy of this book is essentially that of homotopy theory and algebraic topology, it includes a short appendix showing how the buildings of Bruhat-Tits, sufficient for the general linear group, may be generalised to the tom Dieck spaces (now known as the Baum-Connes spaces) when G is a locally p-adic Lie group.The purpose of this monograph is to describe a functorial embedding of the category of admissible k-representations of a locally profinite topological group G into the derived category of the additive category of the admissible k-monomial module category. Experts in the Langlands Programme may be interested to learn that when G is a locally p-adic Lie group, the monomial category is closely related to the category of topological modules over a sort of enlarged Hecke algebra with generators corresponding to characters on compact open modulo the centre subgroups of G. Having set up this functorial embedding, how the ingredients of the celebrated Langlands Programme adapt to the context of the derived monomial module category is examined. These include automorphic representations, epsilon factors and L-functions, modular forms, Weil-Deligne representations, Galois base change and Hecke operators.

Questions about modular representation theory of finite groups can often be reduced to elementary abelian subgroups. This is the first book to offer a detailed study of the representation theory of elementary abelian groups, bringing together information from many papers and journals, as well as unpublished research. Special attention is given to recent work on modules of constant Jordan type, and the methods involve producing and examining vector bundles on projective space and their Chern classes. Extensive background material is provided, which will help the reader to understand vector bundles and their Chern classes from an algebraic point of view, and to apply this to modular representation theory of elementary abelian groups. The final section, addressing problems and directions for future research, will also help to stimulate further developments in the subject. With no similar books on the market, this will be an invaluable resource for graduate students and researchers working in representation theory.

Groups and Manifolds is an introductory, yet a complete self-contained course on mathematics of symmetry: group theory and differential geometry of symmetric spaces, with a variety of examples for physicists, touching briefly also on super-symmetric field theories. The core of the course is focused on the construction of simple Lie algebras, emphasizing the double interpretation of the ADE classification as applied to finite rotation groups and to simply laced simple Lie algebras. Unique features of this book are the full-fledged treatment of the exceptional Lie algebras and a rich collection of MATHEMATICA Notebooks implementing various group theoretical constructions.

Fourier analysis aims to decompose functions into a superposition of simple trigonometric functions, whose special features can be exploited to isolate specific components into manageable clusters before reassembling the pieces. This two-volume text presents a largely self-contained treatment, comprising not just the major theoretical aspects (Part I) but also exploring links to other areas of mathematics and applications to science and technology (Part II). Following the historical and conceptual genesis, this book (Part I) provides overviews of basic measure theory and functional analysis, with added insight into complex analysis and the theory of distributions. The material is intended for both beginning and advanced graduate students with a thorough knowledge of advanced calculus and linear algebra. Historical notes are provided and topics are illustrated at every stage by examples and exercises, with separate hints and solutions, thus making the exposition useful both as a course textbook and for individual study.

This study of graded rings includes the first systematic account of the graded Grothendieck group, a powerful and crucial invariant in algebra which has recently been adopted to classify the Leavitt path algebras. The book begins with a concise introduction to the theory of graded rings and then focuses in more detail on Grothendieck groups, Morita theory, Picard groups and K-theory. The author extends known results in the ungraded case to the graded setting and gathers together important results which are currently scattered throughout the literature. The book is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, as well as researchers in ring theory.

This book examines translanguaging as a resource which can disrupt the privileging of particular voices, and a social practice which enables collaboration within and across groups of people. Addressing the themes of collaboration and transformation, the chapters critically examine how people work together to catalyse change in diverse global contexts, experiences and traditions. The authors suggest an epistemological and methodological turn to the study of translanguaging, which is particularly reflected in the collaborative, arts-based and action research/activist approaches followed in the chapters. The book will be of particular interest to scholars using ethnographic, critical and collaborative action and activist research approaches to the study of multilingualism in educational and creative arts contexts.

This edited volume presents a collection of carefully refereed articles covering the latest advances in Automorphic Forms and Number Theory, that were primarily developed from presentations given at the 2012 "International Conference on Automorphic Forms and Number Theory," held in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. The present volume includes original research as well as some surveys and outlines of research altogether providing a contemporary snapshot on the latest activities in the field and covering the topics of: Borcherds products Congruences and Codes Jacobi forms Siegel and Hermitian modular forms Special values of L-series Recently, the Sultanate of Oman became a member of the International Mathematical Society. In view of this development, the conference provided the platform for scientific exchange and collaboration between scientists of different countries from all over the world. In particular, an opportunity was established for a close exchange between scientists and students of Germany, Oman, and Japan. The conference was hosted by the Sultan Qaboos University and the German University of Technology in Oman.

Traditionally, Lie theory is a tool to build mathematical models for physical systems. Recently, the trend is towards geometrization of the mathematical description of physical systems and objects. A geometric approach to a system yields in general some notion of symmetry which is very helpful in understanding its structure. Geometrization and symmetries are meant in their widest sense, i.e., representation theory, algebraic geometry, infinite-dimensional Lie algebras and groups, superalgebras and supergroups, groups and quantum groups, noncommutative geometry, symmetries of linear and nonlinear PDE, special functions, and others. Furthermore, the necessary tools from functional analysis and number theory are included. This is a big interdisciplinary and interrelated field. Samples of these fresh trends are presented in this volume, based on contributions from the Workshop "Lie Theory and Its Applications in Physics" held near Varna (Bulgaria) in June 2013. This book is suitable for a broad audience of mathematicians, mathematical physicists, and theoretical physicists and researchers in the field of Lie Theory.

This is the fifth conference in a bi-annual series, following conferences in Besancon, Limoges, Irsee and Toronto. The meeting aims to bring together different strands of research in and closely related to the area of Iwasawa theory. During the week before the conference in a kind of summer school a series of preparatory lectures for young mathematicians was provided as an introduction to Iwasawa theory. Iwasawa theory is a modern and powerful branch of number theory and can be traced back to the Japanese mathematician Kenkichi Iwasawa, who introduced the systematic study of Z_p-extensions and p-adic L-functions, concentrating on the case of ideal class groups. Later this would be generalized to elliptic curves. Over the last few decades considerable progress has been made in automorphic Iwasawa theory, e.g. the proof of the Main Conjecture for GL(2) by Kato and Skinner & Urban. Techniques such as Hida's theory of p-adic modular forms and big Galois representations play a crucial part. Also a noncommutative Iwasawa theory of arbitrary p-adic Lie extensions has been developed. This volume aims to present a snapshot of the state of art of Iwasawa theory as of 2012. In particular it offers an introduction to Iwasawa theory (based on a preparatory course by Chris Wuthrich) and a survey of the proof of Skinner & Urban (based on a lecture course by Xin Wan).

This book is the first one that brings together recent results on the harmonic analysis of exponential solvable Lie groups. There still are many interesting open problems, and the book contributes to the future progress of this research field. As well, various related topics are presented to motivate young researchers. The orbit method invented by Kirillov is applied to study basic problems in the analysis on exponential solvable Lie groups. This method tells us that the unitary dual of these groups is realized as the space of their coadjoint orbits. This fact is established using the Mackey theory for induced representations, and that mechanism is explained first. One of the fundamental problems in the representation theory is the irreducible decomposition of induced or restricted representations. Therefore, these decompositions are studied in detail before proceeding to various related problems: the multiplicity formula, Plancherel formulas, intertwining operators, Frobenius reciprocity, and associated algebras of invariant differential operators. The main reasoning in the proof of the assertions made here is induction, and for this there are not many tools available. Thus a detailed analysis of the objects listed above is difficult even for exponential solvable Lie groups, and it is often assumed that G is nilpotent. To make the situation clearer and future development possible, many concrete examples are provided. Various topics presented in the nilpotent case still have to be studied for solvable Lie groups that are not nilpotent. They all present interesting and important but difficult problems, however, which should be addressed in the near future. Beyond the exponential case, holomorphically induced representations introduced by Auslander and Kostant are needed, and for that reason they are included in this book.

This second edition is fully updated, covering in particular new types of coherent states (the so-called Gazeau-Klauder coherent states, nonlinear coherent states, squeezed states, as used now routinely in quantum optics) and various generalizations of wavelets (wavelets on manifolds, curvelets, shearlets, etc.). In addition, it contains a new chapter on coherent state quantization and the related probabilistic aspects. As a survey of the theory of coherent states, wavelets, and some of their generalizations, it emphasizes mathematical principles, subsuming the theories of both wavelets and coherent states into a single analytic structure. The approach allows the user to take a classical-like view of quantum states in physics. Starting from the standard theory of coherent states over Lie groups, the authors generalize the formalism by associating coherent states to group representations that are square integrable over a homogeneous space; a further step allows one to dispense with the group context altogether. In this context, wavelets can be generated from coherent states of the affine group of the real line, and higher-dimensional wavelets arise from coherent states of other groups. The unified background makes transparent an entire range of properties of wavelets and coherent states. Many concrete examples, such as coherent states from semisimple Lie groups, Gazeau-Klauder coherent states, coherent states for the relativity groups, and several kinds of wavelets, are discussed in detail. The book concludes with a palette of potential applications, from the quantum physically oriented, like the quantum-classical transition or the construction of adequate states in quantum information, to the most innovative techniques to be used in data processing. Intended as an introduction to current research for graduate students and others entering the field, the mathematical discussion is self-contained. With its extensive references to the research literature, the first edition of the book is already a proven compendium for physicists and mathematicians active in the field, and with full coverage of the latest theory and results the revised second edition is even more valuable.

This unique text is an introduction to harmonic analysis on the simplest symmetric spaces, namely Euclidean space, the sphere, and the Poincare upper half plane. This book is intended for beginning graduate students in mathematics or researchers in physics or engineering. Written with an informal style, the book places an emphasis on motivation, concrete examples, history, and, above all, applications in mathematics, statistics, physics, and engineering. Many corrections and updates have been incorporated in this new edition. Updates include discussions of P. Sarnak and others' work on quantum chaos, the work of T. Sunada, Marie-France Vigneras, Carolyn Gordon, and others on Mark Kac's question "Can you hear the shape of a drum?", A. Lubotzky, R. Phillips and P. Sarnak's examples of Ramanujan graphs, and, finally, the author's comparisons of continuous theory with the finite analogues. Topics featured throughout the text include inversion formulas for Fourier transforms, central limit theorems, Poisson's summation formula and applications in crystallography and number theory, applications of spherical harmonic analysis to the hydrogen atom, the Radon transform, non-Euclidean geometry on the Poincare upper half plane H or unit disc and applications to microwave engineering, fundamental domains in H for discrete groups , tessellations of H from such discrete group actions, automorphic forms, and the Selberg trace formula and its applications in spectral theory as well as number theory.

Pseudo-reductive groups arise naturally in the study of general smooth linear algebraic groups over non-perfect fields and have many important applications. This monograph provides a comprehensive treatment of the theory of pseudo-reductive groups and gives their classification in a usable form. In this second edition there is new material on relative root systems and Tits systems for general smooth affine groups, including the extension to quasi-reductive groups of famous simplicity results of Tits in the semisimple case. Chapter 9 has been completely rewritten to describe and classify pseudo-split absolutely pseudo-simple groups with a non-reduced root system over arbitrary fields of characteristic 2 via the useful new notion of 'minimal type' for pseudo-reductive groups. Researchers and graduate students working in related areas, such as algebraic geometry, algebraic group theory, or number theory will value this book, as it develops tools likely to be used in tackling other problems.

From the Preface:"...Magnus has had such a profound influence on combinatorial group theory because many of his ideas, startingly and strikingly simple, have provided not only deep insights into a very difficult subject but also powerful methods for dealing with these difficulties...His ideas have also found application in topology, K-theory, the theory of Lie and associative algebras, computational complexity, and also in logic.The expert in group theory, however, will be astonished to find that this reprinting of Magnus' papers contains a very large amount of very important work on diffraction problems and related topics in analysis. Indeed Magnus is one of the very few mathematicians who has done significant work in two completely different fields. There is a large number of mathematicians who know Magnus for his work in analysis but are totally unaware of his work in group theory...His books, his teaching...his many doctoral students, his effect on the thinking of his colleagues both in private conversation and in seminars have also helped to establish him as a mathematician of the first rank and enriched the mathematical community."

Originally published in 1946 as number thirty-nine in the Cambridge Tracts in Mathematics and Mathematical Physics series, this book provides a concise account regarding linear groups. Appendices are also included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in linear groups and the history of mathematics.

In this classic edition of her groundbreaking text Knowledge in Context, Sandra Jovchelovitch revisits her influential work on the societal and cultural processes that shape the development of representational processes in humans. Through a novel analysis of processes of representation, and drawing on dialogues between psychology, sociology and anthropology, Jovchelovitch argues that representation, a social psychological construct relating Self, Other and Object-world, is at the basis of all knowledge. Exploring the dominant assumptions of western conceptions of knowledge and the quest for a unitary reason free from the 'impurities' of person, community and culture, Jovchelovitch recasts questions related to historical comparisons between the knowledge of adults and children, 'civilised' and 'primitive' peoples, scientists and lay communities and examines the ambivalence of classical theorists such as Piaget, Vygotsky, Freud, Durkheim and Levy-Bruhl in addressing these issues. Featuring a new introductory chapter, the author evaluates the last decade of research since Knowledge in Context first appeared and reassesses the social psychology of the contemporary public sphere, exploring how challenges to the dialogicality of representations reconfigure both community and selfhood in this early 21st century. This book will make essential reading for all those wanting to follow debates on knowledge and representation at the cutting edge of social, cultural and developmental psychology, sociology, anthropology, development and cultural studies.

Geometric Invariant Theory (GIT) is developed in this text within the context of algebraic geometry over the real and complex numbers. This sophisticated topic is elegantly presented with enough background theory included to make the text accessible to advanced graduate students in mathematics and physics with diverse backgrounds in algebraic and differential geometry. Throughout the book, examples are emphasized. Exercises add to the reader's understanding of the material; most are enhanced with hints. The exposition is divided into two parts. The first part, 'Background Theory', is organized as a reference for the rest of the book. It contains two chapters developing material in complex and real algebraic geometry and algebraic groups that are difficult to find in the literature. Chapter 1 emphasizes the relationship between the Zariski topology and the canonical Hausdorff topology of an algebraic variety over the complex numbers. Chapter 2 develops the interaction between Lie groups and algebraic groups. Part 2, 'Geometric Invariant Theory' consists of three chapters (3-5). Chapter 3 centers on the Hilbert-Mumford theorem and contains a complete development of the Kempf-Ness theorem and Vindberg's theory. Chapter 4 studies the orbit structure of a reductive algebraic group on a projective variety emphasizing Kostant's theory. The final chapter studies the extension of classical invariant theory to products of classical groups emphasizing recent applications of the theory to physics.

Filling a gap in the literature, this book takes the reader to the frontiers of equivariant topology, the study of objects with specified symmetries. The discussion is motivated by reference to a list of instructive "toy" examples and calculations in what is a relatively unexplored field. The authors also provide a reading path for the first-time reader less interested in working through sophisticated machinery but still desiring a rigorous understanding of the main concepts. The subject's classical counterparts, ordinary homology and cohomology, dating back to the work of Henri Poincare in topology, are calculational and theoretical tools which are important in many parts of mathematics and theoretical physics, particularly in the study of manifolds. Similarly powerful tools have been lacking, however, in the context of equivariant topology. Aimed at advanced graduate students and researchers in algebraic topology and related fields, the book assumes knowledge of basic algebraic topology and group actions.

Providing an elementary introduction to analytic continuation and monodromy, the first part of this volume applies these notions to the local and global study of complex linear differential equations, their formal solutions at singular points, their monodromy and their differential Galois groups. The Riemann-Hilbert problem is discussed from Bolibrukh's point of view. The second part expounds 1-summability and Ecalle's theory of resurgence under fairly general conditions. It contains numerous examples and presents an analysis of the singularities in the Borel plane via "alien calculus", which provides a full description of the Stokes phenomenon for linear or non-linear differential or difference equations. The first of a series of three, entitled Divergent Series, Summability and Resurgence, this volume is aimed at graduate students, mathematicians and theoretical physicists interested in geometric, algebraic or local analytic properties of dynamical systems. It includes useful exercises with solutions. The prerequisites are a working knowledge of elementary complex analysis and differential algebra.

Richly illustrated in attractive full-colour and contains pedagogical features such as essay questions, summary and key points, and further reading suggestions is supported by a fully updated companion website, featuring student resources including lecture recordings, multiple choice questions and useful web links, as well as PowerPoint slides for lecturers. The only dedicated textbook on social neuroscience providing a much needed resource for lecturers and students. Suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students in psychology and neuroscience from 2nd year to masters level. Relevant courses include social neuroscience, social cognitive neuroscience, the social mind, social cognition, human neuroscience, developmental social neuroscience, etc. The third edition will be updated to reflect the growing volume of evidence and theories in the field and will include additional content on the applications of social neuroscience, social influence, reproducibility issues, and computational approaches. The companion website will include a new test bank.

This book treats ensembles of Young diagrams originating from group-theoretical contexts and investigates what statistical properties are observed there in a large-scale limit. The focus is mainly on analyzing the interesting phenomenon that specific curves appear in the appropriate scaling limit for the profiles of Young diagrams. This problem is regarded as an important origin of recent vital studies on harmonic analysis of huge symmetry structures. As mathematics, an asymptotic theory of representations is developed of the symmetric groups of degree n as n goes to infinity. The framework of rigorous limit theorems (especially the law of large numbers) in probability theory is employed as well as combinatorial analysis of group characters of symmetric groups and applications of Voiculescu's free probability. The central destination here is a clear description of the asymptotic behavior of rescaled profiles of Young diagrams in the Plancherel ensemble from both static and dynamic points of view.

This monograph presents some cornerstone results in the study of sofic and hyperlinear groups and the closely related Connes' embedding conjecture. These notions, as well as the proofs of many results, are presented in the framework of model theory for metric structures. This point of view, rarely explicitly adopted in the literature, clarifies the ideas therein, and provides additional tools to attack open problems. Sofic and hyperlinear groups are countable discrete groups that can be suitably approximated by finite symmetric groups and groups of unitary matrices. These deep and fruitful notions, introduced by Gromov and Radulescu, respectively, in the late 1990s, stimulated an impressive amount of research in the last 15 years, touching several seemingly distant areas of mathematics including geometric group theory, operator algebras, dynamical systems, graph theory, and quantum information theory. Several long-standing conjectures, still open for arbitrary groups, are now settled for sofic or hyperlinear groups. The presentation is self-contained and accessible to anyone with a graduate-level mathematical background. In particular, no specific knowledge of logic or model theory is required. The monograph also contains many exercises, to help familiarize the reader with the topics present.

This innovative book aims to further our understanding of violence in intimate relationships between men and women by combining research from psychology, cultural studies, and biology. The author examines why western culture often justifies and encourages primitive forms of relationships based on domination and submission and considers not only the cultural influences, but also the biological aspects, in their interaction. The book clarifies the biological roots of aggression and affection in intimate relationships in humans, showing that considering the biological roots of male dominance on women does not imply any justification. Bonino makes the case that awareness about the biological roots of violence, and about the cultural messages supporting them, is necessary for developing different messages and educational practices promoting human capacity of personal affective relationship, where partners empathically recognize themselves as equal human beings. Relationships are examined in relation to a domination/submission framework, with the author emphasizing the role individuals can play in promoting non-aggressive relationships. By examining aggressive behaviour in relation to cultural, social psychological, and biological ideas, the author seeks to clarify the cause of violence in relation to gendered roles. This is fascinating reading for anyone interested in violence in relationships and suitable for students and academics in psychology and the social sciences.