It became more and more usual, from, say, the 1970s, for each book on Module Theory, to point out and prove some (but in no more than 15 to 20 pages) generalizations to (mostly modular) lattices. This was justified by the nowadays widely accepted perception that the structure of a module over a ring is best understood in terms of the lattice struc ture of its submodule lattice. Citing Louis H. Rowen "this important example (the lattice of all the submodules of a module) is the raison d'etre for the study of lattice theory by ring theorists". Indeed, many module-theoretic results can be proved by using lattice theory alone. The purpose of this book is to collect and present all and only the results of this kind, although for this purpose one must develop some significant lattice theory. The results in this book are of the following categories: the folklore of Lattice Theory (to be found in each Lattice Theory book), module theoretic results generalized in (modular, and possibly compactly gen erated) lattices (to be found in some 6 to 7 books published in the last 20 years), very special module-theoretic results generalized in lattices (e. g. , purity in Chapter 9 and several dimensions in Chapter 13, to be found mostly in [27], respectively, [34] and [18]) and some new con cepts (e. g.

Helmut Koch's classic is now available in English. Competently translated by Franz Lemmermeyer, it introduces the theory of pro-p groups and their cohomology. The book contains a postscript on the recent development of the field written by H. Koch and F. Lemmermeyer, along with many additional recent references.

The 20 sporadics involved in the Monster, the largest sporadic group, constitute the Happy Family. This book is a leisurely and rigorous study of two of their three generations. The level is suitable for graduate students with little background in general finite group theory, established mathematicians and mathematical physicists.

These two volumes constitute the Proceedings of the Conference Moshe Flato, 1999'. Their spectrum is wide but the various areas covered are, in fact, strongly interwoven by a common denominator, the unique personality and creativity of the scientist in whose honor the Conference was held, and the far-reaching vision that underlies his scientific activity. With these two volumes, the reader will be able to take stock of the present state of the art in a number of subjects at the frontier of current research in mathematics, mathematical physics, and physics. Volume I is prefaced by reminiscences of and tributes to Flato's life and work. It also includes a section on the applications of sciences to insurance and finance, an area which was of interest to Flato before it became fashionable. The bulk of both volumes is on physical mathematics, where the reader will find these ingredients in various combinations, fundamental mathematical developments based on them, and challenging interpretations of physical phenomena. Audience: These volumes will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in a variety of domains, ranging from abstract mathematics to theoretical physics and other applications. Some parts will be accessible to proficient undergraduate students, and even to persons with a minimum of scientific knowledge but enough curiosity."

Our prime concern in this book is to discuss some most interesting prosppcts that have occurred recently in conformally invariant quantum field theory in a D-diuwnsional space. One of the most promising trends is constructing an pxact solution for a cprtain class of models. This task seems to be quite feasible in the light of recent resllits. The situation here is to some extent similar to what was going on in the past ypars with the two-dimensional quantum field theory. Our investigation of conformal Ward identities in a D-dimensional space, carried out as far hack as the late H. J7Gs, showed that in the D-dimensional quantum field theory, irrespective of the type of interartion, there exists a special set of states of the field with the following property: if we rpqllire that one of these states should vanish, this determines an exact solution of 3. certain field model. These states are analogous to null-vectors which determine the minimal models in the two-dimensional field theory. On the other hand, the recent resparches supplied us with a number of indications on the existencp of an intinite-parampter algebra analogous to the Virasoro algebra in spaces of higher dimensions D 2: :~. It has also been shown that this algebra admits an operator rentral expansion. It seems to us that the above-mentioned models are field theoretical realizations of the representations of these new symmetries for D 2: ;3.

In this monograph, we shall present a new mathematical formulation of quantum theory, clarify a number of discrepancies within the prior formulation of quantum theory, give new applications to experiments in physics, and extend the realm of application of quantum theory well beyond physics. Here, we motivate this new formulation and sketch how it developed. Since the publication of Dirac's famous book on quantum mechanics [Dirac, 1930] and von Neumann's classic text on the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics two years later [von Neumann, 1932], there have appeared a number of lines of development, the intent of each being to enrich quantum theory by extra polating or even modifying the original basic structure. These lines of development have seemed to go in different directions, the major directions of which are identified here: First is the introduction of group theoretical methods [Weyl, 1928; Wigner, 1931] with the natural extension to coherent state theory [Klauder and Sudarshan, 1968; Peremolov, 1971]. The call for an axiomatic approach to physics [Hilbert, 1900; Sixth Problem] led to the development of quantum logic [Mackey, 1963; Jauch, 1968; Varadarajan, 1968, 1970; Piron, 1976; Beltrametti & Cassinelli, 1981], to the creation of the operational approach [Ludwig, 1983-85, 1985; Davies, 1976] with its application to quantum communication theory [Helstrom, 1976; Holevo, 1982), and to the development of the C* approach [Emch, 1972]. An approach through stochastic differential equations ("stochastic mechanics") was developed [Nelson, 1964, 1966, 1967].

This volume presents a short guide to the extensive literature concerning semir ings along with a complete bibliography. The literature has been created over many years, in variety of languages, by authors representing different schools of mathematics and working in various related fields. In many instances the terminology used is not universal, which further compounds the difficulty of locating pertinent sources even in this age of the Internet and electronic dis semination of research results. So far there has been no single reference that could guide the interested scholar or student to the relevant publications. This book is an attempt to fill this gap. My interest in the theory of semirings began in the early sixties, when to gether with Bogdan W glorz I tried to investigate some algebraic aspects of compactifications of topological spaces, semirings of semicontinuous functions, and the general ideal theory for special semirings. (Unfortunately, local alge braists in Poland told me at that time that there was nothing interesting in investigating semiring theory because ring theory was still being developed). However, some time later we became aware of some similar investigations hav ing already been done. The theory of semirings has remained "my first love" ever since, and I have been interested in the results in this field that have been appearing in literature (even though I have not been active in this area myself)."

This volume contains one invited lecture which was presented by the 1994 Fields Medal ist Professor E. Zelmanov and twelve other papers which were presented at the Third International Conference on Algebra and Their Related Topics at Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan, Republic of China, during the period June 26-July 1, 200l. All papers in this volume have been refereed by an international referee board and we would like to express our deepest thanks to all the referees who were so helpful and punctual in submitting their reports. Thanks are also due to the Promotion and Research Center of National Science Council of Republic of China and the Chang Jung Christian University for their generous financial support of this conference. The spirit of this conference is a continuation of the last two International Tainan Moscow Algebra Workshop on Algebras and Their Related Topics which were held in the mid-90's of the last century. The purpose of this very conference was to give a clear picture of the recent development and research in the fields of different kinds of algebras both in Taiwan and in the rest ofthe world, especially say, Russia" Europe, North America and South America. Thus, we were hoping to enhance the possibility of future cooperation in research work among the algebraists ofthe five continents. Here we would like to point out that this algebra gathering will constantly be held in the future in the southern part of Taiwan."

In the past decade, there has been a sudden and vigorous development in a number of research areas in mathematics and mathematical physics, such as theory of operator algebras, knot theory, theory of manifolds, infinite dimensional Lie algebras and quantum groups (as a new topics), etc. on the side of mathematics, quantum field theory and statistical mechanics on the side of mathematical physics. The new development is characterized by very strong relations and interactions between different research areas which were hitherto considered as remotely related. Focussing on these new developments in mathematical physics and theory of operator algebras, the International Oji Seminar on Quantum Analysis was held at the Kansai Seminar House, Kyoto, JAPAN during June 25-29, 1992 by a generous sponsorship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Fujihara Foundation of Science, as a workshop of relatively small number of (about 50) invited participants. This was followed by an open Symposium at RIMS, described below by its organizer, A. Kishimoto. The Oji Seminar began with two key-note addresses, one by V.F.R. Jones on Spin Models in Knot Theory and von Neumann Algebras and by A. Jaffe on Where Quantum Field Theory Has Led. Subsequently topics such as Subfactors and Sector Theory, Solvable Models of Statistical Mechanics, Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Groups, and Renormalization Group Ap proach, are discussed. Towards the end, a panel discussion on Where Should Quantum Analysis Go? was held."

The last decade witnessed an increasing interest of mathematicians in prob lems originated in mathematical physics. As a result of this effort, the scope of traditional mathematical physics changed considerably. New problems es pecially those connected with quantum physics make use of new ideas and methods. Together with classical and functional analysis, methods from dif ferential geometry and Lie algebras, the theory of group representation, and even topology and algebraic geometry became efficient tools of mathematical physics. On the other hand, the problems tackled in mathematical physics helped to formulate new, purely mathematical, theorems. This important development must obviously influence the contemporary mathematical literature, especially the review articles and monographs. A considerable number of books and articles appeared, reflecting to some extend this trend. In our view, however, an adequate language and appropriate methodology has not been developed yet. Nowadays, the current literature includes either mathematical monographs occasionally using physical terms, or books on theoretical physics focused on the mathematical apparatus. We hold the opinion that the traditional mathematical language of lem mas and theorems is not appropriate for the contemporary writing on mathe matical physics. In such literature, in contrast to the standard approaches of theoretical physics, the mathematical ideology must be utmost emphasized and the reference to physical ideas must be supported by appropriate mathe matical statements. Of special importance are the results and methods that have been developed in this way for the first time."

This volume summarizes recent developments in the topological and algebraic structures in fuzzy sets and may be rightly viewed as a continuation of the stan dardization of the mathematics of fuzzy sets established in the "Handbook," namely the Mathematics of Fuzzy Sets: Logic, Topology, and Measure Theory, Volume 3 of The Handbooks of Fuzzy Sets Series (Kluwer Academic Publish ers, 1999). Many of the topological chapters of the present work are not only based upon the foundations and notation for topology laid down in the Hand book, but also upon Handbook developments in convergence, uniform spaces, compactness, separation axioms, and canonical examples; and thus this work is, with respect to topology, a continuation of the standardization of the Hand book. At the same time, this work significantly complements the Handbook in regard to algebraic structures. Thus the present volume is an extension of the content and role of the Handbook as a reference work. On the other hand, this volume, even as the Handbook, is a culmination of mathematical developments motivated by the renowned International Sem inar on Fuzzy Set Theory, also known as the Linz Seminar, held annually in Linz, Austria. Much of the material of this volume is related to the Twenti eth Seminar held in February 1999, material for which the Seminar played a crucial and stimulating role, especially in providing feedback, connections, and the necessary screening of ideas."

The present volume has its origins in a pair of informal workshops held at the Free University of Brussels, in June of 1998 and May of 1999, named "Current Research 1 in Operational Quantum Logic." These brought together mathematicians and physicists working in operational quantum logic and related areas, as well as a number of interested philosophers of science, for a rare opportunity to discuss recent developments in this field. After some discussion, it was decided that, rather than producing a volume of conference proceedings, we would try to organize the conferees to produce a set of comprehensive survey papers, which would not only report on recent developments in quantum logic, but also provide a tutorial overview of the subject suitable for an interested non-specialist audience. The resulting volume provides an overview of the concepts and methods used in current research in quantum logic, viewed both as a branch of mathemati cal physics and as an area of pure mathematics. The first half of the book is concerned with the algebraic side of the subject, and in particular the theory of orthomodular lattices and posets, effect algebras, etc. In the second half of the book, special attention is given to categorical methods and to connections with theoretical computer science. At the 1999 workshop, we were fortunate to hear three excellent lectures by David J. Foulis, represented here by two contributions. Dave's work, spanning 40 years, has helped to define, and continues to reshape, the field of quantum logic."

In semigroup theory there are certain kinds of band decompositions, which are very useful in the study of the structure semigroups. There are a number of special semigroup classes in which these decompositions can be used very successfully. The book focuses attention on such classes of semigroups. Some of them are partially discussed in earlier books, but in the last thirty years new semigroup classes have appeared and a fairly large body of material has been published on them. The book provides a systematic review on this subject. The first chapter is an introduction. The remaining chapters are devoted to special semigroup classes. These are Putcha semigroups, commutative semigroups, weakly commutative semigroups, R-Commutative semigroups, conditionally commutative semigroups, RC-commutative semigroups, quasi commutative semigroups, medial semigroups, right commutative semigroups, externally commutative semigroups, E-m semigroups, WE-m semigroups, weakly exponential semigroups, (m, n)-commutative semigroups and n(2)-permutable semigroups. Audience: Students and researchers working in algebra and computer science.

The theory of transcendental numbers is closely related to the study of diophantine approximation. This book deals with values of the usual exponential function ez: a central open problem is the conjecture on algebraic independence of logarithms of algebraic numbers. Two chapters provide complete and simplified proofs of zero estimates (due to Philippon) on linear algebraic groups.

This book gives the complete classification of Moufang polygons, starting from first principles. In particular, it may serve as an introduction to the various important algebraic concepts which arise in this classification including alternative division rings, quadratic Jordan division algebras of degree three, pseudo-quadratic forms, BN-pairs and norm splittings of quadratic forms. This book also contains a new proof of the classification of irreducible spherical buildings of rank at least three based on the observation that all the irreducible rank two residues of such a building are Moufang polygons. In an appendix, the connection between spherical buildings and algebraic groups is recalled.

This volume is devoted to the "hyperbolic theory" of dynamical systems (DS), that is, the theory of smooth DS's with hyperbolic behaviour of the tra jectories (generally speaking, not the individual trajectories, but trajectories filling out more or less "significant" subsets in the phase space. Hyperbolicity the property that under a small displacement of any of a trajectory consists in point of it to one side of the trajectory, the change with time of the relative positions of the original and displaced points resulting from the action of the DS is reminiscent of the mot ion next to a saddle. If there are "sufficiently many" such trajectories and the phase space is compact, then although they "tend to diverge from one another" as it were, they "have nowhere to go" and their behaviour acquires a complicated intricate character. (In the physical literature one often talks about "chaos" in such situations. ) This type of be haviour would appear to be the opposite of the more customary and simple type of behaviour characterized by its own kind of stability and regularity of the motions (these words are for the moment not being used as a strict ter 1 minology but rather as descriptive informal terms). The ergodic properties of DS's with hyperbolic behaviour of trajectories (Bunimovich et al. 1985) have already been considered in Volume 2 of this series. In this volume we therefore consider mainly the properties of a topological character (see below 2 for further details)."

Important results on the Hilbert modular group and Hilbert modular forms are introduced and described in this book. In recent times, this branch of number theory has been given more and more attention and thus the need for a comprehensive presentation of these results, previously scattered in research journal papers, has become obvious. The main aim of this book is to give a description of the singular cohomology and its Hodge decomposition including explicit formulae. The author has succeeded in giving proofs which are both elementary and complete. The book contains an introduction to Hilbert modular forms, reduction theory, the trace formula and Shimizu's formulae, the work of Matsushima and Shimura, analytic continuation of Eisenstein series, the cohomology and its Hodge decomposition. Basic facts about algebraic numbers, integration, alternating differential forms and Hodge theory are included in convenient appendices so that the book can be used by students with a knowledge of complex analysis (one variable) and algebra.

In 1991-1993 our three-volume book "Representation of Lie Groups and Spe cial Functions" was published. When we started to write that book (in 1983), editors of "Kluwer Academic Publishers" expressed their wish for the book to be of encyclopaedic type on the subject. Interrelations between representations of Lie groups and special functions are very wide. This width can be explained by existence of different types of Lie groups and by richness of the theory of their rep resentations. This is why the book, mentioned above, spread to three big volumes. Influence of representations of Lie groups and Lie algebras upon the theory of special functions is lasting. This theory is developing further and methods of the representation theory are of great importance in this development. When the book "Representation of Lie Groups and Special Functions," vol. 1-3, was under preparation, new directions of the theory of special functions, connected with group representations, appeared. New important results were discovered in the traditional directions. This impelled us to write a continuation of our three-volume book on relationship between representations and special functions. The result of our further work is the present book. The three-volume book, published before, was devoted mainly to studying classical special functions and orthogonal polynomials by means of matrix elements, Clebsch-Gordan and Racah coefficients of group representations and to generaliza tions of classical special functions that were dictated by matrix elements of repre sentations."

This book is the result of many years of research in Non-Euclidean Geometries and Geometry of Lie groups, as well as teaching at Moscow State University (1947- 1949), Azerbaijan State University (Baku) (1950-1955), Kolomna Pedagogical Col lege (1955-1970), Moscow Pedagogical University (1971-1990), and Pennsylvania State University (1990-1995). My first books on Non-Euclidean Geometries and Geometry of Lie groups were written in Russian and published in Moscow: Non-Euclidean Geometries (1955) [Ro1] , Multidimensional Spaces (1966) [Ro2] , and Non-Euclidean Spaces (1969) [Ro3]. In [Ro1] I considered non-Euclidean geometries in the broad sense, as geometry of simple Lie groups, since classical non-Euclidean geometries, hyperbolic and elliptic, are geometries of simple Lie groups of classes Bn and D , and geometries of complex n and quaternionic Hermitian elliptic and hyperbolic spaces are geometries of simple Lie groups of classes An and en. [Ro1] contains an exposition of the geometry of classical real non-Euclidean spaces and their interpretations as hyperspheres with identified antipodal points in Euclidean or pseudo-Euclidean spaces, and in projective and conformal spaces. Numerous interpretations of various spaces different from our usual space allow us, like stereoscopic vision, to see many traits of these spaces absent in the usual space.

Nowadays algebra is understood basically as the general theory of algebraic oper ations and relations. It is characterised by a considerable intrinsic naturalness of its initial notions and problems, the unity of its methods, and a breadth that far exceeds that of its basic concepts. It is more often that its power begins to be displayed when one moves outside its own limits. This characteristic ability is seen when one investigates not only complete operations, but partial operations. To a considerable extent these are related to algebraic operators and algebraic operations. The tendency to ever greater generality is amongst the reasons that playa role in explaining this development. But other important reasons play an even greater role. Within this same theory of total operations (that is, operations defined everywhere), there persistently arises in its different sections a necessity of examining the emergent feature of various partial operations. It is particularly important that this has been found in those parts of algebra it brings together and other areas of mathematics it interacts with as well as where algebra finds applica tion at the very limits of mathematics. In this connection we mention the theory of the composition of mappings, category theory, the theory of formal languages and the related theory of mathematical linguistics, coding theory, information theory, and algebraic automata theory. In all these areas (as well as in others) from time to time there arises the need to consider one or another partial operation."

This volume contains the proceedings of the First Ukrainian-French Romanian School "Algebraic and Geometric Methods in Mathematical Physics," held in Kaciveli, Crimea (Ukraine) from 1 September ti1114 September 1993. The School was organized by the generous support of the Ministry of Research and Space of France (MRE), the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (ANU), the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the State Committee for Science and Technologies of Ukraine (GKNT). Members of the International Scientific Committee were: J.-M. Bony (paris), A. Boutet de Monvel-Berthier (Paris, co-chairman), P. Cartier (paris), V. Drinfeld (Kharkov), V. Georgescu (Paris), J.L. Lebowitz (Rutgers), V. Marchenko (Kharkov, co-chairman), V.P. Maslov (Moscow), H. Mc-Kean (New-York), Yu. Mitropolsky (Kiev), G. Nenciu (Bucharest, co-chairman), S. Novikov (Moscow), G. Papanicolau (New-York), L. Pastur (Kharkov), J.-J. Sansuc (Paris). The School consisted of plenary lectures (morning sessions) and special sessions. The plenary lectures were intended to be accessible to all participants and plenary speakers were invited by the scientific organizing committee to give reviews of their own field of interest. The special sessions were devoted to a variety of more concrete and technical questions in the respective fields. According to the program the plenary lectures included in the volume are grouped in three chapters. The fourth chapter contains short communications."

This volume contains papers presented at the meeting Deformation Theory, Symplectic Geometry and Applications, held in Ascona, June 17-21, 1996. The contents touch upon many frontier domains of modern mathematics, mathematical physics and theoretical physics and include authoritative, state-of-the-art contributions by leading scientists. New and important developments in the fields of symplectic geometry, deformation quantization, noncommutative geometry (NCG) and Lie theory are presented. Among the subjects treated are: quantization of general Poisson manifolds; new deformations needed for the quantization of Nambu mechanics; quantization of intersection cardinalities; quantum shuffles; new types of quantum groups and applications; quantum cohomology; strong homotopy Lie algebras; finite- and infinite-dimensional Lie groups; and 2D field theories and applications of NCG to gravity coupled with the standard model. Audience: This book will be of interest to researchers and post-graduate students of mathematical physics, global analysis, analysis on manifolds, topological groups, nonassociative rings and algebras, and Lie algebras.

This volume is dedicated to the memory of Albert Crumeyrolle, who died on June 17, 1992. In organizing the volume we gave priority to: articles summarizing Crumeyrolle's own work in differential geometry, general relativity and spinors, articles which give the reader an idea of the depth and breadth of Crumeyrolle's research interests and influence in the field, articles of high scientific quality which would be of general interest. In each of the areas to which Crumeyrolle made significant contribution - Clifford and exterior algebras, Weyl and pure spinors, spin structures on manifolds, principle of triality, conformal geometry - there has been substantial progress. Our hope is that the volume conveys the originality of Crumeyrolle's own work, the continuing vitality of the field he influenced, and the enduring respect for, and tribute to, him and his accomplishments in the mathematical community. It isour pleasure to thank Peter Morgan, Artibano Micali, Joseph Grifone, Marie Crumeyrolle and Kluwer Academic Publishers for their help in preparingthis volume.

The first book on commutative semigroups was Redei's The theory of .finitely generated commutative semigroups, published in Budapest in 1956. Subsequent years have brought much progress. By 1975 the structure of finite commutative semigroups was fairly well understood. Recent results have perfected this understanding and extended it to finitely generated semigroups. Today's coherent and powerful structure theory is the central subject of the present book. 1. Commutative semigroups are more important than is suggested by the stan- dard examples ofsemigroups, which consist ofvarious kinds oftransformations or arise from finite automata, and are usually quite noncommutative. Commutative of factoriza- semigroups provide a natural setting and a useful tool for the study tion in rings. Additive subsemigroups of N and Nn have close ties to algebraic geometry. Commutative rings are constructed from commutative semigroups as semigroup algebras or power series rings. These areas are all subjects of active research and together account for about half of all current papers on commutative semi groups. Commutative results also invite generalization to larger classes of semigroups. Archimedean decompositions, a comparatively small part oftoday's arsenal, have been generalized extensively, as shown for instance in the upcoming books by Nagy [2001] and Ciric [2002].

This book contains the proceedings of a meeting that brought together friends and colleagues of Guy Rideau at the Universite Denis Diderot (Paris, France) in January 1995. It contains original results as well as review papers covering important domains of mathematical physics, such as modern statistical mechanics, field theory, and quantum groups. The emphasis is on geometrical approaches. Several papers are devoted to the study of symmetry groups, including applications to nonlinear differential equations, and deformation of structures, in particular deformation-quantization and quantum groups. The richness of the field of mathematical physics is demonstrated with topics ranging from pure mathematics to up-to-date applications such as imaging and neuronal models. Audience: Researchers in mathematical physics. "