This is the second volume of the new subseries "Invariant Theory and Algebraic Transformation Groups." The aim of the survey by A. Bialynicki-Birula is to present the main trends and achievements of research in the theory of quotients by actions of algebraic groups. This theory contains geometric invariant theory with various applications to problems of moduli theory. The contribution by J. Carrell treats the subject of torus actions on algebraic varieties, giving a detailed exposition of many of the cohomological results one obtains from having a torus action with fixed points. Many examples, such as toric varieties and flag varieties, are discussed in detail. W.M. McGovern studies the actions of a semisimple Lie or algebraic group on its Lie algebra via the adjoint action and on itself via conjugation. His contribution focuses primarily on nilpotent orbits that have found the widest application to representation theory in the last thirty-five years.

The German edition of this book appeared in 1932 under the title "Die gruppentheoretische Methode in der Quantenmechanik." Its aim was, to explain the fundamental notions of the Theory of Groups and their Representations, and the application of this theory to the Quantum Mechanics of Atoms and Molecules. The book was mainly written for the benefit of physicists who were supposed to be familiar with Quantum Mechanics. However, it turned out that it was also used by. mathematicians who wanted to learn Quantum Mechanics from it. Naturally, the physical parts were too difficult for mathematicians, whereas the mathematical parts were sometimes too difficult for physicists. The German language created an additional difficulty for many readers. In order to make the book more readable for physicists and mathe maticians alike, I have rewritten the whole volume. The changes are most notable in Chapters 1 and 6. In Chapter t, I have tried to give a mathematically rigorous exposition of the principles of Quantum Mechanics. This was possible because recent investigations in the theory of self-adjoint linear operators have made the mathematical foundation of Quantum Mechanics much clearer than it was in t 932. Chapter 6, on Molecule Spectra, was too much condensed in the German edition. I hope it is now easier to understand. In Chapter 2-5 too, numerous changes were made in order to make the book more readable and more useful."

This is the second volume of a series of books in various aspects of Mathematical Physics. Mathematical Physics has made great strides in recent years, and is rapidly becoming an important dis cipline in its own right. The fact that physical ideas can help create new mathematical theories, and rigorous mathematical theo rems can help to push the limits of physical theories and solve problems is generally acknowledged. We believe that continuous con tacts between mathematicians and physicists and the resulting dialogue and the cross fertilization of ideas is a good thing. This series of studies is published with this goal in mind. The present volume contains contributions which were original ly presented at the Second NATO Advanced Study Institute on Mathe matical Physics held in Istanbul in the Summer of 1972. The main theme was the application of group theoretical methods in general relativity and in particle physics. Modern group theory, in par ticular, the theory of unitary irreducibl infinite-dimensional representations of Lie groups is being increasingly important in the formulation and solution of dynamical problems in various bran ches of physics. There is moreover a general trend of approchement of the methods of general relativity and elementary particle physics. We hope it will be useful to present these investigations to a larger audience."

From the reviews "Since E. Hille and K. Yoshida established the characterization of generators of "C"0 semigroups in the 1940s, semigroups of linear operators and its neighboring areas have developed into a beautiful abstract theory. Moreover, the fact that mathematically this abstract theory has many direct and important applications in partial differential equations enhances its importance as a necessary discipline in both functional analysis and differential equations. In my opinion Pazy has done an outstanding job in presenting both the abstract theory and basic applications in a clear and interesting manner. The choice and order of the material, the clarity of the proofs, and the overall presentation make this an excellent place for both researchers and students to learn about "C"0 semigroups." #"Bulletin Applied Mathematical Sciences 4/85"#1 "In spite of the other monographs on the subject, the reviewer can recommend that of Pazy as being particularly written, with a bias noticeably different from that of the other volumes. Pazy's decision to give a connected account of the applications to partial differential equations in the last two chapters was a particularly happy one, since it enables one to see what the theory can achieve much better than would the insertion of occasional examples. The chapters achieve a very nice balance between being so easy as to appear disappointing, and so sophisticated that they are incomprehensible except to the expert." #"Bulletin of the" "London Mathematical Society"#2

2 The authors of these issues involve not only mathematicians, but also speci alists in (mathematical) physics and computer sciences. So here the reader will find different points of view and approaches to the considered field. A. M. VINOGRADOV 3 Acta Applicandae Mathematicae 15: 3-21, 1989. (c) 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Symmetries and Conservation Laws of Partial Differential Equations: Basic Notions and Results A. M. VINOORADOV Department of Mathematics, Moscow State University, 117234, Moscow, U. S. S. R. (Received: 22 August 1988) Abstract. The main notions and results which are necessary for finding higher symmetries and conservation laws for general systems of partial differential equations are given. These constitute the starting point for the subsequent papers of this volume. Some problems are also discussed. AMS subject classifications (1980). 35A30, 58005, 58035, 58H05. Key words. Higher symmetries, conservation laws, partial differential equations, infinitely prolonged equations, generating functions. o. Introduction In this paper we present the basic notions and results from the general theory of local symmetries and conservation laws of partial differential equations. More exactly, we will focus our attention on the main conceptual points as well as on the problem of how to find all higher symmetries and conservation laws for a given system of partial differential equations. Also, some general views and perspectives will be discussed.

One service mathematics has rendered the 'Eot moi, ..., si j'avait JU comment en revenir. human race. h has put common sense back je n'y serais point aUe:' Jules Verne where it belongs, 011 the topmost shelf nen to the dusty canister labeUed 'discarded non- The series is divergent; therefore we may be sense'. able to do something with it. Eric T. Bell O. H es viside Mathematics is a tool for thought. A highly necessary tool in a world where both feedback and non- linearities abound. Similarly, all kinds of parts of mathematics serve as tools for other pans and for other sciences. Applying a simple rewriting rule to the quote on the right above one finds such statements as: 'One service topology has rendered mathematical physics ...'; 'One service logic has rendered com- puter science ...'; 'One service category theory has rendered mathematics ...'. All arguably true. And all statements obtainable this way form part of the raison d'etre of this series.

Generalising classical concepts of probability theory, the investigation of operator (semi)-stable laws as possible limit distributions of operator-normalized sums of i.i.d. random variable on finite-dimensional vector space started in 1969. Currently, this theory is still in progress and promises interesting applications. Parallel to this, similar stability concepts for probabilities on groups were developed during recent decades. It turns out that the existence of suitable limit distributions has a strong impact on the structure of both the normalizing automorphisms and the underlying group. Indeed, investigations in limit laws led to contractable groups and - at least within the class of connected groups - to homogeneous groups, in particular to groups that are topologically isomorphic to a vector space. Moreover, it has been shown that (semi)-stable measures on groups have a vector space counterpart and vice versa. The purpose of this book is to describe the structure of limit laws and the limit behaviour of normalized i.i.d. random variables on groups and on finite-dimensional vector spaces from a common point of view. This will also shed a new light on the classical situation. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to stability problems on vector spaces. Chapter II is concerned with parallel investigations for homogeneous groups and in Chapter III the situation beyond homogeneous Lie groups is treated. Throughout, emphasis is laid on the description of features common to the group- and vector space situation. Chapter I can be understood by graduate students with some background knowledge in infinite divisibility. Readers of Chapters II and III are assumed to be familiar with basic techniques from probability theory on locally compact groups.

A development of the basic theory and applications of mechanics with an emphasis on the role of symmetry. The book includes numerous specific applications, making it beneficial to physicists and engineers. Specific examples and applications show how the theory works, backed by up-to-date techniques, all of which make the text accessible to a wide variety of readers, especially senior undergraduates and graduates in mathematics, physics and engineering. This second edition has been rewritten and updated for clarity throughout, with a major revamping and expansion of the exercises. Internet supplements containing additional material are also available.

Ever since its introduction around 1960 by Kirillov, the orbit method has played a major role in representation theory of Lie groups and Lie algebras. This book contains the proceedings of a conference held from August 29 to September 2, 1988, at the University of Copenhagen, about "the orbit method in representation theory." It contains ten articles, most of which are original research papers, by well-known mathematicians in the field, and it reflects the fact that the orbit method plays an important role in the representation theory of semisimple Lie groups, solvable Lie groups, and even more general Lie groups, and also in the theory of enveloping algebras.

It is very tempting but a little bit dangerous to compare the style of two great mathematicians or of their schools. I think that it would be better to compare papers from both schools dedicated to one area, geometry and to leave conclusions to a reader of this volume. The collaboration of these two schools is not new. One of the best mathematics journals Functional Analysis and its Applications had I.M. Gelfand as its chief editor and V.I. Arnold as vice-chief editor. Appearances in one issue of the journal presenting remarkable papers from seminars of Arnold and Gelfand always left a strong impact on all of mathematics. We hope that this volume will have a similar impact. Papers from Arnold's seminar are devoted to three important directions developed by his school: Symplectic Geometry (F. Lalonde and D. McDuff), Theory of Singularities and its applications (F. Aicardi, I. Bogaevski, M. Kazarian), Geometry of Curves and Manifolds (S. Anisov, V. Chekanov, L. Guieu, E. Mourre and V. Ovsienko, S. Gusein-Zade and S. Natanzon). A little bit outside of these areas is a very interesting paper by M. Karoubi Produit cyclique d'espaces et operations de Steenrod.

This book provides an overview of some of the most active topics in the theory of transformation groups over the past decades and stresses advances obtained in the last dozen years. The emphasis is on actions of Lie groups on manifolds and CW complexes. Manifolds and actions of Lie groups on them are studied in the linear, semialgebraic, definable, analytic, smooth, and topological categories. Equivalent vector bundles play an important role.

The work is divided into fifteen articles and will be of interest to anyone researching or studying transformations groups. The references make it easy to find details and original accounts of the topics surveyed, including tools and theories used in these accounts.

This work presents new and old constructions of nearrings. Links between properties of the multiplicative of nearrings (as regularity conditions and identities) and the structure of nearrings are studied. Primality and minimality properties of ideals are collected. Some types of simpler' nearrings are examined. Some nearrings of maps on a group are reviewed and linked with group-theoretical and geometrical questions.
Audience: Researchers working in nearring theory, group theory, semigroup theory, designs, and translation planes. Some of the material will be accessible to graduate students.

When? These are the proceedings of Finite Geometries, the Fourth Isle of Thorns Conference, which took place from Sunday 16 to Friday 21 July, 2000. It was organised by the editors of this volume. The Third Conference in 1990 was published as Advances in Finite Geometries and Designs by Oxford University Press and the Second Conference in 1980 was published as Finite Geometries and Designs by Cambridge University Press. The main speakers were A. R. Calderbank, P. J. Cameron, C. E. Praeger, B. Schmidt, H. Van Maldeghem. There were 64 participants and 42 contributions, all listed at the end of the volume. Conference web site http://www. maths. susx. ac. uk/Staff/JWPH/ Why? This collection of 21 articles describes the latest research and current state of the art in the following inter-linked areas: * combinatorial structures in finite projective and affine spaces, also known as Galois geometries, in which combinatorial objects such as blocking sets, spreads and partial spreads, ovoids, arcs and caps, as well as curves and hypersurfaces, are all of interest; * geometric and algebraic coding theory; * finite groups and incidence geometries, as in polar spaces, gener alized polygons and diagram geometries; * algebraic and geometric design theory, in particular designs which have interesting symmetric properties and difference sets, which play an important role, because of their close connections to both Galois geometry and coding theory.

This monograph extends this approach to the more general investigation of X-lattices, and these "tree lattices" are the main object of study. The authors present a coherent survey of the results on uniform tree lattices, and a (previously unpublished) development of the theory of non-uniform tree lattices, including some fundamental and recently proved existence theorems. Tree Lattices should be a helpful resource to researchers in the field, and may also be used for a graduate course on geometric methods in group theory.

Special relativity and quantum mechanics, formulated early in the twentieth century, are the two most important scientific languages and are likely to remain so for many years to come. In the 1920's, when quantum mechanics was developed, the most pressing theoretical problem was how to make it consistent with special relativity. In the 1980's, this is still the most pressing problem. The only difference is that the situation is more urgent now than before, because of the significant quantity of experimental data which need to be explained in terms of both quantum mechanics and special relativity. In unifying the concepts and algorithms of quantum mechanics and special relativity, it is important to realize that the underlying scientific language for both disciplines is that of group theory. The role of group theory in quantum mechanics is well known. The same is true for special relativity. Therefore, the most effective approach to the problem of unifying these two important theories is to develop a group theory which can accommodate both special relativity and quantum mechanics. As is well known, Eugene P. Wigner is one of the pioneers in developing group theoretical approaches to relativistic quantum mechanics. His 1939 paper on the inhomogeneous Lorentz group laid the foundation for this important research line. It is generally agreed that this paper was somewhat ahead of its time in 1939, and that contemporary physicists must continue to make real efforts to appreciate fully the content of this classic work.

A. Figa Talamanca: Random Fourier series on compact groups.- S. Helgason: Representations of semisimple Lie groups.- H. Jacquet: Representations des groupes lineaires p-adiques.- G.W. Mackey: Infinite-dimensional group representations and their applications.

The worthy purpose of this text is to provide a complete, self-contained development of the trace formula and theta inversion formula for SL(2, Z i])\SL(2, C). Unlike other treatments of the theory, the approach taken here is to begin with the heat kernel on SL(2, C) associated to the invariant Laplacian, which is derived using spherical inversion. The heat kernel on the quotient space SL(2, Z i])\SL(2, C) is arrived at through periodization, and further expanded in an eigenfunction expansion. A theta inversion formula is obtained by studying the trace of the heat kernel. Following the author's previous work, the inversion formula then leads to zeta functions through the Gauss transform.

This book explores the theory and application of locally nilpotent derivations. It provides a unified treatment of the subject, beginning with sixteen First Principles on which the entire theory is based. These are used to establish classical results, such as Rentschler 's Theorem for the plane, right up to the most recent results, such as Makar-Limanov 's Theorem for locally nilpotent derivations of polynomial rings. The book also includes a wealth of pexamples and open problems.

This book is designed as an introduction into what I call 'abstract' Topological Dynamics (TO): the study of topological transformation groups with respect to problems that can be traced back to the qualitative theory of differential equa is in the tradition of the books GH] and EW. The title tions. So this book (, Elements . . . ' rather than 'Introduction . . . ') does not mean that this book should be compared, either in scope or in (intended) impact, with the 'Ele ments' of Euclid or Bourbaki. Instead, it reflects the choice and organisation of the material in this book: elementary and basic (but sufficient to understand recent research papers in this field). There are still many challenging prob lems waiting for a solution, and especially among general topologists there is a growing interest in this direction. However, the technical inaccessability of many research papers makes it almost impossible for an outsider to under stand what is going on. To a large extent, this inaccessability is caused by the lack of a good and systematic exposition of the fundamental methods and techniques of abstract TO. This book is an attempt to fill this gap. The guiding principle for the organization of the material in this book has been the exposition of methods and techniques rather than a discussion of the leading problems and their solutions. though the latter are certainly not neglected: they are used as a motivation wherever possible."

This introduction to the representation theory of compact Lie groups follows Herman Weyl 's original approach. It discusses all aspects of finite-dimensional Lie theory, consistently emphasizing the groups themselves. Thus, the presentation is more geometric and analytic than algebraic. It is a useful reference and a source of explicit computations. Each section contains a range of exercises, and 24 figures help illustrate geometric concepts.

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.

The purpose of the book is to take stock of the situation concerning Algebra via Category Theory in the last fifteen years, where the new and synthetic notions of Mal'cev, protomodular, homological and semi-abelian categories emerged. These notions force attention on the fibration of points and allow a unified treatment of the main algebraic: homological lemmas, Noether isomorphisms, commutator theory.
The book gives full importance to examples and makes strong connections with Universal Algebra. One of its aims is to allow appreciating how productive the essential categorical constraint is: knowing an object, not from inside via its elements, but from outside via its relations with its environment.
The book is intended to be a powerful tool in the hands of researchers in category theory, homology theory and universal algebra, as well as a textbook for graduate courses on these topics.

Computers have stretched the limits of what is possible in mathematics. More: they have given rise to new fields of mathematical study; the analysis of new and traditional algorithms, the creation of new paradigms for implementing computational methods, the viewing of old techniques from a concrete algorithmic vantage point, to name but a few. Computational Algebra and Number Theory lies at the lively intersection of computer science and mathematics. It highlights the surprising width and depth of the field through examples drawn from current activity, ranging from category theory, graph theory and combinatorics, to more classical computational areas, such as group theory and number theory. Many of the papers in the book provide a survey of their topic, as well as a description of present research. Throughout the variety of mathematical and computational fields represented, the emphasis is placed on the common principles and the methods employed. Audience: Students, experts, and those performing current research in any of the topics mentioned above.

Two contributions on closely related subjects: the theory of linear algebraic groups and invariant theory, by well-known experts in the fields. The book will be very useful as a reference and research guide to graduate students and researchers in mathematics and theoretical physics.

Quantum groups have been investigated rather deeply in mathematical physics over the last decade. Among the most prominent contributions in this area let us mention the works of V.G. Drinfeld, S.L. Woronowicz, S. Majid. Prob ability the- ory on quantum groups has developed in several directions (see works of P. Biane, RL. Hudson and K.R Partasarathy, P.A. Meyer, M. Schurmann, D. Voiculescu). The aim of this book is to present several new aspects related to quantum groups: operator calculus, dual representations, stochastic processes and diffusions, Appell polynomials and systems in connection with evolution equations. Much of the ma- terial is scattered throughout available literature, however, we have nowhere found in accessible form all of this material collected. The presentation of representation theory in connection with Appell systems is original with the authors. Stochastic processes (example: Brownian motion, diffusion processes, Levy processes) are in- vestigated and several examples are presented. As a text the work is intended to be accessible to graduate students and researchers not specialised in quantum prob ability. We would like to acknowledge our colleagues P. Feinsilver, R Lenzceswki, D.