From the reviews: "... In the past, more of the leading mathematicians proposed and solved problems than today, and there were problem departments in many journals. Pólya and Szego must have combed all of the large problem literature from about 1850 to 1925 for their material, and their collection of the best in analysis is a heritage of lasting value. The work is unashamedly dated. With few exceptions, all of its material comes from before 1925. We can judge its vintage by a brief look at the author indices (combined). Let's start on the C's: Cantor, Carathéodory, Carleman, Carlson, Catalan, Cauchy, Cayley, Cesàro,... Or the L's: Lacour, Lagrange, Laguerre, Laisant, Lambert, Landau, Laplace, Lasker, Laurent, Lebesgue, Legendre,... Omission is also information: Carlitz, Erdös, Moser, etc."Bull.Americ.Math.Soc.

Interest in the study of geometry is currently enjoying a resurgence-understandably so, as the study of curves was once the playground of some very great mathematicians. However, many of the subject's more exciting aspects require a somewhat advanced mathematics background. For the "fun stuff" to be accessible, we need to offer students an introduction with modest prerequisites, one that stimulates their interest and focuses on problem solving.

Integrating parametric, algebraic, and projective curves into a single text, Geometry of Curves offers students a unique approach that provides a mathematical structure for solving problems, not just a catalog of theorems. The author begins with the basics, then takes students on a fascinating journey from conics, higher algebraic and transcendental curves, through the properties of parametric curves, the classification of limaçons, envelopes, and finally to projective curves, their relationship to algebraic curves, and their application to asymptotes and boundedness.

The uniqueness of this treatment lies in its integration of the different types of curves, its use of analytic methods, and its generous number of examples, exercises, and illustrations.
The result is a practical text, almost entirely self-contained, that not only imparts a deeper understanding of the theory, but inspires a heightened appreciation of geometry and interest in more advanced studies.

This book concerns modern methods in scientific computing and linear algebra, relevant to image and signal processing. For these applications, it is important to consider ingredients such as: (1) sophisticated mathematical models of the problems, including a priori knowledge, (2) rigorous mathematical theories to understand the difficulties of solving problems which are ill-posed, and (3) fast algorithms for either real-time or data-massive computations. Such are the topics brought into focus by these proceedings of the Workshop on Scientific Computing (held in Hong Kong on March 10-12, 1997, the sixth in such series of Workshops held in Hong Kong since 1990), where the major themes were on numerical linear algebra, signal processing, and image processing.

The main purpose of this book is to give an overview of the developments during the last 20 years in the theory of uniformly distributed sequences. The authors focus on various aspects such as special sequences, metric theory, geometric concepts of discrepancy, irregularities of distribution, continuous uniform distribution and uniform distribution in discrete spaces. Specific applications are presented in detail: numerical integration, spherical designs, random number generation and mathematical finance. Furthermore over 1000 references are collected and discussed. While written in the style of a research monograph, the book is readable with basic knowledge in analysis, number theory and measure theory.

Semantics of Parallelism is the only book which provides a unified treatment of the non-interleaving approach to process semantics (as opposed to the interleaving approach of the process algebraists). Many results found in this book are collected for the first time outside conference and journal articles on the mathematics of non-interleaving semantics. It gives the reader a unified view of various attempts to model parallelism within one conceptual frame work. It is aimed at postgraduates in theoretical computer science and academics who are teaching and researching in the modelling of discrete, concurrent/distributed systems. Workers in the information technology industry who are interested in available theoretical studies on parallelism will also be interested in this book.

In 1988 Shafarevich asked me to write a volume for the Encyclopaedia of Mathematical Sciences on Diophantine Geometry. I said yes, and here is the volume. By definition, diophantine problems concern the solutions of equations in integers, or rational numbers, or various generalizations, such as finitely generated rings over Z or finitely generated fields over Q. The word Geometry is tacked on to suggest geometric methods. This means that the present volume is not elementary. For a survey of some basic problems with a much more elementary approach, see La 9Oc]. The field of diophantine geometry is now moving quite rapidly. Out standing conjectures ranging from decades back are being proved. I have tried to give the book some sort of coherence and permanence by em phasizing structural conjectures as much as results, so that one has a clear picture of the field. On the whole, I omit proofs, according to the boundary conditions of the encyclopedia. On some occasions I do give some ideas for the proofs when these are especially important. In any case, a lengthy bibliography refers to papers and books where proofs may be found. I have also followed Shafarevich's suggestion to give examples, and I have especially chosen these examples which show how some classical problems do or do not get solved by contemporary in sights. Fermat's last theorem occupies an intermediate position. Al though it is not proved, it is not an isolated problem any more."

The book gives a survey of some recent developments in the theory of bundles on curves arising out of the work of Drinfeld and from insights coming from Theoretical Physics. It deals with: 1. The relation between conformal blocks and generalised theta functions (Lectures by S. Kumar) 2. Drinfeld Shtukas (Lectures by G. Laumon) 3. Drinfeld modules and Elliptic Sheaves (Lectures by U. Stuhler) The latter topics are useful in connection with Langlands programme for function fields. The contents of the book would give a comprehensive introduction of these topics to graduate students and researchers.

This book contains a collection of articles corresponding to some of the talks delivered at the Foundations of Computational Mathematics conference held at IMPA in Rio de Janeiro in January 1997. Some ofthe others are published in the December 1996 issue of the Journal of Complexity. Both of these publications were available and distributed at the meeting. Even in this aspect we hope to have achieved a synthesis of the mathematics and computer science cultures as well as of the disciplines. The reaction to the Park City meeting on Mathematics of Numerical Analy sis: Real Number Algorithms which was chaired by Steve Smale and had around 275 participants, was very enthusiastic. At the suggestion of Narendra Karmar mar a lunch time meeting of Felipe Cucker, Arieh Iserles, Narendra Karmarkar, Jim Renegar, Mike Shub and Steve Smale decided to try to hold a periodic meeting entitled "Foundations of Computational Mathematics" and to form an organization with the same name whose primary purpose will be to hold the meeting. This is then the first edition of FoCM as such. It has been organized around a small collection of workshops, namely - Systems of algebraic equations and computational algebraic geometry - Homotopy methods and real machines - Information-based complexity - Numerical linear algebra - Approximation and PDEs - Optimization - Differential equations and dynamical systems - Relations to computer science - Vision and related computational tools There were also twelve plenary speakers."

This volume is dedicated to Harvey Cohn, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at City College (CUNY). Harvey was one of the organizers of the New York Number Theory Seminar, and was deeply involved in all aspects of the Seminar from its first meeting in January, 1982, until his retirement in December, 1995. We wish him good health and continued hapiness and success in mathematics. The papers in this volume are revised and expanded versions of lectures delivered in the New York Number Theory Seminar. The Seminar meets weekly at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). In addition, some of the papers in this book were presented at a conference on Combinatorial Number Theory that the New York Number Theory Seminar organized at Lehman College (CUNY). Here is a short description of the papers in this volume. The paper of R. T. Bumby focuses on "elementary" fast algorithms in sums of two and four squares. The actual talk had been accompanied by dazzling computer demonstrations. The detailed review of H. Cohn describes the construction of modular equations as the basis of studies of modular forms in the one-dimensional and Hilbert cases.

This book is the first comprehensive treatise of the transcendence theory of Mahler functions and their values. Recently the theory has seen profound development and has found a diversity of applications. The book assumes a background in elementary field theory, p-adic field, algebraic function field of one variable and rudiments of ring theory. The book is intended for both graduate students and researchers who are interested in transcendence theory. It will lay the foundations of the theory of Mahler functions and provide a source of further research.

The book is a mostly translated reprint of a report on cohomology of groups from the 1950s and 1960s, originally written as background for the Artin-Tate notes on class field theory, following the cohomological approach. This report was first published (in French) by Benjamin. For this new English edition, the author added Tate's local duality, written up from letters which John Tate sent to Lang in 1958 - 1959. Except for this last item, which requires more substantial background in algebraic geometry and especially abelian varieties, the rest of the book is basically elementary, depending only on standard homological algebra at the level of first year graduate students.

"This book by a leading researcher and masterly expositor of the subject studies diophantine approximations to algebraic numbers and their applications to diophantine equations. The methods are classical, and the results stressed can be obtained without much background in algebraic geometry. In particular, Thue equations, norm form equations and S-unit equations, with emphasis on recent explicit bounds on the number of solutions, are included. The book will be useful for graduate students and researchers." (L'Enseignement Mathematique) "The rich Bibliography includes more than hundred references. The book is easy to read, it may be a useful piece of reading not only for experts but for students as well." Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum

Our grasp of numbers and uncertainty is one of humankind's most distinctive and important traits. It is pivotal to our exceptional ability to control the world around us as we make short-term choices and forecast far into the future. But very smart people can struggle with numbers in ways that pose negative consequences for their decision making. Numeric ability equips individuals with vital tools that allow them to take charge of various aspects of their life. The more numerate enjoy superior health, wealth, and employment outcomes, while the innumerate remain more vulnerable. This book presents the logic, rules, and habits that highly numerate people use in decision making. Innumeracy in the Wild also introduces two additional ways of knowing numbers that complement and compensate for lower numeric ability and explores how numeric abilities develop and where mistakes are made. It offers a state-of-the-art review of the now sizeable body of psychological and applied findings that demonstrate the critical importance of numeracy in our world. With more than two decades of experience in the decision sciences, Ellen Peters demonstrates how intervention can foster adult numeric capacity, propel people to use numeric facts in decision making, and empower those with lower numeracy to reason better.

From the reviews: "A well-written, very thorough account ... Among the topics are lattices, reduction, Minkowskis Theorem, distance functions, packings, and automorphs; some applications to number theory; excellent bibliographical references." The American Mathematical Monthly

Weyl group multiple Dirichlet series are generalizations of the Riemann zeta function. Like the Riemann zeta function, they are Dirichlet series with analytic continuation and functional equations, having applications to analytic number theory. By contrast, these Weyl group multiple Dirichlet series may be functions of several complex variables and their groups of functional equations may be arbitrary finite Weyl groups. Furthermore, their coefficients are multiplicative up to roots of unity, generalizing the notion of Euler products. This book proves foundational results about these series and develops their combinatorics.

These interesting functions may be described as Whittaker coefficients of Eisenstein series on metaplectic groups, but this characterization doesn't readily lead to an explicit description of the coefficients. The coefficients may be expressed as sums over Kashiwara crystals, which are combinatorial analogs of characters of irreducible representations of Lie groups. For Cartan Type A, there are two distinguished descriptions, and if these are known to be equal, the analytic properties of the Dirichlet series follow. Proving the equality of the two combinatorial definitions of the Weyl group multiple Dirichlet series requires the comparison of two sums of products of Gauss sums over lattice points in polytopes. Through a series of surprising combinatorial reductions, this is accomplished.

The book includes expository material about crystals, deformations of the Weyl character formula, and the Yang-Baxter equation.

"In 1970, at the U. of Colorado, the author delivered a course of lectures on his famous generalization, then just established, relating to Roth's theorem on rational approxi- mations to algebraic numbers. The present volume is an ex- panded and up-dated version of the original mimeographed notes on the course. As an introduction to the author's own remarkable achievements relating to the Thue-Siegel-Roth theory, the text can hardly be bettered and the tract can already be regarded as a classic in its field."(Bull.LMS) "Schmidt's work on approximations by algebraic numbers belongs to the deepest and most satisfactory parts of number theory. These notes give the best accessible way to learn the subject. ... this book is highly recommended." (Mededelingen van het Wiskundig Genootschap)

As an interesting object of arithmetic, algebraic and analytic geometry the complex ball was born in a paper of the French Mathematician E. PICARD in 1883. In recent developments the ball finds great interest again in the framework of SHIMURA varieties but also in the theory of diophantine equations (asymptotic FERMAT Problem, see ch. VI). At first glance the original ideas and the advanced theories seem to be rather disconnected. With these lectures I try to build a bridge from the analytic origins to the actual research on effective problems of arithmetic algebraic geometry. The best motivation is HILBERT'S far-reaching program consisting of 23 prob lems (Paris 1900) " . . . one should succeed in finding and discussing those functions which play the part for any algebraic number field corresponding to that of the exponential function in the field of rational numbers and of the elliptic modular functions in the imaginary quadratic number field." This message can be found in the 12-th problem "Extension of KRONECKER'S Theorem on Abelian Fields to Any Algebraic Realm of Rationality" standing in the middle of HILBERTS'S pro gram. It is dedicated to the construction of number fields by means of special value of transcendental functions of several variables. The close connection with three other HILBERT problems will be explained together with corresponding advanced theories, which are necessary to find special effective solutions, namely: 7. Irrationality and Transcendence of Certain Numbers; 21."

Etale Cohomology is one of the most important methods in modern Algebraic Geometry and Number Theory. It has, in the last decades, brought fundamental new insights in arithmetic and algebraic geometric problems with many applications and many important results. The book gives a short and easy introduction into the world of Abelian Categories, Derived Functors, Grothendieck Topologies, Sheaves, General Etale Cohomology, and Etale Cohomology of Curves."

The main topic of the volume is to develop efficient algorithms by which one can verify Artin's conjecture for odd two-dimensional representations in a fairly wide range. To do this, one has to determine the number of all representations with given Artin conductor and determinant and to compute the dimension of a corresponding space of cusp forms of weight 1 which is done by exploiting the explicit knowledge of the operation of Hecke operators on modular symbols.
It is hoped that the algorithms developed in the volume can be of use for many other problems related to modular forms.

The book deals with certain algebraic and arithmetical questions concerning polynomial mappings in one or several variables. Algebraic properties of the ring Int(R) of polynomials mapping a given ring R into itself are presented in the first part, starting with classical results of Polya, Ostrowski and Skolem. The second part deals with fully invariant sets of polynomial mappings F in one or several variables, i.e. sets X satisfying F(X)=X . This includes in particular a study of cyclic points of such mappings in the case of rings of algebrai integers. The text contains several exercises and a list of open problems.

Based upon the renowned author's Cambridge lectures, the text simplifies the complexities of the basic elements of number theory and stimulates the reader to pursue further study.

Difference sets are of central interest in finite geometry and design theory. One of the main techniques to investigate abelian difference sets is a discrete version of the classical Fourier transform (i.e., character theory) in connection with algebraic number theory. This approach is described using only basic knowledge of algebra and algebraic number theory. It contains not only most of our present knowledge about abelian difference sets, but also gives applications of character theory to projective planes with quasiregular collineation groups. Therefore, the book is of interest both to geometers and mathematicians working on difference sets. Moreover, the Fourier transform is important in more applied branches of discrete mathematics such as coding theory and shift register sequences.

The conjectural theory of mixed motives would be a universal cohomology theory in arithmetic algebraic geometry. The monograph describes the approach to motives via their well-defined realizations. This includes a review of several known cohomology theories. A new absolute cohomology is introduced and studied.
The book assumes knowledge of the standard cohomological techniques in algebraic geometry as well as K-theory. So the monograph is primarily intended for researchers. Advanced graduate students can use it as a guide to the literature.

Diophantine equations over number fields have formed one of the most important and fruitful areas of mathematics throughout civilisation. In recent years increasing interest has been aroused in the analogous area of equations over function fields. However, although considerable progress has been made by previous authors, none has attempted the central problem of providing methods for the actual solution of such equations. The latter is the purpose and achievement of this volume: algorithms are provided for the complete resolution of various families of equations, such as those of Thue, hyperelliptic and genus one type. The results are achieved by means of an original fundamental inequality, first announced by the author in 1982. Several specific examples are included as illustrations of the general method and as a testimony to its efficiency. Furthermore, bounds are obtained on the solutions which improve on those obtained previously by other means. Extending the equality to a different setting, namely that of positive characteristic, enables the various families of equations to be resolved in that circumstance. Finally, by applying the inequality in a different manner, simple bounds are determined on their solutions in rational functions of the general superelliptic equation. This book represents a self-contained account of a new approach to the subject, and one which plainly has not reached the full extent of its application. It also provides a more direct on the problems than any previous book. Little expert knowledge is required to follow the theory presented, and it will appeal to professional mathematicians, research students and the enthusiastic undergraduate.

Analytic number theory and part of the spectral theory of operators (differential, pseudo-differential, elliptic, etc.) are being merged under amore general analytic theory of regularized products of certain sequences satisfying a few basic axioms. The most basic examples consist of the sequence of natural numbers, the sequence of zeros with positive imaginary part of the Riemann zeta function, and the sequence of eigenvalues, say of a positive Laplacian on a compact or certain cases of non-compact manifolds. The resulting theory is applicable to ergodic theory and dynamical systems; to the zeta and L-functions of number theory or representation theory and modular forms; to Selberg-like zeta functions; andto the theory of regularized determinants familiar in physics and other parts of mathematics. Aside from presenting a systematic account of widely scattered results, the theory also provides new results. One part of the theory deals with complex analytic properties, and another part deals with Fourier analysis. Typical examples are given. This LNM provides basic results which are and will be used in further papers, starting with a general formulation of Cram r's theorem and explicit formulas. The exposition is self-contained (except for far-reaching examples), requiring only standard knowledge of analysis.