The Mathematics of Finance has been a hot topic ever since the discovery of the Black-Scholes option pricing formulas in 1973. Unfortunately, there are very few undergraduate textbooks in this area. This book is specifically written for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students in mathematics, finance or economics. This book concentrates on discrete derivative pricing models, culminating in a careful and complete derivation of the Black-Scholes option pricing formulas as a limiting case of the Cox-Ross-Rubinstein discrete model.

This second edition is a complete rewrite of the first edition with significant changes to the topic organization, thus making the book flow much more smoothly. Several topics have been expanded such as the discussions of options, including the history of options, and pricing nonattainable alternatives. In this edition the material on probability has been condensed into fewer chapters, and the material on the capital asset pricing model has been removed.

The mathematics is not watered down, but it is appropriate for the intended audience. Previous knowledge of measure theory is not needed and only a small amount of linear algebra is required. All necessary probability theory is developed throughout the book on a "need-to-know" basis. No background in finance is required, since the book contains a chapter on options. "

Game theory, particularly the use of repeated games, N-person games, and incomplete information games have been popular research techniques in political science, sociology, and managementùbut difficult for new social researchers to useùuntil now. Aimed at making these topics accessible to all social scientist, Game Theory Topics shows how game theory can be productively applied to problems in the social sciences. Using a common social science gameùChickenùto illustrate game theory concepts, the authors introduce readers to games of incomplete information; how to build uncertainty into game theoretic models; the concept of Bayesian Nash equilibrium; and the role of repetition in game theory, including how game theoretic models can easily accommodate many players. Throughout the book, the authors use applications to social science problems to illustrate the points being developed in each chapter.

This book concentrates on real-world production scheduling in factories and industrial settings. It includes industry case studies that use innovative techniques as well as academic research results that can be used to improve production scheduling. Its purpose is to present scheduling principles, advanced tools, and examples of innovative scheduling systems to persons who could use this information to improve their own production scheduling.

A long long time ago, echoing philosophical and aesthetic principles that existed since antiquity, William of Ockham enounced the principle of parsimony, better known today as Ockham's razor: "Entities should not be multiplied without neces sity. " This principle enabled scientists to select the "best" physical laws and theories to explain the workings of the Universe and continued to guide scienti?c research, leadingtobeautifulresultsliketheminimaldescriptionlength approachtostatistical inference and the related Kolmogorov complexity approach to pattern recognition. However, notions of complexity and description length are subjective concepts anddependonthelanguage"spoken"whenpresentingideasandresults. The?eldof sparse representations, that recently underwent a Big Bang like expansion, explic itly deals with the Yin Yang interplay between the parsimony of descriptions and the "language" or "dictionary" used in them, and it became an extremely exciting area of investigation. It already yielded a rich crop of mathematically pleasing, deep and beautiful results that quickly translated into a wealth of practical engineering applications. You are holding in your hands the ?rst guide book to Sparseland, and I am sure you'll ?nd in it both familiar and new landscapes to see and admire, as well as ex cellent pointers that will help you ?nd further valuable treasures. Enjoy the journey to Sparseland! Haifa, Israel, December 2009 Alfred M. Bruckstein vii Preface This book was originally written to serve as the material for an advanced one semester (fourteen 2 hour lectures) graduate course for engineering students at the Technion, Israel.

This new edition of Stochastic Linear Programming: Models, Theory and Computation has been brought completely up to date, either dealing with or at least referring to new material on models and methods, including DEA with stochastic outputs modeled via constraints on special risk functions (generalizing chance constraints, ICC's and CVaR constraints), material on Sharpe-ratio, and Asset Liability Management models involving CVaR in a multi-stage setup. To facilitate use as a text, exercises are included throughout the book, and web access is provided to a student version of the authors' SLP-IOR software. Additionally, the authors have updated the Guide to Available Software, and they have included newer algorithms and modeling systems for SLP. The book is thus suitable as a text for advanced courses in stochastic optimization, and as a reference to the field. From Reviews of the First Edition: "The book presents a comprehensive study of stochastic linear optimization problems and their applications. ... The presentation includes geometric interpretation, linear programming duality, and the simplex method in its primal and dual forms. ... The authors have made an effort to collect ... the most useful recent ideas and algorithms in this area. ... A guide to the existing software is included as well." (Darinka Dentcheva, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2006 c) "This is a graduate text in optimisation whose main emphasis is in stochastic programming. The book is clearly written. ... This is a good book for providing mathematicians, economists and engineers with an almost complete start up information for working in the field. I heartily welcome its publication. ... It is evident that this book will constitute an obligatory reference source for the specialists of the field." (Carlos Narciso Bouza Herrera, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1104 (6), 2007)

This open access book serves as a compact source of information on sine cosine algorithm (SCA) and a foundation for developing and advancing SCA and its applications. SCA is an easy, user-friendly, and strong candidate in the field of metaheuristics algorithms. Despite being a relatively new metaheuristic algorithm, it has achieved widespread acceptance among researchers due to its easy implementation and robust optimization capabilities. Its effectiveness and advantages have been demonstrated in various applications ranging from machine learning, engineering design, and wireless sensor network to environmental modeling. The book provides a comprehensive account of the SCA, including details of the underlying ideas, the modified versions, various applications, and a working MATLAB code for the basic SCA.

This book gives a detailed information of various real-life applications from various fields using nature inspired optimization techniques. These techniques are proven to be efficient and robust in many difficult problems in literature. The authors provide detailed information about real-life problems and how various nature inspired optimizations are applied to solve these problems. The authors discuss techniques such as Biogeography Based Optimization, Glow Swarm Optimization, Elephant herd Optimization Algorithm, Cuckoo Search Algorithm, Ant Colony Optimization, and Grey Wolf Optimization etc. These algorithms are applied to a wide range of problems from the field of engineering, finance, medicinal etc. As an important part of the Women in Science and Engineering book series, the work highlights the contribution of women leaders in nature inspired optimization, inspiring women and men, girls and boys to enter and apply themselves to the field.

This textbook approaches optimization from a multi-aspect, multi-criteria perspective. By using a Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach, it avoids the limits and oversimplifications that can come with optimization models with one criterion. The book is presented in a concise form, addressing how to solve decision problems in sequences of intelligence, modelling, choice and review phases, often iterated, to identify the most preferred decision variant. The approach taken is human-centric, with the user taking the final decision is a sole and sovereign actor in the decision making process. To ensure generality, no assumption about the Decision Maker preferences or behavior is made. The presentation of these concepts is illustrated by numerous examples, figures, and problems to be solved with the help of downloadable spreadsheets. This electronic companion contains models of problems to be solved built in Excel spreadsheet files. Optimization models are too often oversimplifications of decision problems met in practice. For instance, modeling company performance by an optimization model in which the criterion function is short-term profit to be maximized, does not fully reflect the essence of business management. The company's managing staff is accountable not only for operational decisions, but also for actions which shall result in the company ability to generate a decent profit in the future. This calls for management decisions and actions which ensure short-term profitability, but also maintaining long-term relations with clients, introducing innovative products, financing long-term investments, etc. Each of those additional, though indispensable actions and their effects can be modeled separately, case by case, by an optimization model with a criterion function adequately selected. However, in each case the same set of constraints represents the range of company admissible actions. The aim and the scope of this textbook is to present methodologies and methods enabling modeling of such actions jointly.

Praise for the Third Edition "...guides and leads the reader through the learning path ...[e]xamples are stated very clearly and the results are presented with attention to detail." MAA Reviews Fully updated to reflect new developments in the field, the Fourth Edition of Introduction to Optimization fills the need for accessible treatment of optimization theory and methods with an emphasis on engineering design. Basic definitions and notations are provided in addition to the related fundamental background for linear algebra, geometry, and calculus. This new edition explores the essential topics of unconstrained optimization problems, linear programming problems, and nonlinear constrained optimization. The authors also present an optimization perspective on global search methods and include discussions on genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization, and the simulated annealing algorithm. Featuring an elementary introduction to artificial neural networks, convex optimization, and multi-objective optimization, the Fourth Edition also offers: * A new chapter on integer programming * Expanded coverage of one-dimensional methods * Updated and expanded sections on linear matrix inequalities * Numerous new exercises at the end of each chapter * MATLAB exercises and drill problems to reinforce the discussed theory and algorithms * Numerous diagrams and figures that complement the written presentation of key concepts * MATLAB M-files for implementation of the discussed theory and algorithms (available via the book's website) Introduction to Optimization, Fourth Edition is an ideal textbook for courses on optimization theory and methods. In addition, the book is a useful reference for professionals in mathematics, operations research, electrical engineering, economics, statistics, and business.

This book explains, in a straightforward way, the foundations upon which electoral techniques are based in order to shed new light on what we actually do when we vote. The intention is to highlight the fact that no matter how an electoral system has been designed, and regardless of the intentions of those who devised the system, there will be goals that are impossible to achieve but also opportunities for improving the situation in an informed way. While detailed descriptions of electoral systems are not provided, many references are made to current or past situations, both as examples and to underline particular problems and shortcomings. In addition, a new voting method that avoids the many paradoxes of voting theory is described in detail. While some knowledge of mathematics is required in order to gain the most from the book, every effort has been made to ensure that the subject matter is easily accessible for non-mathematicians, too. In short, this is a book for anyone who wants to understand the meaning of voting.

Combinatorial optimization is a multidisciplinary scientific area, lying in the interface of three major scientific domains: mathematics, theoretical computer science and management.The three volumes of the Combinatorial Optimization series aims to cover a wide range of topics in this area. These topics also deal with fundamental notions and approaches as with several classical applications of combinatorial optimization.

"Paradigms of Combinatorial Optimization" is divided in two parts: - Paradigmatic Problems, that handles several famous combinatorial optimization problems as max cut, min coloring, optimal satisfiability tsp, etc., the study of which has largely contributed to both the development, the legitimization and the establishment of the Combinatorial Optimization as one of the most active actual scientific domains;- Classical and New Approaches, that presents the several methodological approaches that fertilize and are fertilized by Combinatorial optimization such as: Polynomial Approximation, Online Computation, Robustness, etc., and, more recently, Algorithmic Game Theory.

This book brings together papers of well-known specialists in game theory and adjacent problems. It presents the basic results in dynamic games, stochastic games, applications of game theoretical methods in ecology and economics and methodological aspects of game theory.

This book brings together papers of well-known specialists in game theory and adjacent problems. It presents the basic results in dynamic games, stochastic games, applications of game theoretical methods in ecology and economics and methodological aspects of game theory.

This book offers a gentle introduction to Hex, the classic board game created by Piet Hein and popularized by John Nash and Martin Gardner. The first three chapters cover rules, basic strategy, and history. The remaining eight chapters cover a variety of topics: mathematical properties (there are no draws, the first player can win, the acute corner is a losing first move), the related game of Y, winning strategies for small boards, how computers play Hex, an analysis of Random-Move Hex (where one or both players move randomly) and Dark Hex (the imperfect information version of the game, where you can't see your opponent's moves). Did we mention puzzles? There are puzzles in every chapter, with solutions. This book is intended for anyone interested in playing board games or learning some recreational mathematics. It is written for a wide audience and will be enjoyed equally by general readers and professional mathematicians. The book could be used as a textbook or companion resource for a topics course on recreational mathematics or game theory or as a source for undergraduate research questions.

This major two volume collection presents some of the most influential theoretical and empirical papers on the economic theory of auctions. Auction theory has been the basis of fundamental theoretical work in industrial economics, public economics, labour economics and finance, and has helped the understanding of price formation in markets. There has recently been an explosion of interest in its practical applications, especially in organising the sale of government assets (for example, treasury bonds, radio spectrum licenses, and firms to be privatised) and in developing new markets for electricity and transport. Because auctions are such simple and well defined environments, they provide a valuable testing ground for economic theory that has been increasingly exploited in empirical work. The book will also include important previously unpublished papers by P.R. Milgrom, R. Weber and A. Ortega-Reichert, and other hard-to-find papers by W. Vickery and others.

This addition to the ISOR series introduces complementarity models in a straightforward and approachable manner and uses them to carry out an in-depth analysis of energy markets, including formulation issues and solution techniques. In a nutshell, complementarity models generalize: a. optimization problems via their Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions b. on-cooperative games in which each player may be solving a separate but related optimization problem with potentially overall system constraints (e.g., market-clearing conditions) c. conomic and engineering problems that aren't specifically derived from optimization problems (e.g., spatial price equilibria) d. roblems in which both primal and dual variables (prices) appear in the original formulation (e.g., The National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) or its precursor, PIES). As such, complementarity models are a very general and flexible modeling format. A natural question is why concentrate on energy markets for this complementarity approach? s it turns out, energy or other markets that have game theoretic aspects are best modeled by complementarity problems. The reason is that the traditional perfect competition approach no longer applies due to deregulation and restructuring of these markets and thus the corresponding optimization problems may no longer hold. Also, in some instances it is important in the original model formulation to involve both primal variables (e.g., production) as well as dual variables (e.g., market prices) for public and private sector energy planning. Traditional optimization problems can not directly handle this mixing of primal and dual variables but complementarity models can and this makes them all that more effective for decision-makers.

Game Theory & Applications Volume 3

This book presents recent developments and new trends in Combinatorial Optimization. Combinatorial Optimization is an active research area that has applications in many domains such as communications, network design, VLSI, scheduling, production, computational biology. In the past years, new results and major advances have been seen in many areas including computational complexity, approximation algorithms, cutting-plane based methods and submodularity function minimization. More efficient and powerful methods have been developed for approaching real-worlds problems, and new concepts and theoritical results have been introduced.

Game Theory & Applications Volume II

An essential introduction to the analysis and verification of control system software The verification of control system software is critical to a host of technologies and industries, from aeronautics and medical technology to the cars we drive. The failure of controller software can cost people their lives. In this authoritative and accessible book, Pierre-Loic Garoche provides control engineers and computer scientists with an indispensable introduction to the formal techniques for analyzing and verifying this important class of software. Too often, control engineers are unaware of the issues surrounding the verification of software, while computer scientists tend to be unfamiliar with the specificities of controller software. Garoche provides a unified approach that is geared to graduate students in both fields, covering formal verification methods as well as the design and verification of controllers. He presents a wealth of new verification techniques for performing exhaustive analysis of controller software. These include new means to compute nonlinear invariants, the use of convex optimization tools, and methods for dealing with numerical imprecisions such as floating point computations occurring in the analyzed software. As the autonomy of critical systems continues to increase-as evidenced by autonomous cars, drones, and satellites and landers-the numerical functions in these systems are growing ever more advanced. The techniques presented here are essential to support the formal analysis of the controller software being used in these new and emerging technologies.

Game Theory & Applications

The authors stress the relative simplicity, efficiency, flexibility of use, and suitability of various approaches used to solve difficult optimization problems. The authors are experienced, interdisciplinary lecturers and researchers and in their explanations they demonstrate many shared foundational concepts among the key methodologies. This textbook is a suitable introduction for undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, and professionals in computer science, engineering, and logistics.

Optimization is an important tool used in decision science and for the analysis of physical systems used in engineering. One can trace its roots to the Calculus of Variations and the work of Euler and Lagrange. This natural and reasonable approach to mathematical programming covers numerical methods for finite-dimensional optimization problems. It begins with very simple ideas progressing through more complicated concepts, concentrating on methods for both unconstrained and constrained optimization.

MATRIX is Australia's international, residential mathematical research institute. It facilitates new collaborations and mathematical advances through intensive residential research programs, each lasting 1-4 weeks. This book is a scientific record of the five programs held at MATRIX in its first year, 2016: - Higher Structures in Geometry and Physics - Winter of Disconnectedness - Approximation and Optimisation - Refining C*-Algebraic Invariants for Dynamics using KK-theory - Interactions between Topological Recursion, Modularity, Quantum Invariants and Low- dimensional Topology The MATRIX Scientific Committee selected these programs based on their scientific excellence and the participation rate of high-profile international participants. Each program included ample unstructured time to encourage collaborative research; some of the longer programs also included an embedded conference or lecture series. The articles are grouped into peer-reviewed contributions and other contributions. The peer-reviewed articles present original results or reviews on selected topics related to the MATRIX program; the remaining contributions are predominantly lecture notes based on talks or activities at MATRIX.