The purpose of this book is to present the available (sometimes only partial) solutions to the two fundamental problems: the existence problem and the classification problem for holomorphic structures in a given topological vector bundle over a compact complex surface. Special features of the nonalgebraic surfaces case, like irreducible vector bundles and stability with respect to a Gauduchon metric, are considered. The reader requires a grounding in geometry at graduate student level. The book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in complex, algebraic and differential geometry.

"This book is a major treatise in mathematics and is essential in the working library of the modern analyst." (Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society)

This book introduces the graduate mathematician and researcher to the effective use of nonstandard analysis (NSA). It provides a tutorial introduction to this modern theory of infinitesimals, followed by nine examples of applications, including complex analysis, stochastic differential equations, differential geometry, topology, probability, integration, and asymptotics. It ends with remarks on teaching with infinitesimals.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the international Symposium on Graph Drawing, GD '95, held in Passau, Germany, in September 1995.
The 40 full papers and 12 system demonstrations were selected from a total of 88 submissions and include, in their revised versions presented here, the improvements suggested during the meeting. This book also contains a report on the graph-drawing contest held in conjunction with GD '95. Graph drawing is concerned with the problem of visualizing structural information, particularly by constructing geometric representations of abstract graphs and networks. The importance of this area for industrial applications is testified by the large number of people with industrial affiliations, submitting papers and participating in the meeting.

This book has been called a Workbook to make it clear from the start that it is not a conventional textbook. Conventional textbooks proceed by giving in each section or chapter first the definitions of the terms to be used, the concepts they are to work with, then some theorems involving these terms (complete with proofs) and finally some examples and exercises to test the readers' understanding of the definitions and the theorems. Readers of this book will indeed find all the conventional constituents--definitions, theorems, proofs, examples and exercises but not in the conventional arrangement. In the first part of the book will be found a quick review of the basic definitions of general topology interspersed with a large num ber of exercises, some of which are also described as theorems. (The use of the word Theorem is not intended as an indication of difficulty but of importance and usefulness. ) The exercises are deliberately not "graded"-after all the problems we meet in mathematical "real life" do not come in order of difficulty; some of them are very simple illustrative examples; others are in the nature of tutorial problems for a conven tional course, while others are quite difficult results. No solutions of the exercises, no proofs of the theorems are included in the first part of the book-this is a Workbook and readers are invited to try their hand at solving the problems and proving the theorems for themselves."

This book is devoted to the development of adequate spatial representations for robot motion planning. Drawing upon advanced heuristic techniques from AI and computational geometry, the authors introduce a general model for spatial representation of physical objects. This model is then applied to two key problems in intelligent robotics: collision detection and motion planning. In addition, the application to actual robot arms is kept always in mind, instead of dealing with simplified models.
This monograph is built upon Angel del Pobil's PhD thesis which was selected as the winner of the 1992 Award of the Spanish Royal Academy of Doctors.

This book presents the main mathematical prerequisites for analysis in metric spaces. It covers abstract measure theory, Hausdorff measures, Lipschitz functions, covering theorums, lower semicontinuity of the one-dimensional Hausdorff measure, Sobolev spaces of maps between metric spaces, and Gromov-Hausdorff theory, all developed ina general metric setting. The existence of geodesics (and more generally of minimal Steiner connections) is discussed on general metric spaces and as an application of the Gromov-Hausdorff theory, even in some cases when the ambient space is not locally compact. A brief and very general description of the theory of integration with respect to non-decreasing set functions is presented following the Di Giorgi method of using the 'cavalieri' formula as the definition of the integral. Based on lecture notes from Scuola Normale, this book presents the main mathematical prerequisites for analysis in metric spaces. Supplemented with exercises of varying difficulty it is ideal for a graduate-level short course for applied mathematicians and engineers.

The aim of this work is the definition of the polyhedral compactification of the Bruhat-Tits building of a reductive group over a local field. In addition, an explicit description of the boundary is given. In order to make this work as self-contained as possible and also accessible to non-experts in Bruhat-Tits theory, the construction of the Bruhat-Tits building itself is given completely.

The book discusses various construction principles for translation planes and spreads from a general and unifying point of view and relates them to the theory of kinematic spaces. The book is intended for people working in the field of incidence geometry and can be read by everyone who knows the basic facts about projective and affine planes.
The methods developed work especially well for topological spreads of real and complex vector spaces. In particular, a complete classification of all semifield spreads of finite dimensional complex vector spaces is obtained.

Singular spaces with upper curvature bounds and, in particular, spaces of nonpositive curvature, have been of interest in many fields, including geometric (and combinatorial) group theory, topology, dynamical systems and probability theory. In the first two chapters of the book, a concise introduction into these spaces is given, culminating in the Hadamard-Cartan theorem and the discussion of the ideal boundary at infinity for simply connected complete spaces of nonpositive curvature. In the third chapter, qualitative properties of the geodesic flow on geodesically complete spaces of nonpositive curvature are discussed, as are random walks on groups of isometries of nonpositively curved spaces. The main class of spaces considered should be precisely complementary to symmetric spaces of higher rank and Euclidean buildings of dimension at least two (Rank Rigidity conjecture). In the smooth case, this is known and is the content of the Rank Rigidity theorem. An updated version of the proof of the latter theorem (in the smooth case) is presented in Chapter IV of the book. This chapter contains also a short introduction into the geometry of the unit tangent bundle of a Riemannian manifold and the basic facts about the geodesic flow. In an appendix by Misha Brin, a self-contained and short proof of the ergodicity of the geodesic flow of a compact Riemannian manifold of negative curvature is given. The proof is elementary and should be accessible to the non-specialist. Some of the essential features and problems of the ergodic theory of smooth dynamical systems are discussed, and the appendix can serve as an introduction into this theory.

This volume is an introduction and a monograph about tight polyhedra. The treatment of the 2-dimensional case is self- contained and fairly elementary. It would be suitable also for undergraduate seminars. Particular emphasis is given to the interplay of various special disciplines, such as geometry, elementary topology, combinatorics and convex polytopes in a way not found in other books. A typical result relates tight submanifolds to combinatorial properties of their convex hulls. The chapters on higher dimensions generalize the 2-dimensional case using concepts from combinatorics and topology, such as combinatorial Morse theory. A number of open problems is discussed.

This is a memorial volume to the distinguished Canadian-born mathematician Hugh Dowker, one of the most highly regarded topologists in the United Kingdom and sometime Professor at Birkbeck College, London. The volume comprises specially written articles on various topological topics by experts in many countries who worked with Dowker at one time or another. These include survey, expository and research articles on general topology, algebraic topology and related subjects such as knot theory and graph theory. The volume will be of great interest to graduate students and professional mathematicians whose speciality is topology, in all its aspects.

Experts from university and industry are presenting new technologies for solving industrial problems and giving many important and practicable impulses for new research. Topics explored include NURBS, product engineering, object oriented modelling, solid modelling, surface interrogation, feature modelling, variational design, scattered data algorithms, geometry processing, blending methods, smoothing and fairing algorithms, spline conversion. This collection of 24 articles gives a state-of-the-art survey of the relevant problems and issues in geometric modelling.

The purpose of this book is to provide an integrated development of modern analysis and topology through the integrating vehicle of uniform spaces. The reader should have taken an advanced calculus course and an introductory topology course. It is intended that a subset of the book could be used for an upper-level undergraduate course whereas much of the full text would be suitable for a one-year graduate class. An attempt has been made to document the history of all the central ideas and references and historical notes are embedded in the text. These can lead the interested reader to the foundational sources where these ideas emerged.

Hodge theory is a standard tool in characterizing differ- ential complexes and the topology of manifolds. This book is a study of the Hodge-Kodaira and related decompositions on manifolds with boundary under mainly analytic aspects. It aims at developing a method for solving boundary value problems. Analysing a Dirichlet form on the exterior algebra bundle allows to give a refined version of the classical decomposition results of Morrey. A projection technique leads to existence and regularity theorems for a wide class of boundary value problems for differential forms and vector fields. The book links aspects of the geometry of manifolds with the theory of partial differential equations. It is intended to be comprehensible for graduate students and mathematicians working in either of these fields.

This book is a study of combinatorial structures of 3-mani- folds, especially Haken 3-manifolds. Specifically, it is concerned with Heegard graphs in Haken 3-manifolds, i.e., with graphs whose complements have a free fundamental group. These graphs always exist. They fix not only a combinatorial stucture but also a presentation for the fundamental group of the underlying 3-manifold. The starting point of the book is the result that the intersection of Heegard graphs with incompressible surfaces, or hierarchies of such surfaces, is very rigid. A number of finiteness results lead up to a ri- gidity theorem for Heegard graphs. The book is intended for graduate students and researchers in low-dimensional topolo- gy as well as combinatorial theory. It is self-contained and requires only a basic knowledge of the theory of 3-manifolds

In keeping with the general aim of the "D.M.V.-Seminar" series, this book is princi pally a report on a group of lectures held at Blaubeuren by Professors H. J. Baues, S. Halperin and J.-M. Lemaire, from October 30 to November 7, 1988. These lec tures were devoted to providing an introduction to the theory of models in algebraic homotopy. The three lecturers acted in concert to produce a coherent exposition of the theory. Commencing from a common starting point, each of them then proceeded naturally to his own subject of research. The reader who is already familiar with their scientific work will certainly give the lecturers their due. Having been asked by the speakers to take on the responsibility of writing down the notes, it seemed to me that the material elucidated in the short span of fifteen hours was too dense to appear, unedited, in book form. Some amplification was necessary. Of course I submitted to them the final version of this book, which received their approval. I thank them for this token of confidence. I am also grateful to all three for their help and advice in writing this book. I am particularly indebted to J.-M. Lemaire who was indeed very often consulted. For basic notions (in particular those concerning homotopy groups, CW complexes, (co)homology and homological algebra) the reader is advised to refer to the fundamental books written by E. H. Spanier [47], R. M. Switzer [49] and G. Whitehead [52].

In presenting this treatment of homological algebra, it is a pleasure to acknowledge the help and encouragement which I have had from all sides. Homological algebra arose from many sources in algebra and topology. Decisive examples came from the study of group extensions and their factor sets, a subject I learned in joint work with OTTO SCHIL LING. A further development of homological ideas, with a view to their topological applications, came in my long collaboration with SAMUEL ElLENBERG; to both collaborators, especial thanks. For many years the Air Force Office of Scientific Research supported my research projects on various subjects now summarized here; it is a pleasure to acknowledge their lively understanding of basic science. Both REINHOLD BAER and JOSEF SCHMID read and commented on my entire manuscript; their advice has led to many improvements. ANDERS KOCK and JACQUES RIGUET have read the entire galley proof and caught many slips and obscurities. Among the others whose sug gestions have served me well, I note FRANK ADAMS, LOUIS AUSLANDER, WILFRED COCKCROFT, ALBRECHT DOLD, GEOFFREY HORROCKS, FRIED RICH KASCH, JOHANN LEICHT, ARUNAS LIULEVICIUS, JOHN MOORE, DIE TER PUPPE, JOSEPH YAO, and a number of my current students at the University of Chicago - not to m ntion the auditors of my lectures at Chicago, Heidelberg, Bonn, Frankfurt, and Aarhus. My wife, DOROTHY, has cheerfully typed more versions of more chapters than she would like to count. Messrs."

This tract has two purposes: to show what is known about the n-dimensional unit cubes and to demonstrate how Analysis, Algebra, Combinatorics, Graph Theory, Hyperbolic Geometry, Number Theory, can be applied to the study of them. The unit cubes, from any point of view, are among the most important and fascinating objects in an n-dimensional Euclidean space. However, our knowledge about them is still quite limited and many basic problems remain unsolved. In this Tract eight topics about the unit cubes are introduced: cross sections, projections, inscribed simplices, triangulations, 0/1 polytopes, Minkowski's conjecture, Furtwangler's conjecture, and Keller's conjecture. In particular the author demonstrates how deep analysis like log concave measure and the Brascamp-Lieb inequality can deal with the cross section problem, how Hyperbolic Geometry helps with the triangulation problem, how group rings can deal with Minkowski's conjecture and Furtwangler's conjecture, and how Graph Theory handles Keller's conjecture.

In recent years new topological methods, especially the theory of sheaves founded by J. LERAY, have been applied successfully to algebraic geometry and to the theory of functions of several complex variables. H. CARTAN and J. -P. SERRE have shown how fundamental theorems on holomorphically complete manifolds (STEIN manifolds) can be for mulated in terms of sheaf theory. These theorems imply many facts of function theory because the domains of holomorphy are holomorphically complete. They can also be applied to algebraic geometry because the complement of a hyperplane section of an algebraic manifold is holo morphically complete. J. -P. SERRE has obtained important results on algebraic manifolds by these and other methods. Recently many of his results have been proved for algebraic varieties defined over a field of arbitrary characteristic. K. KODAIRA and D. C. SPENCER have also applied sheaf theory to algebraic geometry with great success. Their methods differ from those of SERRE in that they use techniques from differential geometry (harmonic integrals etc. ) but do not make any use of the theory of STEIN manifolds. M. F. ATIYAH and W. V. D. HODGE have dealt successfully with problems on integrals of the second kind on algebraic manifolds with the help of sheaf theory. I was able to work together with K. KODAIRA and D. C. SPENCER during a stay at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton from 1952 to 1954."

Springer-Verlag began publishing books in higher mathematics in 1920, when the series "Grundlehren der mathematischen" "Wissenschaften," initially conceived as a series of advanced textbooks, was founded by Richard Courant. A few years later, a new series "Ergebnisse der Mathematik und Ihrer" "Grenzgebiete," survey reports of recent mathematical research, was added.
Of over 400 books published in these series, many have become recognized classics and remain standard references for their subject. Springer is reissueing a selected few of these highly successful books in a new, inexpensive softcover edition to make them easily accessible to younger generations of students and researchers.

Intended for use both as a text and a reference, this book is an exposition of the fundamental ideas of algebraic topology. The first third of the book covers the fundamental group, its definition and its application in the study of covering spaces. The focus then turns to homology theory, including cohomology, cup products, cohomology operations, and topological manifolds. The remaining third of the book is devoted to Homotropy theory, covering basic facts about homotropy groups, applications to obstruction theory, and computations of homotropy groups of spheres. In the later parts, the main emphasis is on the application to geometry of the algebraic tools developed earlier.

Difference spaces arise by taking sums of finite or fractional differences. Linear forms which vanish identically on such a space are invariant in a corresponding sense. The difference spaces of L2 (Rn) are Hilbert spaces whose functions are characterized by the behaviour of their Fourier transforms near, e.g., the origin. One aim is to establish connections between these spaces and differential operators, singular integral operators and wavelets. Another aim is to discuss aspects of these ideas which emphasise invariant linear forms on locally compact groups. The work primarily presents new results, but does so from a clear, accessible and unified viewpoint, which emphasises connections with related work.

This monograph is devoted to computational morphology, particularly to the construction of a two-dimensional or a three-dimensional closed object boundary through a set of points in arbitrary position.
By applying techniques from computational geometry and CAGD, new results are developed in four stages of the construction process: (a) the gamma-neighborhood graph for describing the structure of a set of points; (b) an algorithm for constructing a polygonal or polyhedral boundary (based on (a)); (c) the flintstone scheme as a hierarchy for polygonal and polyhedral approximation and localization; (d) and a Bezier-triangle based scheme for the construction of a smooth piecewise cubic boundary.

Singularity theory is not a field in itself, but rather an application of algebraic geometry, analytic geometry and differential analysis. The adjective 'singular' in the title refers here to singular points of complex-analytic or algebraic varieties or mappings. A tractable (and very natural) class of singularities to study are the isolated complete intersection singularities, and much progress has been made over the past decade in understanding these and their deformations.