Higher category theory is generally regarded as technical and forbidding, but part of it is considerably more tractable: the theory of infinity-categories, higher categories in which all higher morphisms are assumed to be invertible. In "Higher Topos Theory," Jacob Lurie presents the foundations of this theory, using the language of weak Kan complexes introduced by Boardman and Vogt, and shows how existing theorems in algebraic topology can be reformulated and generalized in the theory's new language. The result is a powerful theory with applications in many areas of mathematics.

The book's first five chapters give an exposition of the theory of infinity-categories that emphasizes their role as a generalization of ordinary categories. Many of the fundamental ideas from classical category theory are generalized to the infinity-categorical setting, such as limits and colimits, adjoint functors, ind-objects and pro-objects, locally accessible and presentable categories, Grothendieck fibrations, presheaves, and Yoneda's lemma. A sixth chapter presents an infinity-categorical version of the theory of Grothendieck topoi, introducing the notion of an infinity-topos, an infinity-category that resembles the infinity-category of topological spaces in the sense that it satisfies certain axioms that codify some of the basic principles of algebraic topology. A seventh and final chapter presents applications that illustrate connections between the theory of higher topoi and ideas from classical topology.

Aimed at graduate students, this textbook provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to operator theory. Rather than discuss the subject in the abstract, this textbook covers the subject through twenty examples of a wide variety of operators, discussing the norm, spectrum, commutant, invariant subspaces, and interesting properties of each operator. The text is supplemented by over 600 end-of-chapter exercises, designed to help the reader master the topics covered in the chapter, as well as providing an opportunity to further explore the vast operator theory literature. Each chapter also contains well-researched historical facts which place each chapter within the broader context of the development of the field as a whole.

THE main purpose of writing this monograph is to give a picture of the progress made in recent years in understanding three of the deepest results of Functional Analysis-namely, the open-mapping and closed graph theorems, and the so-called Krein-~mulian theorem. In order to facilitate the reading of this book, some of the important notions and well-known results about topological and vector spaces have been collected in Chapter 1. The proofs of these results are omitted for the reason that they are easily available in any standard book on topology and vector spaces e.g. Bourbaki [2], Keiley [18], or Koethe [22]. The results of Chapter 2 are supposed to be weil known for a study of topological vector spaces as weil. Most of the definitions and notations of Chapter 2 are taken from Bourbaki's books [3] and [4] with some trimming and pruning here and there. Keeping the purpose of this book in mind, the presentation of the material is effected to give a quick resume of the results and the ideas very commonly used in this field, sacrificing the generality of some theorems for which one may consult other books, e.g. [3], [4], and [22]. From Chapter 3 onward, a detailed study of the open-mapping and closed-graph theorems as weil as the Krein-~mulian theorem has been carried out. For the arrangement of the contents of Chapters 3 to 7, see the Historical Notes (Chapter 8).

Intersection theory has played a prominent role in the study of closed symplectic 4-manifolds since Gromov's famous 1985 paper on pseudoholomorphic curves, leading to myriad beautiful rigidity results that are either inaccessible or not true in higher dimensions. Siefring's recent extension of the theory to punctured holomorphic curves allowed similarly important results for contact 3-manifolds and their symplectic fillings. Based on a series of lectures for graduate students in topology, this book begins with an overview of the closed case, and then proceeds to explain the essentials of Siefring's intersection theory and how to use it, and gives some sample applications in low-dimensional symplectic and contact topology. The appendices provide valuable information for researchers, including a concise reference guide on Siefring's theory and a self-contained proof of a weak version of the Micallef-White theorem.

An advanced treatment of surgery theory for graduate students and researchers Surgery theory, a subfield of geometric topology, is the study of the classifications of manifolds. A Course on Surgery Theory offers a modern look at this important mathematical discipline and some of its applications. In this book, Stanley Chang and Shmuel Weinberger explain some of the triumphs of surgery theory during the past three decades, from both an algebraic and geometric point of view. They also provide an extensive treatment of basic ideas, main theorems, active applications, and recent literature. The authors methodically cover all aspects of surgery theory, connecting it to other relevant areas of mathematics, including geometry, homotopy theory, analysis, and algebra. Later chapters are self-contained, so readers can study them directly based on topic interest. Of significant use to high-dimensional topologists and researchers in noncommutative geometry and algebraic K-theory, A Course on Surgery Theory serves as an important resource for the mathematics community.

Geometry provides a whole range of views on the universe, serving as the inspiration, technical toolkit and ultimate goal for many branches of mathematics and physics. This book introduces the ideas of geometry, and includes a generous supply of simple explanations and examples. The treatment emphasises coordinate systems and the coordinate changes that generate symmetries. The discussion moves from Euclidean to non-Euclidean geometries, including spherical and hyperbolic geometry, and then on to affine and projective linear geometries. Group theory is introduced to treat geometric symmetries, leading to the unification of geometry and group theory in the Erlangen program. An introduction to basic topology follows, with the Moebius strip, the Klein bottle and the surface with g handles exemplifying quotient topologies and the homeomorphism problem. Topology combines with group theory to yield the geometry of transformation groups,having applications to relativity theory and quantum mechanics. A final chapter features historical discussions and indications for further reading. With minimal prerequisites, the book provides a first glimpse of many research topics in modern algebra, geometry and theoretical physics. The book is based on many years' teaching experience, and is thoroughly class-tested. There are copious illustrations, and each chapter ends with a wide supply of exercises. Further teaching material is available for teachers via the web, including assignable problem sheets with solutions.

Carl Friedrich Gauss, the "foremost of mathematicians," was a land surveyor. Measuring and calculating geodetic networks on the curved Earth was the inspiration for some of his greatest mathematical discoveries. This is just one example of how mathematics and geodesy, the science and art of measuring and mapping our world, have evolved together throughout history. This text is for students and professionals in geodesy, land surveying, and geospatial science who need to understand the mathematics of describing the Earth and capturing her in maps and geospatial data: the discipline known as mathematical geodesy. Map of the World: An Introduction to Mathematical Geodesy aims to provide an accessible introduction to this area, presenting and developing the mathematics relating to maps, mapping, and the production of geospatial data. Described are the theory and its fundamental concepts, its application for processing, analyzing, transforming, and projecting geospatial data, and how these are used in producing charts and atlases. Also touched upon are the multitude of cross-overs into other sciences sharing in the adventure of discovering what our world really looks like. FEATURES * Written in a fluid and accessible style, replete with exercises; adaptable for courses on different levels. * Suitable for students and professionals in the mapping sciences, but also for lovers of maps and map making.

Over the field of real numbers, analytic geometry has long been in deep interaction with algebraic geometry, bringing the latter subject many of its topological insights. In recent decades, model theory has joined this work through the theory of o-minimality, providing finiteness and uniformity statements and new structural tools. For non-archimedean fields, such as the p-adics, the Berkovich analytification provides a connected topology with many thoroughgoing analogies to the real topology on the set of complex points, and it has become an important tool in algebraic dynamics and many other areas of geometry. This book lays down model-theoretic foundations for non-archimedean geometry. The methods combine o-minimality and stability theory. Definable types play a central role, serving first to define the notion of a point and then properties such as definable compactness. Beyond the foundations, the main theorem constructs a deformation retraction from the full non-archimedean space of an algebraic variety to a rational polytope. This generalizes previous results of V. Berkovich, who used resolution of singularities methods. No previous knowledge of non-archimedean geometry is assumed. Model-theoretic prerequisites are reviewed in the first sections.

Differential geometry and topology have become essential tools for many theoretical physicists. In particular, they are indispensable in theoretical studies of condensed matter physics, gravity, and particle physics. Geometry, Topology and Physics, Second Edition introduces the ideas and techniques of differential geometry and topology at a level suitable for postgraduate students and researchers in these fields. The second edition of this popular and established text incorporates a number of changes designed to meet the needs of the reader and reflect the development of the subject. The book features a considerably expanded first chapter, reviewing aspects of path integral quantization and gauge theories. Chapter 2 introduces the mathematical concepts of maps, vector spaces, and topology. The following chapters focus on more elaborate concepts in geometry and topology and discuss the application of these concepts to liquid crystals, superfluid helium, general relativity, and bosonic string theory. Later chapters unify geometry and topology, exploring fiber bundles, characteristic classes, and index theorems. New to this second edition is the proof of the index theorem in terms of supersymmetric quantum mechanics. The final two chapters are devoted to the most fascinating applications of geometry and topology in contemporary physics, namely the study of anomalies in gauge field theories and the analysis of Polakov's bosonic string theory from the geometrical point of view. Geometry, Topology and Physics, Second Edition is an ideal introduction to differential geometry and topology for postgraduate students and researchers in theoretical and mathematical physics.

A user-friendly introduction to metric and topological groups

"Topological Groups: An Introduction" provides a self-contained presentation with an emphasis on important families of topological groups. The book uniquely provides a modern and balanced presentation by using metric groups to present a substantive introduction to topics such as duality, while also shedding light on more general results for topological groups.

Filling the need for a broad and accessible introduction to the subject, the book begins with coverage of groups, metric spaces, and topological spaces before introducing topological groups. Since linear spaces, algebras, norms, and determinants are necessary tools for studying topological groups, their basic properties are developed in subsequent chapters. For concreteness, product topologies, quotient topologies, and compact-open topologies are first introduced as metric spaces before their open sets are characterized by topological properties. These metrics, along with invariant metrics, act as excellent stepping stones to the subsequent discussions of the following topics:

Matrix groups

Connectednesss of topological groups

Compact groups

Character groups

Exercises found throughout the book are designed so both novice and advanced readers will be able to work out solutions and move forward at their desired pace. All chapters include a variety of calculations, remarks, and elementary results, which are incorporated into the various examples and exercises.

"Topological Groups: An Introduction" is an excellent book for advanced undergraduate and graduate-level courses on the topic. The book also serves as a valuable resource for professionals working in the fields of mathematics, science, engineering, and physics.

An Illustrated Introduction to Topology and Homotopy explores the beauty of topology and homotopy theory in a direct and engaging manner while illustrating the power of the theory through many, often surprising, applications. This self-contained book takes a visual and rigorous approach that incorporates both extensive illustrations and full proofs.

The first part of the text covers basic topology, ranging from metric spaces and the axioms of topology through subspaces, product spaces, connectedness, compactness, and separation axioms to Urysohn s lemma, Tietze s theorems, and Stone- ech compactification. Focusing on homotopy, the second part starts with the notions of ambient isotopy, homotopy, and the fundamental group. The book then covers basic combinatorial group theory, the Seifert-van Kampen theorem, knots, and low-dimensional manifolds. The last three chapters discuss the theory of covering spaces, the Borsuk-Ulam theorem, and applications in group theory, including various subgroup theorems.

Requiring only some familiarity with group theory, the text includes a large number of figures as well as various examples that show how the theory can be applied. Each section starts with brief historical notes that trace the growth of the subject and ends with a set of exercises. "

Progress in low-dimensional topology has been very quick in the last three decades, leading to the solutions of many difficult problems. Among the earlier highlights of this period was Casson's -invariant that was instrumental in proving the vanishing of the Rohlin invariant of homotopy 3-spheres. The proof of the three-dimensional Poincare conjecture has rendered this application moot but hardly made Casson's contribution less relevant: in fact, a lot of modern day topology, including a multitude of Floer homology theories, can be traced back to his -invariant. The principal goal of this book, now in its second revised edition, remains providing an introduction to the low-dimensional topology and Casson's theory; it also reaches out, when appropriate, to more recent research topics. The book covers some classical material, such as Heegaard splittings, Dehn surgery, and invariants of knots and links. It then proceeds through the Kirby calculus and Rohlin's theorem to Casson's invariant and its applications, and concludes with a brief overview of recent developments. The book will be accessible to graduate students in mathematics and theoretical physics familiar with some elementary algebraic and differential topology, including the fundamental group, basic homology theory, transversality, and Poincare duality on manifolds.

Following on from the success of Fractal Geometry: Mathematical Foundations and Applications, this new sequel presents a variety of techniques in current use for studying the mathematics of fractals. Much of the material presented in this book has come to the fore in recent years. This includes methods for studying dimensions and other parameters of fractal sets and measures, as well as more sophisticated techniques such as the thermodynamic formalism and tangent measures. In addition to general theory, many examples and applications are described, in areas such as differential equations and harmonic analysis. The book is mathematically precise, but aims to give an intuitive feel for the subject, with underlying concepts described in a clear and accessible manner. The reader is assumed to be familiar with material from Fractal Geometry, but the main ideas and notation are reviewed in the first two chapters. Each chapter ends with brief notes on the development and current state of the subject. Exercises are included to reinforce the concepts. The author’s clear style and the up-to-date coverage of the subject make this book essential reading for all those who wish to develop their understanding of fractal geometry. Also available: Fractal Geometry: Mathematical Foundations and Applications Hardback ISBN 0-471-92287-0 Paperback ISBN 0-471-96777-7

This book gives a clear introductory account of equivariant cohomology, a central topic in algebraic topology. Equivariant cohomology is concerned with the algebraic topology of spaces with a group action, or in other words, with symmetries of spaces. First defined in the 1950s, it has been introduced into K-theory and algebraic geometry, but it is in algebraic topology that the concepts are the most transparent and the proofs are the simplest. One of the most useful applications of equivariant cohomology is the equivariant localization theorem of Atiyah-Bott and Berline-Vergne, which converts the integral of an equivariant differential form into a finite sum over the fixed point set of the group action, providing a powerful tool for computing integrals over a manifold. Because integrals and symmetries are ubiquitous, equivariant cohomology has found applications in diverse areas of mathematics and physics. Assuming readers have taken one semester of manifold theory and a year of algebraic topology, Loring Tu begins with the topological construction of equivariant cohomology, then develops the theory for smooth manifolds with the aid of differential forms. To keep the exposition simple, the equivariant localization theorem is proven only for a circle action. An appendix gives a proof of the equivariant de Rham theorem, demonstrating that equivariant cohomology can be computed using equivariant differential forms. Examples and calculations illustrate new concepts. Exercises include hints or solutions, making this book suitable for self-study.

Due to the strong appeal and wide use of this monograph, it is now available in its third revised edition. The monograph gives a systematic treatment of 3-dimensional topological quantum field theories (TQFTs) based on the work of the author with N. Reshetikhin and O. Viro. This subject was inspired by the discovery of the Jones polynomial of knots and the Witten-Chern-Simons field theory. On the algebraic side, the study of 3-dimensional TQFTs has been influenced by the theory of braided categories and the theory of quantum groups. The book is divided into three parts. Part I presents a construction of 3-dimensional TQFTs and 2-dimensional modular functors from so-called modular categories. This gives a vast class of knot invariants and 3-manifold invariants as well as a class of linear representations of the mapping class groups of surfaces. In Part II the technique of 6j-symbols is used to define state sum invariants of 3-manifolds. Their relation to the TQFTs constructed in Part I is established via the theory of shadows. Part III provides constructions of modular categories, based on quantum groups and skein modules of tangles in the 3-space. This fundamental contribution to topological quantum field theory is accessible to graduate students in mathematics and physics with knowledge of basic algebra and topology. It is an indispensable source for everyone who wishes to enter the forefront of this fascinating area at the borderline of mathematics and physics. Contents: Invariants of graphs in Euclidean 3-space and of closed 3-manifolds Foundations of topological quantum field theory Three-dimensional topological quantum field theory Two-dimensional modular functors 6j-symbols Simplicial state sums on 3-manifolds Shadows of manifolds and state sums on shadows Constructions of modular categories

This book examines and explores Jacques Lacan's controversial topologisation of psychoanalysis, and seeks to persuade the reader that this enterprise was necessary and important. In providing both an introduction to a fundamental component of Lacan's theories, as well as readings of texts that have been largely ignored, it provides a thorough critical interpretation of his work. Will Greenshields argues that Lacan achieved his most pedagogically clear and successful presentations of his most essential and notoriously complex concepts - such as structure, the subject and the real - through the deployment of topology. The book will help readers to better understand Lacan, and also those concepts that have become prevalent in various intellectual discourses such as contemporary continental philosophy, politics and the study of ideology, and literary or cultural criticism.

Now more that a quarter of a century old, intersection homology theory has proven to be a powerful tool in the study of the topology of singular spaces, with deep links to many other areas of mathematics, including combinatorics, differential equations, group representations, and number theory. Like its predecessor, An Introduction to Intersection Homology Theory, Second Edition introduces the power and beauty of intersection homology, explaining the main ideas and omitting, or merely sketching, the difficult proofs. It treats both the basics of the subject and a wide range of applications, providing lucid overviews of highly technical areas that make the subject accessible and prepare readers for more advanced work in the area. This second edition contains entirely new chapters introducing the theory of Witt spaces, perverse sheaves, and the combinatorial intersection cohomology of fans. Intersection homology is a large and growing subject that touches on many aspects of topology, geometry, and algebra. With its clear explanations of the main ideas, this book builds the confidence needed to tackle more specialist, technical texts and provides a framework within which to place them.

Subanalytic and semialgebraic sets were introduced for topological and systematic investigations of real analytic and algebraic sets. One of the author's purposes is to show that almost all (known and unknown) properties of subanalytic and semialgebraic sets follow abstractly from some fundamental axioms. Another is to develop methods of proof that use finite processes instead of integration of vector fields. The proofs are elementary, but the results obtained are new and significant - for example, for singularity theorists and topologists. Further, the new methods and tools developed provide solid foundations for further research by model theorists (logicians) who are interested in applications of model theory to geometry. A knowledge of basic topology is required.

In the middle of the last century, after hearing a talk of Mostow on one of his rigidity theorems, Borel conjectured in a letter to Serre a purely topological version of rigidity for aspherical manifolds (i.e. manifolds with contractible universal covers). The Borel conjecture is now one of the central problems of topology with many implications for manifolds that need not be aspherical. Since then, the theory of rigidity has vastly expanded in both precision and scope. This book rethinks the implications of accepting his heuristic as a source of ideas. Doing so leads to many variants of the original conjecture - some true, some false, and some that remain conjectural. The author explores this collection of ideas, following them where they lead whether into rigidity theory in its differential geometric and representation theoretic forms, or geometric group theory, metric geometry, global analysis, algebraic geometry, K-theory, or controlled topology.