Like any books on a subject as vast as this, this book has to have a point-of-view to guide the selection of topics. Naber takes the view that the rekindled interest that mathematics and physics have shown in each other of late should be fostered, and that this is best accomplished by allowing them to cohabit. The book weaves together rudimentary notions from the classical gauge theory of physics with the topological and geometrical concepts that became the mathematical models of these notions. The reader is asked to join the author on some vague notion of what an electromagnetic field might be, to be willing to accept a few of the more elementary pronouncements of quantum mechanics, and to have a solid background in real analysis and linear algebra and some of the vocabulary of modern algebra. In return, the book offers an excursion that begins with the definition of a topological space and finds its way eventually to the moduli space of anti-self-dual SU(2) connections on S4 with instanton number -1.

This text brings the reader to the frontiers of current research in topological rings. The exercises illustrate many results and theorems while a comprehensive bibliography is also included.

The book is aimed at those readers acquainted with some very basic point-set topology and algebra, as normally presented in semester courses at the beginning graduate level or even at the advanced undergraduate level. Familiarity with Hausdorff, metric, compact and locally compact spaces and basic properties of continuous functions, also with groups, rings, fields, vector spaces and modules, and with Zorn's Lemma, is also expected.

The aim of this monograph is to give a unified account fo the classical topics in fixed point theory that lie on the border-line of topology and non-linear functional analysis, emphasizing the topological developments related to the Leray-Schauder theory. The first part of this book is based on "Fixed Point Theory I" which was published by PWN, Warsaw in 1982. The second part follows the outline conceived by Andrzej Granas and the late James Dugunji. The completionof this work has been awaited for many years by researchers in this area. "If the authors do equally well with the second volume they will have produced the best monograph in this particular field."Math Reviews

This marvelous book of pictures illustrates the fundamental concepts of geometric topology in a way that is very friendly to the reader. The first chapter discusses the meaning of surface and space and gives the classification of orientable surfaces. In the second chapter we are introduced to the Moebius band and surfaces that can be constructed from this non-orientable piece of fabric. In chapter 3, we see how curves can fit in surfaces and how surfaces can fit into spaces with these curves on their boundary. Basic applications to knot theory are discussed and four-dimensional space is introduced.In Chapter 4 we learn about some 3-dimensional spaces and surfaces that sit inside them. These surfaces help us imagine the structures of the larger space.Chapter 5 is completely new! It contains recent results of Cromwell, Izumiya and Marar. One of these results is a formula relating the rank of a surface to the number of triple points. The other major result is a collection of examples of surfaces in 3-space that have one triple point and 6 branch points. These are beautiful generalizations of the Steiner Roman surface.Chapter 6 reviews the movie technique for examining surfaces in 4-dimensional space. Various movies of the Klein bottle are presented, and the Carter-Saito movie move theorem is explained. The author shows us how to turn the 2-sphere inside out by means of these movie moves and this illustration alone is well worth the price of the book!In the last chapter higher dimensional spaces are examined from an elementary point of view.This is a guide book to a wide variety of topics. It will be of value to anyone who wants to understand the subject by way of examples. Undergraduates, beginning graduate students, and non-professionals will profit from reading the book and from just looking at the pictures.

This volume is the first comprehensive treatment of combinatorial algebraic topology in book form. The first part of the book constitutes a swift walk through the main tools of algebraic topology. Readers - graduate students and working mathematicians alike - will probably find particularly useful the second part, which contains an in-depth discussion of the major research techniques of combinatorial algebraic topology. Although applications are sprinkled throughout the second part, they are principal focus of the third part, which is entirely devoted to developing the topological structure theory for graph homomorphisms.

A new combinatorial foundation of the two concepts, based on a consideration of deep and classical results of homotopy theory, and an axiomatic characterization of the assumptions under which results in this field hold. Includes numerous explicit examples and applications in various fields of topology and algebra.

Thisseries is devoted to the publication of monographs, lecture resp. seminar notes, and other materials arising from programs of the OSU Mathemaical Research Institute. This includes proceedings of conferences or workshops held at the Institute, and other mathematical writings.

This monograph deals with products of Dedekind's eta function, with Hecke theta series on quadratic number fields, and with Eisenstein series. The author brings to the public the large number of identities that have been discovered over the past 20 years, the majority of which have not been published elsewhere. The book will be of interest to graduate students and scholars in the field of number theory and, in particular, modular forms. It is not an introductory text in this field. Nevertheless, some theoretical background material is presented that is important for understanding the examples in Part II of the book. In Part I relevant definitions and essential theorems -- such as a complete proof of the structure theorems for coprime residue class groups in quadratic number fields that are not easily accessible in the literature -- are provided. Another example is a thorough description of an algorithm for listing all eta products of given weight and level, together with proofs of some results on the bijection between these eta products and lattice simplices.

The central theme of this book is the study of self-dual connections on four-manifolds. The author's aim is to present a lucid introduction to moduli space techniques (for vector bundles with SO (3) as structure group) and to apply them to four-manifolds. The authors have adopted a topologists' perspective. For example, they have included some explicit calculations using the Atiyah-Singer index theorem as well as methods from equivariant topology in the study of the topology of the moduli space. Results covered include Donaldson's Theorem that the only positive definite form which occurs as an intersection form of a smooth four-manifold is the standard positive definite form, as well as those of Fintushel and Stern which show that the integral homology cobordism group of integral homology three-spheres has elements of infinite order. Little previous knowledge of differential geometry is assumed and so postgraduate students and research workers will find this both an accessible and complete introduction to currently one of the most active areas of mathematical research.

The main purpose of the present volume is to give a survey of some of the most significant achievements obtained by topological methods in nonlin ear analysis during the last three decades. It is intended, at least partly, as a continuation of Topological Nonlinear Analysis: Degree, Singularity and Varia tions, published in 1995. The survey articles presented are concerned with three main streams of research, that is topological degree, singularity theory and variational methods, They reflect the personal taste of the authors, all of them well known and distinguished specialists. A common feature of these articles is to start with a historical introduction and conclude with recent results, giving a dynamic picture of the state of the art on these topics. Let us mention the fact that most of the materials in this book were pre sented by the authors at the "Second Topological Analysis Workshop on Degree, Singularity and Variations: Developments of the Last 25 Years," held in June 1995 at Villa Tuscolana, Frascati, near Rome. Michele Matzeu Alfonso Vignoli Editors Topological Nonlinear Analysis II Degree, Singularity and Variations Classical Solutions for a Perturbed N-Body System Gianfausto Dell 'A ntonio O. Introduction In this review I shall consider the perturbed N-body system, i.e., a system composed of N point bodies of masses ml, ... mN, described in cartesian co ordinates by the system of equations (0.1) where f) V'k, m == - l--' m = 1, 2, 3."

Many nonlinear problems in physics, engineering, biology and social sciences can be reduced to finding critical points of functionals. While minimax and Morse theories provide answers to many situations and problems on the existence of multiple critical points of a functional, they often cannot provide much-needed additional properties of these critical points. Sign-changing critical point theory has emerged as a new area of rich research on critical points of a differentiable functional with important applications to nonlinear elliptic PDEs.

This book is intended for advanced graduate students and researchers involved in sign-changing critical point theory, PDEs, global analysis, and nonlinear functional analysis.

In this second edition, the following recent papers have been added: "Gauss Codes, Quantum Groups and Ribbon Hopf Algebras", "Spin Networks, Topology and Discrete Physics", "Link Polynomials and a Graphical Calculus" and "Knots Tangles and Electrical Networks". An appendix with a discussion on invariants of embedded graphs and Vassiliev invariants has also been included.This book is an introduction to knot and link invariants as generalized amplitudes (vacuum-vacuum amplitudes) for a quasi-physical process. The demands of knot theory, coupled with a quantum statistical framework, create a context that naturally and powerfully includes an extraordinary range of interrelated topics in topology and mathematical physics. The author takes a primarily combinatorial stance toward knot theory and its relations with these subjects. This has the advantage of providing very direct access to the algebra and to the combinatorial topology, as well as the physical ideas. This book is divided into 2 parts: Part I of the book is a systematic course in knots and physics starting from the ground up. Part II is a set of lectures on various topics related to and sometimes based on Part I. Part II also explores some side-topics such as frictional properties of knots, relations with combinatorics and knots in dynamical systems.

In this second edition, the following recent papers have been added: "Gauss Codes, Quantum Groups and Ribbon Hopf Algebras", "Spin Networks, Topology and Discrete Physics", "Link Polynomials and a Graphical Calculus" and "Knots Tangles and Electrical Networks". An appendix with a discussion on invariants of embedded graphs and Vassiliev invariants has also been included.This book is an introduction to knot and link invariants as generalized amplitudes (vacuum-vacuum amplitudes) for a quasi-physical process. The demands of knot theory, coupled with a quantum statistical framework, create a context that naturally and powerfully includes an extraordinary range of interrelated topics in topology and mathematical physics. The author takes a primarily combinatorial stance toward knot theory and its relations with these subjects. This has the advantage of providing very direct access to the algebra and to the combinatorial topology, as well as the physical ideas. This book is divided into 2 parts: Part I of the book is a systematic course in knots and physics starting from the ground up. Part II is a set of lectures on various topics related to and sometimes based on Part I. Part II also explores some side-topics such as frictional properties of knots, relations with combinatorics and knots in dynamical systems.

This monograph gives a systematic presentation of classical and recent results obtained in the last couple of years. It comprehensively describes the methods concerning the topological structure of fixed point sets and solution sets for differential equations and inclusions. Many of the basic techniques and results recently developed about this theory are presented, as well as the literature that is disseminated and scattered in several papers of pioneering researchers who developed the functional analytic framework of this field over the past few decades. Several examples of applications relating to initial and boundary value problems are discussed in detail. The book is intended to advanced graduate researchers and instructors active in research areas with interests in topological properties of fixed point mappings and applications; it also aims to provide students with the necessary understanding of the subject with no deep background material needed. This monograph fills the vacuum in the literature regarding the topological structure of fixed point sets and its applications.

This book constitutes a review volume on the relatively new subject of Quantum Topology. Quantum Topology has its inception in the 1984/1985 discoveries of new invariants of knots and links (Jones, Homfly and Kauffman polynomials). These invariants were rapidly connected with quantum groups and methods in statistical mechanics. This was followed by Edward Witten's introduction of methods of quantum field theory into the subject and the formulation by Witten and Michael Atiyah of the concept of topological quantum field theories.This book is a review volume of on-going research activity. The papers derive from talks given at the Special Session on Knot and Topological Quantum Field Theory of the American Mathematical Society held at Dayton, Ohio in the fall of 1992. The book consists of a self-contained article by Kauffman, entitled Introduction to Quantum Topology and eighteen research articles by participants in the special session.This book should provide a useful source of ideas and results for anyone interested in the interface between topology and quantum field theory.

This book constitutes a review volume on the relatively new subject of Quantum Topology. Quantum Topology has its inception in the 1984/1985 discoveries of new invariants of knots and links (Jones, Homfly and Kauffman polynomials). These invariants were rapidly connected with quantum groups and methods in statistical mechanics. This was followed by Edward Witten's introduction of methods of quantum field theory into the subject and the formulation by Witten and Michael Atiyah of the concept of topological quantum field theories.This book is a review volume of on-going research activity. The papers derive from talks given at the Special Session on Knot and Topological Quantum Field Theory of the American Mathematical Society held at Dayton, Ohio in the fall of 1992. The book consists of a self-contained article by Kauffman, entitled Introduction to Quantum Topology and eighteen research articles by participants in the special session.This book should provide a useful source of ideas and results for anyone interested in the interface between topology and quantum field theory.

Considering integral transformations of Volterra type, F. Riesz and B. Sz.-Nagy no ticed in 1952 that [49]: "The existence of such a variety of linear transformations, having the same spectrum concentrated at a single point, brings out the difficulties of characterization of linear transformations of general type by means of their spectra." Subsequently, spectral analysis has been developed for different classes of non selfadjoint operators [6,7,14,20,21,36,44,46,54]. It was then realized that this analysis forms a natural basis for the theory of systems interacting with the environment. The success of this theory in the single operator case inspired attempts to create a general theory in the much more complicated case of several commuting operators with finite-dimensional imaginary parts. During the past 10-15 years such a theory has been developed, yielding fruitful connections with algebraic geometry and sys tem theory. Our purpose in this book is to formulate the basic problems appearing in this theory and to present its main results. It is worth noting that, in addition to the joint spectrum, the corresponding algebraic variety and its global topological characteristics play an important role in the classification of commuting operators. For the case of a pair of operators these are: 1. The corresponding algebraic curve, and especially its genus. 2. Certain classes of divisors - or certain line bundles - on this curve.

This book contains contributions from a workshop on topology and geometry of polymers, held at the IMA in June 1996, which brought together topologists, combinatorialists, theoretical physicists and polymer scientists, with a common interest in polymer topology. Polymers can be highly self-entangled even in dilute solution. In the melt the inter- and intra-chain entanglements can dominate the rheological properties of these phenomena. Although the possibility of knotting in ring polymers has been recognized for more than thirty years it is only recently that the powerful methods of algebraic topology have been used in treating models of polymers. This book contains a series of chapters which review the current state of the field and give an up to date account of what is known and perhaps more importantly, what is still unknown. The field abounds with open problems. The book is of interest to workers in polymer statistical mechanics but will also be useful as an introduction to topological methods for polymer scientists, and will introduce mathematicians to an area of science where topological approaches are making a substantial contribution.

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 deals with asymptotic solutions of linear and nonlinear equa- tions which decay as h ---+ 0 outside a neighborhood of certain points, curves and surfaces. Such solutions are almost everywhere well approximated by the functions cp(x) exp{iS(x)/h}, x E 1R3, where S(x) is complex, and ImS(x) ~ o. When the phase S(x) is real (ImS(x) = 0), the method for obtaining asymp- totics of this type is known in quantum mechanics as the WKB-method. We preserve this terminology in the case ImS(x) ~ 0 and develop the method for a wide class of problems in mathematical physics. Asymptotics of this type were constructed recently for many linear prob- lems of mathematical physics; certain specific formulas were obtained by differ- ent methods (V. M. Babich [5 -7], V. P. Lazutkin [76], A. A. Sokolov, 1. M. Ter- nov [113], J. Schwinger [107, 108], E. J. Heller [53], G. A. Hagedorn [50, 51], V. N. Bayer, V. M. Katkov [21], N. A. Chernikov [35] and others). However, a general (Hamiltonian) formalism for obtaining asymptotics of this type is clearly required; this state of affairs is expressed both in recent mathematical and physical literature. For example, the editors of the collected volume [106] write in its preface: "One can hope that in the near future a computational pro- cedure for fields with complex phase, similar to the usual one for fields with real phase, will be developed.

The theory of real-valued Sobolev functions is a classical part of analysis and has a wide range of applications in pure and applied mathematics. By contrast, the study of manifold-valued Sobolev maps is relatively new. The incentive to explore these spaces arose in the last forty years from geometry and physics. This monograph is the first to provide a unified, comprehensive treatment of Sobolev maps to the circle, presenting numerous results obtained by the authors and others. Many surprising connections to other areas of mathematics are explored, including the Monge-Kantorovich theory in optimal transport, items in geometric measure theory, Fourier series, and non-local functionals occurring, for example, as denoising filters in image processing. Numerous digressions provide a glimpse of the theory of sphere-valued Sobolev maps. Each chapter focuses on a single topic and starts with a detailed overview, followed by the most significant results, and rather complete proofs. The "Complements and Open Problems" sections provide short introductions to various subsequent developments or related topics, and suggest newdirections of research. Historical perspectives and a comprehensive list of references close out each chapter. Topics covered include lifting, point and line singularities, minimal connections and minimal surfaces, uniqueness spaces, factorization, density, Dirichlet problems, trace theory, and gap phenomena. Sobolev Maps to the Circle will appeal to mathematicians working in various areas, such as nonlinear analysis, PDEs, geometric analysis, minimal surfaces, optimal transport, and topology. It will also be of interest to physicists working on liquid crystals and the Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductors.

This book is dedicated to the theory of continuous selections of multi valued mappings, a classical area of mathematics (as far as the formulation of its fundamental problems and methods of solutions are concerned) as well as 'J-n area which has been intensively developing in recent decades and has found various applications in general topology, theory of absolute retracts and infinite-dimensional manifolds, geometric topology, fixed-point theory, functional and convex analysis, game theory, mathematical economics, and other branches of modern mathematics. The fundamental results in this the ory were laid down in the mid 1950's by E. Michael. The book consists of (relatively independent) three parts - Part A: Theory, Part B: Results, and Part C: Applications. (We shall refer to these parts simply by their names). The target audience for the first part are students of mathematics (in their senior year or in their first year of graduate school) who wish to get familiar with the foundations of this theory. The goal of the second part is to give a comprehensive survey of the existing results on continuous selections of multivalued mappings. It is intended for specialists in this area as well as for those who have mastered the material of the first part of the book. In the third part we present important examples of applications of continuous selections. We have chosen examples which are sufficiently interesting and have played in some sense key role in the corresponding areas of mathematics."

A clear exposition, with exercises, of the basic ideas of algebraic topology. Suitable for a two-semester course at the beginning graduate level, it assumes a knowledge of point set topology and basic algebra. Although categories and functors are introduced early in the text, excessive generality is avoided, and the author explains the geometric or analytic origins of abstract concepts as they are introduced.

This volume mainly focuses on various comprehensive topological theories, with the exception of a paper on combinatorial topology versus point-set topology by I.M. James and a paper on the history of the normal Moore space problem by P. Nyikos. The history of the following theories is given: pointfree topology, locale and frame theory (P. Johnstone), non-symmetric distances in topology (H.-P. KA1/4nzi), categorical topology and topological constructs (E. Lowen-Colebunders and B. Lowen), topological groups (M. G. Tkacenko) and finally shape theory (S. Mardesic and J. Segal). Together with the first two volumes, this work focuses on the history of topology, in all its aspects. It is unique and presents important views and insights into the problems and development of topological theories and applications of topological concepts, and into the life and work of topologists. As such, it will encourage not only further study in the history of the subject, but also further mathematical research in the field. It is an invaluable tool for topology researchers and topology teachers throughout the mathematical world.