The aim of this book is to give as detailed a description as is possible of one of the most beautiful and complicated examples in low-dimensional topology. This example is a gateway to a new idea of higher dimensional algebra in which diagrams replace algebraic expressions and relationships between diagrams represent algebraic relations. The reader may examine the changes in the illustrations in a leisurely fashion; or with scrutiny, the reader will become familiar and develop a facility for these diagrammatic computations.The text describes the essential topological ideas through metaphors that are experienced in everyday life: shadows, the human form, the intersections between walls, and the creases in a shirt or a pair of trousers. Mathematically informed reader will benefit from the informal introduction of ideas. This volume will also appeal to scientifically literate individuals who appreciate mathematical beauty.

Absolute measurable space and absolute null space are very old topological notions, developed from well-known facts of descriptive set theory, topology, Borel measure theory and analysis. This monograph systematically develops and returns to the topological and geometrical origins of these notions. Motivating the development of the exposition are the action of the group of homeomorphisms of a space on Borel measures, the Oxtoby-Ulam theorem on Lebesgue-like measures on the unit cube, and the extensions of this theorem to many other topological spaces. Existence of uncountable absolute null space, extension of the Purves theorem and recent advances on homeomorphic Borel probability measures on the Cantor space, are among the many topics discussed. A brief discussion of set-theoretic results on absolute null space is given, and a four-part appendix aids the reader with topological dimension theory, Hausdorff measure and Hausdorff dimension, and geometric measure theory.

This monograph presents an approachable proof of Mirzakhani's curve counting theorem, both for simple and non-simple curves. Designed to welcome readers to the area, the presentation builds intuition with elementary examples before progressing to rigorous proofs. This approach illuminates new and established results alike, and produces versatile tools for studying the geometry of hyperbolic surfaces, Teichmuller theory, and mapping class groups. Beginning with the preliminaries of curves and arcs on surfaces, the authors go on to present the theory of geodesic currents in detail. Highlights include a treatment of cusped surfaces and surfaces with boundary, along with a comprehensive discussion of the action of the mapping class group on the space of geodesic currents. A user-friendly account of train tracks follows, providing the foundation for radallas, an immersed variation. From here, the authors apply these tools to great effect, offering simplified proofs of existing results and a new, more general proof of Mirzakhani's curve counting theorem. Further applications include counting square-tiled surfaces and mapping class group orbits, and investigating random geometric structures. Mirzakhani's Curve Counting and Geodesic Currents introduces readers to powerful counting techniques for the study of surfaces. Ideal for graduate students and researchers new to the area, the pedagogical approach, conversational style, and illuminating illustrations bring this exciting field to life. Exercises offer opportunities to engage with the material throughout. Basic familiarity with 2-dimensional topology and hyperbolic geometry, measured laminations, and the mapping class group is assumed.

Based on a series of graduate lectures given by Vladimir Markovic at the University of Warwick in spring 2003, this book is accessible to those with a grounding in complex analysis looking for an introduction to the theory of quasiconformal maps and Teichm ller theory. Assuming some familiarity with Riemann surfaces and hyperbolic geometry, topics covered include the Gr tzch argument, analytical properties of quasiconformal maps, the Beltrami differential equation, holomorphic motions and Teichm ller spaces. Where proofs are omitted, references to where they may be found are always given, and the text is clearly illustrated throughout with diagrams, examples, and exercises for the reader.

Although topology was recognized by Gauss and Maxwell to play a pivotal role in the formulation of electromagnetic boundary value problems, it is a largely unexploited tool for field computation. The development of algebraic topology since Maxwell provides a framework for linking data structures, algorithms, and computation to topological aspects of three-dimensional electromagnetic boundary value problems. This book attempts to expose the link between Maxwell and a modern approach to algorithms. The first chapters lay out the relevant facts about homology and cohomology, stressing their interpretations in electromagnetism. These topological structures are subsequently tied to variational formulations in electromagnetics, the finite element method, algorithms, and certain aspects of numerical linear algebra. A recurring theme is the formulation of and algorithms for the problem of making branch cuts for computing magnetic scalar potentials and eddy currents. Appendices bridge the gap between the material presented and standard expositions of differential forms, Hodge decompositions, and tools for realizing representatives of homology classes as embedded manifolds.

Mathematical models have long been used by geographers and regional scientists to explore the working of urban and regional systems, via a system where the equilibrium point changes slowly and smoothly as the parameters change slowly and smoothly. However, this all changed with the advent of catastrophe theory and bifurcation, which enabled the development of models where a quite sudden change in the position of the equilibrium point results from a slow, small, smooth change in one or more parameters. First published in 1981, this reissue of Professor Wilson's classic study outlines the implications of these mathematical models for geography and regional science, by way of a survey of contemporary applications.

This text serves as a pedagogical introduction to the theoretical concepts on application of topology in condensed matter systems. It covers an introduction to basic concepts of topology, emphasizes the relation of geometric concepts such as the Berry phase to topology, having in mind applications in condensed matter. In addition to describing two basic systems such as topological insulators and topological superconductors, it also reviews topological spin systems and photonic systems. It also describes the use of quantum information concepts in the context of topological phases and phase transitions, and the effect of non-equilibrium perturbations on topological systems.This book provides a comprehensive introduction to topological insulators, topological superconductors and topological semimetals. It includes all the mathematical background required for the subject. There are very few books with such a coverage in the market.

This book gives the reader a thorough knowledge of the basic topological ideas necessary for studying differential manifolds. These topics include immersions and imbeddings, approach techniques, and the Morse classification of surfaces and their cobordism. The author keeps the mathematical prerequisites to a minimum; this and the emphasis on the geometric and intuitive aspects of the subject make the book an excellent and useful introduction for the student. There are numerous excercises on many different levels ranging from practical applications of the theorems to significant further development of the theory and including some open research problems.

Finite arrangements of convex bodies were intensively investigated in the second half of the twentieth century. Connections to many other subjects were made, including crystallography, the local theory of Banach spaces, and combinatorial optimisation. This book, the first one dedicated solely to the subject, provides an in-depth state-of-the-art discussion of the theory of finite packings and coverings by convex bodies. It contains various new results and arguments, besides collecting those scattered around in the literature, and provides a comprehensive treatment of problems whose interplay was not clearly understood before. In order to make the material more accessible, each chapter is essentially independent, and two-dimensional and higher-dimensional arrangements are discussed separately. Arrangements of congruent convex bodies in Euclidean space are discussed, and the density of finite packing and covering by balls in Euclidean, spherical and hyperbolic spaces is considered.

Mathematical models have long been used by geographers and regional scientists to explore the working of urban and regional systems, via a system where the equilibrium point changes slowly and smoothly as the parameters change slowly and smoothly. However, this all changed with the advent of catastrophe theory and bifurcation, which enabled the development of models where a quite sudden change in the position of the equilibrium point results from a slow, small, smooth change in one or more parameters.

First published in 1981, this reissue of Professor Wilson 's classic study outlines the implications of these mathematical models for geography and regional science, by way of a survey of contemporary applications.

This book describes the global properties of simply-connected spaces that are non-positively curved in the sense of A. D. Alexandrov, and the structure of groups which act on such spaces by isometries. The theory of these objects is developed in a manner accessible to anyone familiar with the rudiments of topology and group theory: non-trivial theorems are proved by concatenating elementary geometric arguments, and many examples are given. Part I is an introduction to the geometry of geodesic spaces. In Part II the basic theory of spaces with upper curvature bounds is developed. More specialized topics, such as complexes of groups, are covered in Part III. The book is divided into three parts, each part is divided into chapters and the chapters have various subheadings. The chapters in Part III are longer and for ease of reference are divided into numbered sections.

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.

A Kleinian group is a discrete subgroup of the isometry group of hyperbolic 3-space, which is also regarded as a subgroup of Moebius transformations in the complex plane. The present book is a comprehensive guide to theories of Kleinian groups from the viewpoints of hyperbolic geometry and complex analysis. After 1960, Ahlfors and Bers were the leading researchers of Kleinian groups and helped it to become an active area of complex analysis as a branch of Teichmuller theory. Later, Thurston brought a revolution to this area with his profound investigation of hyperbolic manifolds, and at the same time complex dynamical approach was strongly developed by Sullivan. This book provides fundamental results and important theorems which are needed for access to the frontiers of the theory from a modern viewpoint.

This invaluable book, based on the many years of teaching experience of both authors, introduces the reader to the basic ideas in differential topology. Among the topics covered are smooth manifolds and maps, the structure of the tangent bundle and its associates, the calculation of real cohomology groups using differential forms (de Rham theory), and applications such as the PoincariHopf theorem relating the Euler number of a manifold and the index of a vector field. Each chapter contains exercises of varying difficulty for which solutions are provided. Special features include examples drawn from geometric manifolds in dimension 3 and Brieskorn varieties in dimensions 5 and 7, as well as detailed calculations for the cohomology groups of spheres and tori.

"Knot theory is a fascinating mathematical subject, with multiple links to theoretical physics. This enyclopedia is filled with valuable information on a rich and fascinating subject." - Ed Witten, Recipient of the Fields Medal "I spent a pleasant afternoon perusing the Encyclopedia of Knot Theory. It's a comprehensive compilation of clear introductions to both classical and very modern developments in the field. It will be a terrific resource for the accomplished researcher, and will also be an excellent way to lure students, both graduate and undergraduate, into the field." - Abigail Thompson, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at University of California, Davis Knot theory has proven to be a fascinating area of mathematical research, dating back about 150 years. Encyclopedia of Knot Theory provides short, interconnected articles on a variety of active areas in knot theory, and includes beautiful pictures, deep mathematical connections, and critical applications. Many of the articles in this book are accessible to undergraduates who are working on research or taking an advanced undergraduate course in knot theory. More advanced articles will be useful to graduate students working on a related thesis topic, to researchers in another area of topology who are interested in current results in knot theory, and to scientists who study the topology and geometry of biopolymers. Features Provides material that is useful and accessible to undergraduates, postgraduates, and full-time researchers Topics discussed provide an excellent catalyst for students to explore meaningful research and gain confidence and commitment to pursuing advanced degrees Edited and contributed by top researchers in the field of knot theory

This second of two Exercises in Analysis volumes covers problems in five core topics of mathematical analysis: Function Spaces, Nonlinear and Multivalued Maps, Smooth and Nonsmooth Calculus, Degree Theory and Fixed Point Theory, and Variational and Topological Methods. Each of five topics corresponds to a different chapter with inclusion of the basic theory and accompanying main definitions and results,followed by suitable comments and remarks for better understanding of the material. Exercises/problems are presented for each topic, with solutions available at the end of each chapter. The entire collection of exercises offers a balanced and useful picture for the application surrounding each topic. This nearly encyclopedic coverage of exercises in mathematical analysis is the first of its kind and is accessible to a wide readership. Graduate students will find the collection of problems valuable in preparation for their preliminary or qualifying exams as well as for testing their deeper understanding of the material. Exercises are denoted by degree of difficulty. Instructors teaching courses that include one or all of the above-mentioned topics will find the exercises of great help in course preparation. Researchers in analysis may find this Work useful as a summary of analytic theories published in one accessible volume.

In the 19 years which passed since the first edition was published, several important developments have taken place in the theory of surfaces. The most sensational one concerns the differentiable structure of surfaces. Twenty years ago very little was known about differentiable structures on 4-manifolds, but in the meantime Donaldson on the one hand and Seiberg and Witten on the other hand, have found, inspired by gauge theory, totally new invariants. Strikingly, together with the theory explained in this book these invariants yield a wealth of new results about the differentiable structure of algebraic surfaces. Other developments include the systematic use of nef-divisors (in ac cordance with the progress made in the classification of higher dimensional algebraic varieties), a better understanding of Kahler structures on surfaces, and Reider's new approach to adjoint mappings. All these developments have been incorporated in the present edition, though the Donaldson and Seiberg-Witten theory only by way of examples. Of course we use the opportunity to correct some minor mistakes, which we ether have discovered ourselves or which were communicated to us by careful readers to whom we are much obliged."

In recent years, the old idea that gauge theories and string theories are equivalent has been implemented and developed in various ways, and there are by now various models where the string theory / gauge theory correspondence is at work. One of the most important examples of this correspondence relates Chern-Simons theory, a topological gauge theory in three dimensions which describes knot and three-manifold invariants, to topological string theory, which is deeply related to Gromov-Witten invariants. This has led to some surprising relations between three-manifold geometry and enumerative geometry. This book gives the first coherent presentation of this and other related topics. After an introduction to matrix models and Chern-Simons theory, the book describes in detail the topological string theories that correspond to these gauge theories and develops the mathematical implications of this duality for the enumerative geometry of Calabi-Yau manifolds and knot theory. It is written in a pedagogical style and will be useful reading for graduate students and researchers in both mathematics and physics willing to learn about these developments.

This book is a systematic presentation of the solution of one of the fundamental problems of the theory of random dynamical systems - the problem of topological classification and structural stability of linear hyperbolic random dynamical systems. As a relatively new and fast expanding field of research, this theory attracts the attention of researchers from various fields of science. It unites and develops the classical deterministic theory of dynamical systems and probability theory, hence finds many applications in a very wide range of disciplines from physics to biology to engineering, finance and economics. Recent developments call for a systematic presentation of the theory. Mathematicians working in the theory of dynamical systems, stochastic dynamics as well as those interested in applications of mathematical systems with random noise will find this timely book a valuable reference and rich source of modern mathematical methods and results.

This is a collection of surveys on important mathematical ideas, their origin, their evolution and their impact in current research. The authors are mathematicians who are leading experts in their fields. The book is addressed to all mathematicians, from undergraduate students to senior researchers, regardless of the specialty.

This book is an indispensable guide for anyone seeking to familarize themselves with research in braid groups, configuration spaces and their applications. Starting at the beginning, and assuming only basic topology and group theory, the volume's noted expositors take the reader through the fundamental theory and on to current research and applications in fields as varied as astrophysics, cryptography and robotics. As leading researchers themselves, the authors write enthusiastically about their topics, and include many striking illustrations. The chapters have their origins in tutorials given at a Summer School on Braids, at the National University of Singapore's Institute for Mathematical Sciences in June 2007, to an audience of more than thirty international graduate students.

This volume is based on lectures given at the highly successful three-week Summer School on Geometry, Topology and Dynamics of Character Varieties held at the National University of Singapore's Institute for Mathematical Sciences in July 2010.Aimed at graduate students in the early stages of research, the edited and refereed articles comprise an excellent introduction to the subject of the program, much of which is otherwise available only in specialized texts. Topics include hyperbolic structures on surfaces and their degenerations, applications of ping-pong lemmas in various contexts, introductions to Lorenzian and complex hyperbolic geometry, and representation varieties of surface groups into PSL(2, ) and other semi-simple Lie groups. This volume will serve as a useful portal to students and researchers in a vibrant and multi-faceted area of mathematics.

Problems involving the evolution of two- and three-dimensional domains arise in many areas of science and engineering. Emphasizing an Eulerian approach, Moving Shape Analysis and Control: Applications to Fluid Structure Interactions presents valuable tools for the mathematical analysis of evolving domains.

The book illustrates the efficiency of the tools presented through different examples connected to the analysis of noncylindrical partial differential equations (PDEs), such as Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible fluids in moving domains. The authors first provide all of the details of existence and uniqueness of the flow in both strong and weak cases. After establishing several important principles and methods, they devote several chapters to demonstrating Eulerian evolution and derivation tools for the control of systems involving fluids and solids. The book concludes with the boundary control of fluid-structure interaction systems, followed by helpful appendices that review some of the advanced mathematics used throughout the text.

This authoritative resource supplies the computational tools needed to optimize PDEs and investigate the control of complex systems involving a moving boundary.

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.

This book aims to provide an introduction to the broad and dynamic subject of discrete energy problems and point configurations. Written by leading authorities on the topic, this treatise is designed with the graduate student and further explorers in mind. The presentation includes a chapter of preliminaries and an extensive Appendix that augments a course in Real Analysis and makes the text self-contained. Along with numerous attractive full-color images, the exposition conveys the beauty of the subject and its connection to several branches of mathematics, computational methods, and physical/biological applications. This work is destined to be a valuable research resource for such topics as packing and covering problems, generalizations of the famous Thomson Problem, and classical potential theory in Rd. It features three chapters dealing with point distributions on the sphere, including an extensive treatment of Delsarte-Yudin-Levenshtein linear programming methods for lower bounding energy, a thorough treatment of Cohn-Kumar universality, and a comparison of 'popular methods' for uniformly distributing points on the two-dimensional sphere. Some unique features of the work are its treatment of Gauss-type kernels for periodic energy problems, its asymptotic analysis of minimizing point configurations for non-integrable Riesz potentials (the so-called Poppy-seed bagel theorems), its applications to the generation of non-structured grids of prescribed densities, and its closing chapter on optimal discrete measures for Chebyshev (polarization) problems.