The book is devoted to the study of the geometrical and topological structure of gauge theories. It consists of the following three building blocks:- Geometry and topology of fibre bundles,- Clifford algebras, spin structures and Dirac operators,- Gauge theory.Written in the style of a mathematical textbook, it combines a comprehensive presentation of the mathematical foundations with a discussion of a variety of advanced topics in gauge theory.The first building block includes a number of specific topics, like invariant connections, universal connections, H-structures and the Postnikov approximation of classifying spaces.Given the great importance of Dirac operators in gauge theory, a complete proof of the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem is presented. The gauge theory part contains the study of Yang-Mills equations (including the theory of instantons and the classical stability analysis), the discussion of various models with matter fields (including magnetic monopoles, the Seiberg-Witten model and dimensional reduction) and the investigation of the structure of the gauge orbit space. The final chapter is devoted to elements of quantum gauge theory including the discussion of the Gribov problem, anomalies and the implementation of the non-generic gauge orbit strata in the framework of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory.The book is addressed both to physicists and mathematicians. It is intended to be accessible to students starting from a graduate level.

This monograph presents an application of concepts and methods from algebraic topology to models of concurrent processes in computer science and their analysis. Taking well-known discrete models for concurrent processes in resource management as a point of departure, the book goes on to refine combinatorial and topological models. In the process, it develops tools and invariants for the new discipline directed algebraic topology, which is driven by fundamental research interests as well as by applications, primarily in the static analysis of concurrent programs. The state space of a concurrent program is described as a higher-dimensional space, the topology of which encodes the essential properties of the system. In order to analyse all possible executions in the state space, more than "just" the topological properties have to be considered: Execution paths need to respect a partial order given by the time flow. As a result, tools and concepts from topology have to be extended to take privileged directions into account. The target audience for this book consists of graduate students, researchers and practitioners in the field, mathematicians and computer scientists alike.

This book collects the scientific contributions of a group of leading experts who took part in the INdAM Meeting held in Cortona in September 2014. With combinatorial techniques as the central theme, it focuses on recent developments in configuration spaces from various perspectives. It also discusses their applications in areas ranging from representation theory, toric geometry and geometric group theory to applied algebraic topology.

This volume presents an elaborated version of lecture notes for two advanced courses: (Re)Emerging methods in Commutative Algebra and Representation Theory and Building Bridges Between Algebra and Topology, held at the CRM in the spring of 2015. Homological algebra is a rich and ubiquitous area; it is both an active field of research and a widespread toolbox for many mathematicians. Together, these notes introduce recent applications and interactions of homological methods in commutative algebra, representation theory and topology, narrowing the gap between specialists from different areas wishing to acquaint themselves with a rapidly growing field. The covered topics range from a fresh introduction to the growing area of support theory for triangulated categories to the striking consequences of the formulation in the homotopy theory of classical concepts in commutative algebra. Moreover, they also include a higher categories view of Hall algebras and an introduction to the use of idempotent functors in algebra and topology.

This thesis describes a new connection between algebraic geometry, topology, number theory and quantum field theory. It offers a pedagogical introduction to algebraic topology, allowing readers to rapidly develop basic skills, and it also presents original ideas to inspire new research in the quest for dualities. Its ambitious goal is to construct a method based on the universal coefficient theorem for identifying new dualities connecting different domains of quantum field theory. This thesis opens a new area of research in the domain of non-perturbative physics-one in which the use of different coefficient structures in (co)homology may lead to previously unknown connections between different regimes of quantum field theories. The origin of dualities is an issue in fundamental physics that continues to puzzle the research community with unexpected results like the AdS/CFT duality or the ER-EPR conjecture. This thesis analyzes these observations from a novel and original point of view, mainly based on a fundamental connection between number theory and topology. Beyond its scientific qualities, it also offers a pedagogical introduction to advanced mathematics and its connection with physics. This makes it a valuable resource for students in mathematical physics and researchers wanting to gain insights into (co)homology theories with coefficients or the way in which Grothendieck's work may be connected with physics.

This book, intended for postgraduate students and researchers, presents many results of historical importance on pseudocompact spaces. In 1948, E. Hewitt introduced the concept of pseudocompactness which generalizes a property of compact subsets of the real line. A topological space is pseudocompact if the range of any real-valued, continuous function defined on the space is a bounded subset of the real line. Pseudocompact spaces constitute a natural and fundamental class of objects in General Topology and research into their properties has important repercussions in diverse branches of Mathematics, such as Functional Analysis, Dynamical Systems, Set Theory and Topological-Algebraic structures. The collection of authors of this volume include pioneers in their fields who have written a comprehensive explanation on this subject. In addition, the text examines new lines of research that have been at the forefront of mathematics. There is, as yet, no text that systematically compiles and develops the extensive theory of pseudocompact spaces, making this book an essential asset for anyone in the field of topology.

In the more than 100 years since the fundamental group was first introduced by Henri Poincare it has evolved to play an important role in different areas of mathematics. Originally conceived as part of algebraic topology, this essential concept and its analogies have found numerous applications in mathematics that are still being investigated today, and which are explored in this volume, the result of a meeting at Heidelberg University that brought together mathematicians who use or study fundamental groups in their work with an eye towards applications in arithmetic. The book acknowledges the varied incarnations of the fundamental group: pro-finite, -adic, p-adic, pro-algebraic and motivic. It explores a wealth of topics that range from anabelian geometry (in particular the section conjecture), the -adic polylogarithm, gonality questions of modular curves, vector bundles in connection with monodromy, and relative pro-algebraic completions, to a motivic version of Minhyong Kim's non-abelian Chabauty method and p-adic integration after Coleman. The editor has also included the abstracts of all the talks given at the Heidelberg meeting, as well as the notes on Coleman integration and on Grothendieck's fundamental group with a view towards anabelian geometry taken from a series of introductory lectures given by Amnon Besser and Tamas Szamuely, respectively."

As a partner to Volume 1: Dimensional Continuous Models, this monograph provides a self-contained introduction to algebro-geometric solutions of completely integrable, nonlinear, partial differential-difference equations, also known as soliton equations. The systems studied in this volume include the Toda lattice hierarchy, the Kac-van Moerbeke hierarchy, and the Ablowitz-Ladik hierarchy. An extensive treatment of the class of algebro-geometric solutions in the stationary as well as time-dependent contexts is provided. The theory presented includes trace formulas, algebro-geometric initial value problems, Baker-Akhiezer functions, and theta function representations of all relevant quantities involved. The book uses basic techniques from the theory of difference equations and spectral analysis, some elements of algebraic geometry and especially, the theory of compact Riemann surfaces. The presentation is constructive and rigorous, with ample background material provided in various appendices. Detailed notes for each chapter, together with an exhaustive bibliography, enhance understanding of the main results.

Held during algebraic topology special sessions at the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Studies in Mathematics (VIASM, Hanoi), this set of notes consists of expanded versions of three courses given by G. Ginot, H.-W. Henn and G. Powell. They are all introductory texts and can be used by PhD students and experts in the field. Among the three contributions, two concern stable homotopy of spheres: Henn focusses on the chromatic point of view, the Morava K(n)-localization and the cohomology of the Morava stabilizer groups. Powell's chapter is concerned with the derived functors of the destabilization and iterated loop functors and provides a small complex to compute them. Indications are given for the odd prime case. Providing an introduction to some aspects of string and brane topology, Ginot's contribution focusses on Hochschild homology and its generalizations. It contains a number of new results and fills a gap in the literature.

This book offers a comprehensive introduction by three of the leading experts in the field, collecting fundamental results and open problems in a single volume. Since Leavitt path algebras were first defined in 2005, interest in these algebras has grown substantially, with ring theorists as well as researchers working in graph C*-algebras, group theory and symbolic dynamics attracted to the topic. Providing a historical perspective on the subject, the authors review existing arguments, establish new results, and outline the major themes and ring-theoretic concepts, such as the ideal structure, Z-grading and the close link between Leavitt path algebras and graph C*-algebras. The book also presents key lines of current research, including the Algebraic Kirchberg Phillips Question, various additional classification questions, and connections to noncommutative algebraic geometry. Leavitt Path Algebras will appeal to graduate students and researchers working in the field and related areas, such as C*-algebras and symbolic dynamics. With its descriptive writing style, this book is highly accessible.

Over 140 examples, preceded by a succinct exposition of general topology and basic terminology. Each example treated as a whole. Over 25 Venn diagrams and charts summarize properties of the examples, while discussions of general methods of construction and change give readers insight into constructing counterexamples. Extensive collection of problems and exercises, correlated with examples. Bibliography. 1978 edition.

The aim of this book is to present an introduction to the theory of transformation groups which will be suitable for all those coming to the subject for the first time. The emphasis is on the study of topological groups and, in particular, the study of compact Lie groups acting on manifolds. Throughout, much care is taken to illustrate concepts and results with examples and applications. Numerous exercises are also included to further extend a reader's understanding and knowledge. Prerequisites are a familiarity with algebra and topology as might have been acquired from an undergraduate degree in Mathematics. The author begins by introducing the basic concepts of the subject such as fixed point sets, orbits, and induced transformation groups. Attention then turns to the study of differentiable manifolds and Lie groups with particular emphasis on fibre bundles and characteristic classes. The latter half of the book is devoted to surveying the main themes of the subject: structure and decomposition theorems, the existence and uniqueness theorems of principal orbits, transfer theorems, and the Lefschetz fixed point theorem.

This book provides an accessible introduction to algebraic topology, a field at the intersection of topology, geometry and algebra, together with its applications. Moreover, it covers several related topics that are in fact important in the overall scheme of algebraic topology. Comprising eighteen chapters and two appendices, the book integrates various concepts of algebraic topology, supported by examples, exercises, applications and historical notes. Primarily intended as a textbook, the book offers a valuable resource for undergraduate, postgraduate and advanced mathematics students alike. Focusing more on the geometric than on algebraic aspects of the subject, as well as its natural development, the book conveys the basic language of modern algebraic topology by exploring homotopy, homology and cohomology theories, and examines a variety of spaces: spheres, projective spaces, classical groups and their quotient spaces, function spaces, polyhedra, topological groups, Lie groups and cell complexes, etc. The book studies a variety of maps, which are continuous functions between spaces. It also reveals the importance of algebraic topology in contemporary mathematics, theoretical physics, computer science, chemistry, economics, and the biological and medical sciences, and encourages students to engage in further study.

In this thesis, the author develops numerical techniques for tracking and characterising the convoluted nodal lines in three-dimensional space, analysing their geometry on the small scale, as well as their global fractality and topological complexity---including knotting---on the large scale. The work is highly visual, and illustrated with many beautiful diagrams revealing this unanticipated aspect of the physics of waves. Linear superpositions of waves create interference patterns, which means in some places they strengthen one another, while in others they completely cancel each other out. This latter phenomenon occurs on 'vortex lines' in three dimensions. In general wave superpositions modelling e.g. chaotic cavity modes, these vortex lines form dense tangles that have never been visualised on the large scale before, and cannot be analysed mathematically by any known techniques.

This volume contains selected papers authored by speakers and participants of the 2013 Arbeitstagung, held at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, Germany, from May 22-28. The 2013 meeting (and this resulting proceedings) was dedicated to the memory of Friedrich Hirzebruch, who passed away on May 27, 2012. Hirzebruch organized the first Arbeitstagung in 1957 with a unique concept that would become its most distinctive feature: the program was not determined beforehand by the organizers, but during the meeting by all participants in an open discussion. This ensured that the talks would be on the latest developments in mathematics and that many important results were presented at the conference for the first time. Written by leading mathematicians, the papers in this volume cover various topics from algebraic geometry, topology, analysis, operator theory, and representation theory and display the breadth and depth of pure mathematics that has always been characteristic of the Arbeitstagung.

Most books on fractals focus on deterministic fractals as the impact of incorporating randomness and time is almost absent. Further, most review fractals without explaining what scaling and self-similarity means. This book introduces the idea of scaling, self-similarity, scale-invariance and their role in the dimensional analysis. For the first time, fractals emphasizing mostly on stochastic fractal, and multifractals which evolves with time instead of scale-free self-similarity, are discussed. Moreover, it looks at power laws and dynamic scaling laws in some detail and provides an overview of modern statistical tools for calculating fractal dimension and multifractal spectrum.

Featuring the work of twenty-three internationally-recognized experts, this volume explores the trace formula, spectra of locally symmetric spaces, p-adic families, and other recent techniques from harmonic analysis and representation theory. Each peer-reviewed submission in this volume, based on the Simons Foundation symposium on families of automorphic forms and the trace formula held in Puerto Rico in January-February 2014, is the product of intensive research collaboration by the participants over the course of the seven-day workshop. The goal of each session in the symposium was to bring together researchers with diverse specialties in order to identify key difficulties as well as fruitful approaches being explored in the field. The respective themes were counting cohomological forms, p-adic trace formulas, Hecke fields, slopes of modular forms, and orbital integrals.

A number of important topics in complex analysis and geometry are covered in this excellent introductory text. Written by experts in the subject, each chapter unfolds from the basics to the more complex. The exposition is rapid-paced and efficient, without compromising proofs and examples that enable the reader to grasp the essentials. The most basic type of domain examined is the bounded symmetric domain, originally described and classified by Cartan and Harish- Chandra. Two of the five parts of the text deal with these domains: one introduces the subject through the theory of semisimple Lie algebras (Koranyi), and the other through Jordan algebras and triple systems (Roos). Larger classes of domains and spaces are furnished by the pseudo-Hermitian symmetric spaces and related R-spaces. These classes are covered via a study of their geometry and a presentation and classification of their Lie algebraic theory (Kaneyuki). In the fourth part of the book, the heat kernels of the symmetric spaces belonging to the classical Lie groups are determined (Lu). Explicit computations are made for each case, giving precise results and complementing the more abstract and general methods presented. Also explored are recent developments in the field, in particular, the study of complex semigroups which generalize complex tube domains and function spaces on them (Faraut). This volume will be useful as a graduate text for students of Lie group theory with connections to complex analysis, or as a self-study resource for newcomers to the field. Readers will reach the frontiers of the subject in a considerably shorter time than with existing texts.

This is an collection of some easily-formulated problems that remain open in the study of the geometry and analysis of Banach spaces. Assuming the reader has a working familiarity with the basic results of Banach space theory, the authors focus on concepts of basic linear geometry, convexity, approximation, optimization, differentiability, renormings, weak compact generating, Schauder bases and biorthogonal systems, fixed points, topology and nonlinear geometry. The main purpose of this work is to help in convincing young researchers in Functional Analysis that the theory of Banach spaces is a fertile field of research, full of interesting open problems. Inside the Banach space area, the text should help expose young researchers to the depth and breadth of the work that remains, and to provide the perspective necessary to choose a direction for further study. Some of the problems are longstanding open problems, some are recent, some are more important and some are only local problems. Some would require new ideas, some may be resolved with only a subtle combination of known facts. Regardless of their origin or longevity, each of these problems documents the need for further research in this area.

This work presents a computational program based on the principles of non-commutative geometry and showcases several applications to topological insulators. Noncommutative geometry has been originally proposed by Jean Bellissard as a theoretical framework for the investigation of homogeneous condensed matter systems. Recently, this approach has been successfully applied to topological insulators, where it facilitated many rigorous results concerning the stability of the topological invariants against disorder.In the first part of the book the notion of a homogeneous material is introduced and the class of disordered crystals defined together with the classification table, which conjectures all topological phases from this class. The manuscript continues with a discussion of electrons' dynamics in disordered crystals and the theory of topological invariants in the presence of strong disorder is briefly reviewed. It is shown how all this can be captured in the language of noncommutative geometry using the concept of non-commutative Brillouin torus, and a list of known formulas for various physical response functions is presented. In the second part, auxiliary algebras are introduced and a canonical finite-volume approximation of the non-commutative Brillouin torus is developed. Explicit numerical algorithms for computing generic correlation functions are discussed. In the third part upper bounds on the numerical errors are derived and it is proved that the canonical-finite volume approximation converges extremely fast to the thermodynamic limit. Convergence tests and various applications concludes the presentation.The book is intended for graduate students and researchers in numerical and mathematical physics.

This is a comprehensive introduction to the modular representation theory of finite groups, with an emphasis on block theory. The two volumes take into account classical results and concepts as well as some of the modern developments in the area. Volume 1 introduces the broader context, starting with general properties of finite group algebras over commutative rings, moving on to some basics in character theory and the structure theory of algebras over complete discrete valuation rings. In Volume 2, blocks of finite group algebras over complete p-local rings take centre stage, and many key results which have not appeared in a book before are treated in detail. In order to illustrate the wide range of techniques in block theory, the book concludes with chapters classifying the source algebras of blocks with cyclic and Klein four defect groups, and relating these classifications to the open conjectures that drive block theory.

This book surveys quandle theory, starting from basic motivations and going on to introduce recent developments of quandles with topological applications and related topics. The book is written from topological aspects, but it illustrates how esteemed quandle theory is in mathematics, and it constitutes a crash course for studying quandles.More precisely, this work emphasizes the fresh perspective that quandle theory can be useful for the study of low-dimensional topology (e.g., knot theory) and relative objects with symmetry. The direction of research is summarized as "We shall thoroughly (re)interpret the previous studies of relative symmetry in terms of the quandle". The perspectives contained herein can be summarized by the following topics. The first is on relative objects G/H, where G and H are groups, e.g., polyhedrons, reflection, and symmetric spaces. Next, central extensions of groups are discussed, e.g., spin structures, K2 groups, and some geometric anomalies. The third topic is a method to study relative information on a 3-dimensional manifold with a boundary, e.g., knot theory, relative cup products, and relative group cohomology.For applications in topology, it is shown that from the perspective that some existing results in topology can be recovered from some quandles, a method is provided to diagrammatically compute some "relative homology". (Such classes since have been considered to be uncomputable and speculative). Furthermore, the book provides a perspective that unifies some previous studies of quandles.The former part of the book explains motivations for studying quandles and discusses basic properties of quandles. The latter focuses on low-dimensional topology or knot theory. Finally, problems and possibilities for future developments of quandle theory are posed.

This volume presents the current state of knowledge in all aspects of two-dimensional homotopy theory. Building on the foundations laid a quarter of a century ago in the volume Two-dimensional Homotopy and Combinatorial Group Theory (LMS 197), the editors here bring together much remarkable progress that has been obtained in the intervening years. And while the fundamental open questions, such as the Andrews-Curtis Conjecture and the Whitehead asphericity problem remain to be (fully) solved, this book will provide both students and experts with an overview of the state of the art and work in progress. Ample references are included to the LMS 197 volume, as well as a comprehensive bibliography bringing matters entirely up to date.