The present volume grew out of the Heidelberg Knot Theory Semester, organized by the editors in winter 2008/09 at Heidelberg University. The contributed papers bring the reader up to date on the currently most actively pursued areas of mathematical knot theory and its applications in mathematical physics and cell biology. Both original research and survey articles are presented; numerous illustrations support the text. The book will be of great interest to researchers in topology, geometry, and mathematical physics, graduate students specializing in knot theory, and cell biologists interested in the topology of DNA strands.

The work of Professor Eduard Cech had a si~ificant influence on the development of algebraic and general topology and differential geometry. This book, which appears on the occasion of the centenary of Cech's birth, contains some of his most important papers and traces the subsequent trends emerging from his ideas. The body of the book consists of four chapters devoted to algebraic topology, Cech-Stone compactification, dimension theory and differential geometry. Each of these includes a selection of Cech's papers, a brief summary of some results which followed from his work or constituted solutions to the problems he posed, and several selected papers by various authors concerning the areas of study he initiated. The book also contains a concise biography borrowed with minor changes from the book Topological papers of E. tech, a list of Cech's publications and a very brief note on his activity in the didactics of mathematics. The editors wish to express their sincere gratitude to all who contributed to the completion and publication of this book.

This work is suitable for undergraduate students as well as advanced students and research workers. It consists of ten chapters, the first six of which are meant for beginners and are therefore suitable for undergraduate students; Chapters VII-X are suitable for advanced students and research workers interested in functional analysis. This book has two special features: First, it contains generalizations of continuous maps on topological spaces, e. g. , almost continuous maps, nearly continuous maps, maps with closed graph, graphically continuous maps, w-continuous maps, and a-continuous maps, etc. and some of their properties. The treatment of these notions appears here, in Chapter VII, for the first time in book form. The second feature consists in some not-so-easily-available nuptial delights that grew out of the marriage of topology and functional analysis; they are topics mainly courted by functional analysts and seldom given in topology books. Specifically, one knows that the set C(X) of all real- or com plex-valued continuous functions on a completely regular space X forms a locally convex topological algebra, a fortiori a topological vector space, in the compact-open topology. A number of theorems are known: For example, C(X) is a Banach space iff X is compact, or C(X) is complete iff X is a kr-space, and so on. Chapters VIII and X include this material, which, to the regret of many interested readers has not previously been available in book form (a recent publication (Weir [\06]) does, however, contain some material of our Chapter X).

Basic properties, homotopy classification, and characteristic classes of fibre bundles have become an essential part of graduate mathematical education for students in geometry and mathematical physics. The new edition of this text includes two additional chapters, one on the gauge group of a bundle and the other on the differential forms representing characteristic classes of complex vector bundles on manifolds.

This volume contains reviewed papers from the 1997 IUTAM Symposium, presenting the latest results from leading scientists within the field of detection and simulation of organized flow structures. It describes various aspects of complex, organized flow motion, including topics from decomposition techniques to topological concepts.

Vector bundles and their associated moduli spaces are of fundamental importance in algebraic geometry. In recent decades this subject has been greatly enhanced by its relationships with other areas of mathematics, including differential geometry, topology and even theoretical physics, specifically gauge theory, quantum field theory and string theory. Peter E. Newstead has been a leading figure in this field almost from its inception and has made many seminal contributions to our understanding of moduli spaces of stable bundles. This volume has been assembled in tribute to Professor Newstead and his contribution to algebraic geometry. Some of the subject s leading experts cover foundational material, while the survey and research papers focus on topics at the forefront of the field. This volume is suitable for both graduate students and more experienced researchers.

1. Historical Remarks Convex Integration theory, first introduced by M. Gromov [17], is one of three general methods in immersion-theoretic topology for solving a broad range of problems in geometry and topology. The other methods are: (i) Removal of Singularities, introduced by M. Gromov and Y. Eliashberg [8]; (ii) the covering homotopy method which, following M. Gromov's thesis [16], is also referred to as the method of sheaves. The covering homotopy method is due originally to S. Smale [36] who proved a crucial covering homotopy result in order to solve the classification problem for immersions of spheres in Euclidean space. These general methods are not linearly related in the sense that succes sive methods subsumed the previous methods. Each method has its own distinct foundation, based on an independent geometrical or analytical insight. Conse quently, each method has a range of applications to problems in topology that are best suited to its particular insight. For example, a distinguishing feature of Convex Integration theory is that it applies to solve closed relations in jet spaces, including certain general classes of underdetermined non-linear systems of par tial differential equations. As a case of interest, the Nash-Kuiper Cl-isometrie immersion theorem ean be reformulated and proved using Convex Integration theory (cf. Gromov [18]). No such results on closed relations in jet spaees can be proved by means of the other two methods.

Geodesic flows of Riemannian metrics on manifolds are one of the classical objects in geometry. A particular place among them is occupied by integrable geodesic flows. We consider them in the context of the general theory of integrable Hamiltonian systems, and in particular, from the viewpoint of a new topological classification theory, which was recently developed for integrable Hamiltonian systems with two degrees of freedom. As a result, we will see that such a new approach is very useful for a deeper understanding of the topology and geometry of integrable geodesic flows. The main object to be studied in our paper is the class of integrable geodesic flows on two-dimensional surfaces. There are many such flows on surfaces of small genus, in particular, on the sphere and torus. On the contrary, on surfaces of genus 9 > 1, no such flows exist in the analytical case. One of the most important and interesting problems consists in the classification of integrable flows up to different equivalence relations such as (1) an isometry, (2) the Liouville equivalence, (3) the trajectory equivalence (smooth and continuous), and (4) the geodesic equivalence. In recent years, a new technique was developed, which gives, in particular, a possibility to classify integrable geodesic flows up to these kinds of equivalences. This technique is presented in our paper, together with various applications. The first part of our book, namely, Chaps.

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.

Visualization and mathematics have begun a fruitful relationship, establishing links between problems and solutions of both fields. In some areas of mathematics, like differential geometry and numerical mathematics, visualization techniques are applied with great success. However, visualization methods are relying heavily on mathematical concepts.
Applications of visualization in mathematical research and the use of mathematical methods in visualization have been topic of an international workshop in Berlin in June 1995. Selected contributions treat topics of particular interest in current research. Experts are reporting on their latest work, giving an overview on this fascinating new area. The reader will get insight to state-of-the-art techniques for solving visualization problems and mathematical questions.

This volume is the Proceedings of the Third Korea-China-Japan Inter national Symposium on Ring Theory held jointly with the Second Korea Japan Joint Ring Theory Seminar which took place at the historical resort area of Korea, Kyongju, June 28-July 3, 1999. It also includes articles by some invited mathematicians who were unable to attend the conference. Over 90 mathematicians from 12 countries attended this conference. The conference is held every 4 years on a rotating basis. The first con ference was held in 1991 at Guilin, China. In 1995 the second conference took place in Okayama, Japan. At the second conference it was decided to include Korea, who hosted this conference of 1999. During the past century Ring Theory has diversified into many subar eas. This is reflected in these articles from over 25 well-known mathemati cians covering a broad range of topics, including: Classical Ring Theory, Module Theory, Representation Theory, and the theory of Hopf Algebras. Among these peer reviewed papers are invited survey articles as well as research articles. The survey articles provide an overview of various areas for researchers looking for a new or related field to investigate, while the research articles give the flavor of current research. We feel that the variety of related topics will stimulate interaction between researchers. Moreover the Open Problems section provides guidance for future research. This book should prove attractive to a wide audience of algebraists. Gary F. Birkenmeier, Lafayette, U. S. A."

This text features a careful treatment of flow lines and algebraic invariants in contact form geometry, a vast area of research connected to symplectic field theory, pseudo-holomorphic curves, and Gromov-Witten invariants (contact homology). In particular, it develops a novel algebraic tool in this field: rooted in the concept of critical points at infinity, the new algebraic invariants defined here are useful in the investigation of contact structures and Reeb vector fields. The book opens with a review of prior results and then proceeds through an examination of variational problems, non-Fredholm behavior, true and false critical points at infinity, and topological implications. An increasing convergence with regular and singular Yamabe-type problems is discussed, and the intersection between contact form and Riemannian geometry is emphasized. Rich in open problems and full, detailed proofs, this work lays the foundation for new avenues of study in contact form geometry and will benefit graduate students and researchers.

'Et moi, ..., si j'avait su comment en revenir, One service methematics has rendered the je n'y serais point aile.' human race. It has put common sense back JulesVerne where it belongs, on the topmost shelf next to the dusty canister labelled 'discarded non The series is divergent; therefore we may be seese'. able to do something with it. Eric T. Bell O.Heaviside Mathematics is a tool for thought. A highly necessary tool in a world where both feedback and nonlinearities abound. Similarly, all kinds of parts of mathematics serve as tools for other parts and for other sciences. Applying a simple rewriting rule to the quote on the right above one finds such state ments as: 'One service topology has rendered mathematical physics .. .'; 'One service logic has rendered computer science .. .'; 'One service category theory has rendered mathematics .. .'. All arguable true. And all statements obtainable this .way form part of the raison d'etre of this series."

Assuming that the reader is familiar with sheaf theory, the book gives a self-contained introduction to the theory of constructible sheaves related to many kinds of singular spaces, such as cell complexes, triangulated spaces, semialgebraic and subanalytic sets, complex algebraic or analytic sets, stratified spaces, and quotient spaces. The relation to the underlying geometrical ideas are worked out in detail, together with many applications to the topology of such spaces. All chapters have their own detailed introduction, containing the main results and definitions, illustrated in simple terms by a number of examples. The technical details of the proof are postponed to later sections, since these are not needed for the applications.

From the reviews: "This is an excellent exposition about abelian Reidemeister torsions for three-manifolds." -Zentralblatt Math

"This monograph contains a wealth of information many topologists will find very handy. ...Many of the new points of view pioneered by Turaev are gradually becoming mainstream and are spreading beyond the pure topology world. This monograph is a timely and very useful addition to the scientific literature." -Mathematical Reviews

One service mathematics has rendered the 'Et moi, "0' si j'avait su oomment en revenir. human race. It has put common sense back je n'y serais point aile: ' Jules Verne where it belongs. on the topmost shelf next to the dusty canister labelled 'discarded n- sense'. The series is divergent; therefore we may be able to do something with it. Eric T. Bell O. Heaviside Mathematics is a tool for thought. A highly necessary tool in a world where both feedback and non linearities abound. Similarly, all kinds of parts of mathematics serve as tools for other parts and for other sciences. Applying a simple rewriting rule to the quote on the right above one finds such statements as: 'One service topology has rendered mathematical physics .. .'; 'One service logic has rendered com puter science .. .'; 'One service category theory has rendered mathematics .. .'. All arguably true. And all statements obtainable this way form part of the raison d'el: re of this series."

This book is an outgrowth of the Workshop on "Regulators in Analysis, Geom etry and Number Theory" held at the Edmund Landau Center for Research in Mathematical Analysis of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1996. During the preparation and the holding of the workshop we were greatly helped by the director of the Landau Center: Lior Tsafriri during the time of the planning of the conference, and Hershel Farkas during the meeting itself. Organizing and running this workshop was a true pleasure, thanks to the expert technical help provided by the Landau Center in general, and by its secretary Simcha Kojman in particular. We would like to express our hearty thanks to all of them. However, the articles assembled in the present volume do not represent the proceedings of this workshop; neither could all contributors to the book make it to the meeting, nor do the contributions herein necessarily reflect talks given in Jerusalem. In the introduction, we outline our view of the theory to which this volume intends to contribute. The crucial objective of the present volume is to bring together concepts, methods, and results from analysis, differential as well as algebraic geometry, and number theory in order to work towards a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of regulators and secondary invariants. Our thanks go to all the participants of the workshop and authors of this volume. May the readers of this book enjoy and profit from the combination of mathematical ideas here documented."

The book consists of articles at the frontier of current research in Algebraic Topology. It presents recent results by top notch experts, and is intended primarily for researchers and graduate students working in the field of algebraic topology. Included is an important article by Cohen, Johnes and Yan on the homology of the space of smooth loops on a manifold M, endowed with the Chas-Sullivan intersection product, as well as an article by Goerss, Henn and Mahowald on stable homotopy groups of spheres, which uses the cutting edge technology of "topological modular forms."

The 20th Century brought the rise of General Topology. It arose from the effort to establish a solid base for Analysis and it is intimately related to the success of set theory. Many Valued Topology and Its Applications seeks to extend the field by taking the monadic axioms of general topology seriously and continuing the theory of topological spaces as topological space objects within an almost completely ordered monad in a given base category C. The richness of this theory is shown by the fundamental fact that the category of topological space objects in a complete and cocomplete (epi, extremal mono)-category C is topological over C in the sense of J. Adamek, H. Herrlich, and G.E. Strecker. Moreover, a careful, categorical study of the most important topological notions and concepts is given - e.g., density, closedness of extremal subobjects, Hausdorff's separation axiom, regularity, and compactness. An interpretation of these structures, not only by the ordinary filter monad, but also by many valued filter monads, underlines the richness of the explained theory and gives rise to new concrete concepts of topological spaces - so-called many valued topological spaces. Hence, many valued topological spaces play a significant role in various fields of mathematics - e.g., in the theory of locales, convergence spaces, stochastic processes, and smooth Borel probability measures. In its first part, the book develops the necessary categorical basis for general topology. In the second part, the previously given categorical concepts are applied to monadic settings determined by many valued filter monads. The third part comprises various applications of many valued topologies to probability theory and statistics as well as to non-classical model theory. These applications illustrate the significance of many valued topology for further research work in these important fields.

Nonstandard Methods of Analysis is concerned with the main trends in this field; infinitesimal analysis and Boolean-valued analysis. The methods that have been developed in the last twenty-five years are explained in detail, and are collected in book form for the first time. Special attention is paid to general principles and fundamentals of formalisms for infinitesimals as well as to the technique of descents and ascents in a Boolean-valued universe. The book also includes various novel applications of nonstandard methods to ordered algebraic systems, vector lattices, subdifferentials, convex programming etc. that have been developed in recent years. For graduate students, postgraduates and all researchers interested in applying nonstandard methods in their work.

Plurisubharmonic functions playa major role in the theory of functions of several complex variables. The extensiveness of plurisubharmonic functions, the simplicity of their definition together with the richness of their properties and. most importantly, their close connection with holomorphic functions have assured plurisubharmonic functions a lasting place in multidimensional complex analysis. (Pluri)subharmonic functions first made their appearance in the works of Hartogs at the beginning of the century. They figure in an essential way, for example, in the proof of the famous theorem of Hartogs (1906) on joint holomorphicity. Defined at first on the complex plane IC, the class of subharmonic functions became thereafter one of the most fundamental tools in the investigation of analytic functions of one or several variables. The theory of subharmonic functions was developed and generalized in various directions: subharmonic functions in Euclidean space IRn, plurisubharmonic functions in complex space en and others. Subharmonic functions and the foundations ofthe associated classical poten tial theory are sufficiently well exposed in the literature, and so we introduce here only a few fundamental results which we require. More detailed expositions can be found in the monographs of Privalov (1937), Brelot (1961), and Landkof (1966). See also Brelot (1972), where a history of the development of the theory of subharmonic functions is given."

"Categorical Perspectives" consists of introductory surveys as well as articles containing original research and complete proofs devoted mainly to the theoretical and foundational developments of category theory and its applications to other fields. A number of articles in the areas of topology, algebra and computer science reflect the varied interests of George Strecker to whom this work is dedicated. Notable also are an exposition of the contributions and importance of George Strecker's research and a survey chapter on general category theory. This work is an excellent reference text for researchers and graduate students in category theory and related areas. Contributors: H.L. Bentley * G. Castellini * R. El Bashir * H. Herrlich * M. Husek * L. Janos * J. Koslowski * V.A. Lemin * A. Melton * G. Preua * Y.T. Rhineghost * B.S.W. Schroeder * L. Schr"der * G.E. Strecker * A. Zmrzlina

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.

Applying functional analysis and operator theory to some concrete asymptotic problems of linear algebra, this book contains results on the stability of projection methods, deals with asymptotic inverses and Moore-Penrose inversion of large Toeplitz matrices, and embarks on the asymptotic behaviour of the norms of inverses, the pseudospectra, the singular values, and the eigenvalues of large Toeplitz matrices. The approach is heavily based on Banach algebra techniques and nicely demonstrates the usefulness of C*-algebras and local principles in numerical analysis, including classical topics as well as results and methods from the last few years. Though employing modern tools, the exposition is elementary and points out the mathematical background behind some interesting phenomena encountered with large Toeplitz matrices. Accessible to readers with basic knowledge in functional analysis, the book addresses graduates, teachers, and researchers and should be of interest to everyone who has to deal with infinite matrices (Toeplitz or not) and their large truncations.