Interesting and often unexpected achievements of the mechanics of space flight throw a new light onto several classical problems. The book 's emphasis is on analysis carried out on the level of graphs and drawings, and sometimes numbers, revealing the beauty of the research process leading to the results.

We offer the reader of this book some specimens of "infinity" that we seized from the "mathematical jungle" and trapped within the solid cage of analysis The creation of the theory of singular integral equations in the mid 20th century is associated with the names of N.1. Muskhelishvili, F.D. Gakhov, N.P. Vekua and their numerous students and followers and is marked by the fact that it relied principally on methods of complex analysis. In the early 1960s, the development of this theory received a powerful impulse from the ideas and methods of functional analysis that were then brought into the picture. Its modern architecture is due to a constellation of brilliant mathemati- cians and the scientific collectives that they produced (S.G. Mikhlin, M.G. Krein, B.V. Khvedelidze, 1. Gohberg, LB. Simonenko, A. Devinatz, H. Widom, R.G. Dou- glas, D. Sarason, A.P. Calderon, S. Prossdorf, B. Silbermann, and others). In the ensuing period, the Fredholm theory of singular integral operators with a finite index was completed in its main aspects in wide classes of Banach and Frechet spaces.

The aim of the present book is to demontstrate the basic methods for solving the classical linear problems in mathematical physics of elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic type.

We offer the reader of this book some specimens of "infinity" that we seized from the "mathematical jungle" and trapped within the solid cage of analysis The creation of the theory of singular integral equations in the mid 20th century is associated with the names of N.1. Muskhelishvili, F.D. Gakhov, N.P. Vekua and their numerous students and followers and is marked by the fact that it relied principally on methods of complex analysis. In the early 1960s, the development of this theory received a powerful impulse from the ideas and methods of functional analysis that were then brought into the picture. Its modern architecture is due to a constellation of brilliant mathemati- cians and the scientific collectives that they produced (S.G. Mikhlin, M.G. Krein, B.V. Khvedelidze, 1. Gohberg, LB. Simonenko, A. Devinatz, H. Widom, R.G. Dou- glas, D. Sarason, A.P. Calderon, S. Prossdorf, B. Silbermann, and others). In the ensuing period, the Fredholm theory of singular integral operators with a finite index was completed in its main aspects in wide classes of Banach and Frechet spaces.

A well-known and widely applied method of approximating the solutions of problems in mathematical physics is the method of difference schemes. Modern computers allow the implementation of highly accurate ones; hence, their construction and investigation for various boundary value problems in mathematical physics is generating much current interest. The present monograph is devoted to the construction of highly accurate difference schemes for parabolic boundary value problems, based on Pade approximations. The investigation is based on a new notion of positivity of difference operators in Banach spaces, which allows one to deal with difference schemes of arbitrary order of accuracy. Establishing coercivity inequalities allows one to obtain sharp, that is, two-sided estimates of convergence rates. The proofs are based on results in interpolation theory of linear operators. This monograph will be of value to professional mathematicians as well as advanced students interested in the fields of functional analysis and partial differential equations.

Interesting and often unexpected achievements of the mechanics of space flight throw a new light onto several classical problems. The book's emphasis is on analysis carried out on the level of graphs and drawings, and sometimes numbers, revealing the beauty of the research process leading to the results.

This book is the result of reworking part of a rather lengthy course of lectures of which we delivered several versions at the Leningrad and Moscow Universities. In these lectures we presented an introduction to the fundamental topics of topology: homology theory, homotopy theory, theory of bundles, and topology of manifolds. The structure of the course was well determined by the guiding term elementary topology, whose main significance resides in the fact that it made us use a rather simple apparatus. tn this book we have retained {hose sections of the course where algebra plays a subordinate role. We plan to publish the more algebraic part of the lectures as a separate book. Reprocessing the lectures to produce the book resulted in the profits and losses inherent in such a situation: the rigour has increased to the detriment of the intuitiveness, the geometric descriptions have been replaced by formulas needing interpretations, etc. Nevertheless, it seems to us tha.t the book retains the main qualities of our lectures: their elementary, systematic, and pedagogical features. The preparation of the reader is assumed to be limi ted to the usual knowledge of set .theory, algebra, and calculus which mathematics students should master after the first year and a half of studies. The exposition is accompanied by examples and exercises. We hope that the book can be used as a topology textbook."

From the reviews: "... My general impression is of a particularly nice book, with a well-balanced bibliography, recommended!"Mededelingen van Het Wiskundig Genootschap, 1995"... The authors offer here an up to date guide to the topic and its main applications, including a number of new results. It is very convenient for the reader, a carefully prepared and extensive bibliography ... makes it easy to find the necessary details when needed. The books (EMS 6 and EMS 39) describe a lot of interesting topics. ... Both volumes are a very valuable addition to the library of any mathematician or physicist interested in modern mathematical analysis."European Mathematical Society Newsletter, 1994