This book is the first monograph wholly devoted to the investigation of differential and difference dimension theory. The differential dimension polynomial describes in exact terms the degree of freedom of a dynamic system as well as the number of arbitrary constants in the general solution of a system of algebraic differential equations.

Difference algebra arises from the study of algebraic difference equations and therefore bears a considerable resemblance to its differential counterpart. Difference algebra was developed in the same period as differential algebra and it has the same founder, J. Ritt. It grew to a mathematical area with its own ideas and methods mainly due to the work of R. Cohn, who raised difference algebra to the same level as differential algebra. The relatively new science of computer algebra has given strong impulses to the theory of dimension polynomials, now that packages such as MAPLE enable the solution of many problems which cannot be solved otherwise. Applications of differential and difference dimension theory can be found in many fields of mathematics, as well as in theoretical physics, system theory and other areas of science.

Audience: This book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students whose work involves differential and difference equations, algebra and number theory, partial differential equations, combinatorics and mathematical physics.

The aim of the Expositions is to present new and important developments in pure and applied mathematics. Well established in the community over more than two decades, the series offers a large library of mathematical works, including several important classics. The volumes supply thorough and detailed expositions of the methods and ideas essential to the topics in question. In addition, they convey their relationships to other parts of mathematics. The series is addressed to advanced readers interested in a thorough study of the subject. Editorial Board Lev Birbrair, Universidade Federal do Ceara, Fortaleza, Brasil Walter D. Neumann, Columbia University, New York, USA Markus J. Pflaum, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA Dierk Schleicher, Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany Katrin Wendland, University of Freiburg, Germany Honorary Editor Victor P. Maslov, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia Titles in planning include Yuri A. Bahturin, Identical Relations in Lie Algebras (2019) Yakov G. Berkovich, Lev G. Kazarin, and Emmanuel M. Zhmud', Characters of Finite Groups, Volume 2 (2019) Jorge Herbert Soares de Lira, Variational Problems for Hypersurfaces in Riemannian Manifolds (2019) Volker Mayer, Mariusz Urbanski, and Anna Zdunik, Random and Conformal Dynamical Systems (2021) Ioannis Diamantis, Bostjan Gabrovsek, Sofia Lambropoulou, and Maciej Mroczkowski, Knot Theory of Lens Spaces (2021)

This book contains the extended abstracts presented at the 12th International Conference on Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (FPSAC '00) that took place at Moscow State University, June 26-30, 2000. These proceedings cover the most recent trends in algebraic and bijective combinatorics, including classical combinatorics, combinatorial computer algebra, combinatorial identities, combinatorics of classical groups, Lie algebra and quantum groups, enumeration, symmetric functions, young tableaux etc...

This book is the first monograph on the theory of endomorphism rings of Abelian groups. The theory is a rapidly developing area of algebra and has its origin in the theory of operators of vector spaves. The text contains additional information on groups themselves, introducing new concepts, methods, and classes of groups. All the main fields of the theory of endomorphism rings of Abelian groups from early results to the most recent are covered. Neighbouring results on endomorphism rings of modules are also mentioned.
This text has many pedagogical features:

-all the necessary definitions and formulations of assertions on Abelian groups, rings, and modules are gathered in the first two sections;
-each chapter begins with a brief summary of results;
-there are exercises of varying difficulty in each section;
-lesser known facts on rings and modules are presented with proofs;
-there are comments at the end of each chapter together with a brief historical review as well as a look at the future direction of modern research;
-an extensive bibliography is provided. This book will be invaluable as a background text for introductory as well as advanced graduate courses. Professional algebraists might find it useful as a first systematic presentation of results previously only to be found scattered throughout various journals.

This comprehensive two-volume work is devoted to the most general beginnings of mathematics. It goes back to Hausdorff's classic Set Theory (2nd ed., 1927), where set theory and the theory of functions were expounded as the fundamental parts of mathematics in such a way that there was no need for references to other sources. Along the lines of Hausdorff's initial work (1st ed., 1914), measure and integration theory is also included here as the third fundamental part of contemporary mathematics. The material about sets and numbers is placed in Volume 1 and the material about functions and measures is placed in Volume 2. Contents Historical foreword on the centenary after Felix Hausdorff's classic Set Theory Fundamentals of the theory of functions Fundamentals of the measure theory Historical notes on the Riesz - Radon - Frechet problem of characterization of Radon integrals as linear functionals

It is by no means clear what comprises the "heart" or "core" of algebra, the part of algebra which every algebraist should know. Hence we feel that a book on "our heart" might be useful. We have tried to catch this heart in a collection of about 150 short sections, written by leading algebraists in these areas. These sections are organized in 9 chapters A, B, . . . , I. Of course, the selection is partly based on personal preferences, and we ask you for your understanding if some selections do not meet your taste (for unknown reasons, we only had problems in the chapter "Groups" to get enough articles in time). We hope that this book sets up a standard of what all algebraists are supposed to know in "their" chapters; interested people from other areas should be able to get a quick idea about the area. So the target group consists of anyone interested in algebra, from graduate students to established researchers, including those who want to obtain a quick overview or a better understanding of our selected topics. The prerequisites are something like the contents of standard textbooks on higher algebra. This book should also enable the reader to read the "big" Handbook (Hazewinkel 1999-) and other handbooks. In case of multiple authors, the authors are listed alphabetically; so their order has nothing to do with the amounts of their contributions.

SFCA/FPSAC (Series Formelles et Combinatoire Algebrique/Formal Power Se- ries and Algebraic Combinatorics) is a series of international conferences that are held annually since 1988, alternating between Europe and North America. They usually take place at the end of the academic year, between June and July depending on the local organizing constraints. SFCA/FPSAC has now become one of the most important annual inter- national meetings for the algebraic and bijective combinatorics community. The conference is indeed one of the key international exchange place of ideas between all researchers involved in this emerging exciting area. SFCA/FPSAC'OO is the 12th in the series. It will take place in Moscow (Russia) from June 26 to June 30, 2000. Previous SFCA/FPSAC conferences were organized in Lille (88), Paris (90), Bordeaux (91), Montreal (92), Florence (93), Rutgers (94), Marne-la-Vallee (95), Minneapolis (96), Vienna (97), Toronto (98) and Barcelona (99). SFCA/FPSAC'OO is co-organized by the Center of New Information Tech- nologies (CNIT) of Moscow State University, the Laboratoire d'Informatique AI- gorithmique : Fondements et Applications (LIAFA) of University Paris 7 and the Maison de l'Informatique et des Mathematiques Discretes (MIMD). The SFCA/FPSAC'OO conference covers all main areas of algebraic combi- natorics and bijective combinatorics (including asymptotic analysis, all sorts of enumeration, representation theory of classical groups and classical Lie algebras, symmetric functions, etc). A special stress was also put this year on combinato- rial and computer algebra.

The role of Hilbert polynomials in commutative and homological algebra as well as in algebraic geometry and combinatorics is well known. A similar role in differential algebra is played by the differential dimension polynomials. The notion of differential dimension polynomial was introduced by E. Kolchin in 1964 [KoI64]' but the problems and ideas that had led to this notion (and that are reflected in this book) have essentially more long history. Actually, one can say that the differential dimension polynomial describes in exact terms the freedom degree of a dynamic system as well as the number of arbitrary constants in the general solution of a system of algebraic differential equations. The first attempts of such description were made at the end of 19th century by Jacobi [Ja890] who estimated the number of algebraically independent constants in the general solution of a system of linear ordinary differential equations. Later on, Jacobi's results were extended to some cases of nonlinear systems, but in general case the problem of such estimation (that is known as the problem of Jacobi's bound) remains open. There are some generalization of the problem of Jacobi's bound to the partial differential equations, but the results in this area are just appearing. At the beginning of the 20th century algebraic methods in the theory of differen tial equations were actively developed by F. Riquier [RiqlO] and M.

Every Abelian group can be related to an associative ring with an identity element, the ring of all its endomorphisms. Recently the theory of endomor phism rings of Abelian groups has become a rapidly developing area of algebra. On the one hand, it can be considered as a part of the theory of Abelian groups; on the other hand, the theory can be considered as a branch of the theory of endomorphism rings of modules and the representation theory of rings. There are several reasons for studying endomorphism rings of Abelian groups: first, it makes it possible to acquire additional information about Abelian groups themselves, to introduce new concepts and methods, and to find new interesting classes of groups; second, it stimulates further develop ment of the theory of modules and their endomorphism rings. The theory of endomorphism rings can also be useful for studies of the structure of additive groups of rings, E-modules, and homological properties of Abelian groups. The books of Baer [52] and Kaplansky [245] have played an important role in the early development of the theory of endomorphism rings of Abelian groups and modules. Endomorphism rings of Abelian groups are much stu died in monographs of Fuchs [170], [172], and [173]. Endomorphism rings are also studied in the works of Kurosh [287], Arnold [31], and Benabdallah [63].