This volume contains the proceedings of the conference "Casimir Force, Casimir Operators and the Riemann Hypothesis - Mathematics for Innovation in Industry and Science" held in November 2009 in Fukuoka (Japan). The motive for the conference was the celebration of the 100th birthday of Casimir and the 150th birthday of the Riemann hypothesis. The conference focused on the following topics: Casimir operators in harmonic analysis and representation theory Number theory, in particular zeta functions and cryptography Casimir force in physics and its relation with nano-science Mathematical biology Importance of mathematics for innovation in industry The latter topic was inspired both by the call for innovation in industry worldwide and by the fact that Casimir, who was the director of Philips research for a long time in his career, had an outspoken opinion on the importance of fundamental science for industry. These proceedings are of interest both to research mathematicians and to those interested in the role science, and in particular mathematics, can play in innovation in industry.

The theory of distributions has numerous applications and is extensively used in mathematics, physics and engineering. There is however relatively little elementary expository literature on distribution theory. This book is intended as an introduction. Starting with the elementary theory of distributions, it proceeds to convolution products of distributions, Fourier and Laplace transforms, tempered distributions, summable distributions and applications. The theory is illustrated by several examples, mostly beginning with the case of the real line and then followed by examples in higher dimensions. This is a justified and practical approach, it helps the reader to become familiar with the subject. A moderate number of exercises are added. It is suitable for a one-semester course at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduatelevelor for self-study.