Approach your problems from the It isn't that they can't see the solution. right end and begin with the answers. It is that they can't see the problem. Then one day, perhaps you will find the final question. G. K. Chesterton. The Scandal of Father Brown 'The point of a Pin'. 'The Hermit Clad in Crane Feathers' in R. van Gulik's The Chinese Maze Murders. Growing specialization and diversification have brought a host of monographs and textbooks on increasingly specialized topics. However, the 'tree' of knowledge of mathematics and related fields does not grow only by putting forth new branches. It also happens, quite often in fact, that branches which were thought to be completely disparate are suddenly seen to be related. Further, the kind and level of sophistication of mathematics applied in various sciences has changed drastically in recent years: measure theory is used (non trivially) in regional and theoretical economics; algebraic geometry interacts with physics; the Minkowsky lemma, coding theory and the structure of water meet one another in packing and covering theory; quantum fields, crystal defects and mathematical programming profit from homotopy theory; Lie algebras are relevant to filtering; and prediction and electrical engineering can use Stein spaces. And in addition to this there are such new emerging subdisciplines as 'experimental mathematics', 'CFD', 'completely integrable systems', 'chaos, synergetics and large-scale order', which are almost impossible to fit into the existing classification schemes. They draw upon widely different sections of mathematics."

This EMS volume, the first edition of which was published as Dynamical Systems II, EMS 2, familiarizes the reader with the fundamental ideas and results of modern ergodic theory and its applications to dynamical systems and statistical mechanics. The enlarged and revised second edition adds two new contributions on ergodic theory of flows on homogeneous manifolds and on methods of algebraic geometry in the theory of interval exchange transformations.

This EMS volume, the first edition of which was published as Dynamical Systems II, EMS 2, sets out to familiarize the reader to the fundamental ideas and results of modern ergodic theory and its applications to dynamical systems and statistical mechanics. The exposition starts from the basic of the subject, introducing ergodicity, mixing and entropy. The ergodic theory of smooth dynamical systems is treated. Numerous examples are presented carefully along with the ideas underlying the most important results. Moreover, the book deals with the dynamical systems of statistical mechanics, and with various kinetic equations. For this second enlarged and revised edition, published as Mathematical Physics I, EMS 100, two new contributions on ergodic theory of flows on homogeneous manifolds and on methods of algebraic geometry in the theory of interval exchange transformations were added. This book is compulsory reading for all mathematicians working in this field, or wanting to learn about it.