This volume presents the lectures given during the second French-Uzbek Colloquium on Algebra and Operator Theory which took place in Tashkent in 1997, at the Mathematical Institute of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences. Among the algebraic topics discussed here are deformation of Lie algebras, cohomology theory, the algebraic variety of the laws of Lie algebras, Euler equations on Lie algebras, Leibniz algebras, and real K-theory. Some contributions have a geometrical aspect, such as supermanifolds. The papers on operator theory deal with the study of certain types of operator algebras. This volume also contains a detailed introduction to the theory of quantum groups. Audience: This book is intended for graduate students specialising in algebra, differential geometry, operator theory, and theoretical physics, and for researchers in mathematics and theoretical physics.

The theory of operator algebras acting on a Hilbert space was initiated in thirties by papers of Murray and von Neumann. In these papers they have studied the structure of algebras which later were called von Neu mann algebras or W* -algebras. They are weakly closed complex *-algebras of operators on a Hilbert space. At present the theory of von Neumann algebras is a deeply developed theory with various applications. In the framework of von Neumann algebras theory the study of fac tors (i.e. W* -algebras with trivial centres) is very important, since they are comparatively simple and investigation of general W* -algebras can be reduced to the case of factors. Therefore the theory of factors is one of the main tools in the structure theory of von Neumann algebras. In the middle of sixtieth Topping [To 1] and Stormer [S 2] have ini tiated the study of Jordan (non associative and real) analogues of von Neumann algebras - so called JW-algebras, i.e. real linear spaces of self adjoint opera.tors on a complex Hilbert space, which contain the identity operator 1. closed with respect to the Jordan (i.e. symmetrised) product INTRODUCTION 2 x 0 y = ~(Xy + yx) and closed in the weak operator topology. The structure of these algebras has happened to be close to the struc ture of von Neumann algebras and it was possible to apply ideas and meth ods similar to von Neumann algebras theory in the study of JW-algebras.

This volume presents the lectures given during the second French-Uzbek Colloquium on Algebra and Operator Theory which took place in Tashkent in 1997, at the Mathematical Institute of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences. Among the algebraic topics discussed here are deformation of Lie algebras, cohomology theory, the algebraic variety of the laws of Lie algebras, Euler equations on Lie algebras, Leibniz algebras, and real K-theory. Some contributions have a geometrical aspect, such as supermanifolds. The papers on operator theory deal with the study of certain types of operator algebras. This volume also contains a detailed introduction to the theory of quantum groups. Audience: This book is intended for graduate students specialising in algebra, differential geometry, operator theory, and theoretical physics, and for researchers in mathematics and theoretical physics.

The theory of operator algebras acting on a Hilbert space was initiated in thirties by papers of Murray and von Neumann. In these papers they have studied the structure of algebras which later were called von Neu mann algebras or W* -algebras. They are weakly closed complex *-algebras of operators on a Hilbert space. At present the theory of von Neumann algebras is a deeply developed theory with various applications. In the framework of von Neumann algebras theory the study of fac tors (i.e. W* -algebras with trivial centres) is very important, since they are comparatively simple and investigation of general W* -algebras can be reduced to the case of factors. Therefore the theory of factors is one of the main tools in the structure theory of von Neumann algebras. In the middle of sixtieth Topping [To 1] and Stormer [S 2] have ini tiated the study of Jordan (non associative and real) analogues of von Neumann algebras - so called JW-algebras, i.e. real linear spaces of self adjoint opera.tors on a complex Hilbert space, which contain the identity operator 1. closed with respect to the Jordan (i.e. symmetrised) product INTRODUCTION 2 x 0 y = ~(Xy + yx) and closed in the weak operator topology. The structure of these algebras has happened to be close to the struc ture of von Neumann algebras and it was possible to apply ideas and meth ods similar to von Neumann algebras theory in the study of JW-algebras.