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K-theory has helped convert the theory of operator algebras from a simple branch of functional analysis to a subject with broad applicability throughout mathematics, especially in geometry and topology, and many mathematicians of diverse backgrounds must learn the essential parts of the theory. This book is the only comprehensive treatment of K-theory for operator algebras, and is intended to help students, non-specialists, and specialists learn the subject. This book develops K-theory, the theory of extensions, and Kasparov's bivariant KK-theory for C*-algebras. Special topics covered include the theory of AF algebras, axiomatic K-theory, the Universal Coefficient Theorem, and E-theory. Although the book is technically complete, motivation and intuition are emphasized. Many examples and applications are discussed. This first paperback printing has been revised and expanded and contains an updated reference list.
This book documents the focus on a branch of Riemannian geometry called Comparison Geometry. The simple idea of comparing the geometry of an arbitrary Riemannian manifold with the geometries of constant curvature spaces has seen a tremendous evolution of late. This volume is an up-to-date reflection of the recent development regarding spaces with lower (or two-sided) curvature bounds. The content of the volume reflects some of the most exciting activities in comparison geometry during the year and especially of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute's workshop devoted to the subject. Both survey and research articles are featured. Complete proofs are often provided, and in one case a new unified strategy is presented and new proofs are offered. This volume will be a valuable source for advanced researchers and those who wish to learn about and contribute to this beautiful subject.
The three main themes of this book, probability theory, differential geometry, and the theory of integrable systems, reflect the broad range of mathematical interests of Henry McKean, to whom it is dedicated. Written by experts in probability, geometry, integrable systems, turbulence, and percolation, the seventeen papers included here demonstrate a wide variety of techniques that have been developed to solve various mathematical problems in these areas. The topics are often combined in an unusual and interesting fashion to give solutions outside of the standard methods. The papers contain some exciting results and offer a guide to the contemporary literature on these subjects.
Is Nine-Men Morris, in the hands of perfect players, a win for white or for black - or a draw? Can king, rook, and knight always defeat king and two knights in chess? What can Go players learn from economists? What are nimbers, tinies, switches and minies? This book deals with combinatorial games, that is, games not involving chance or hidden information. Their study is at once old and young: though some games, such as chess, have been analyzed for centuries, the first full analysis of a nontrivial combinatorial game (Nim) only appeared in 1902. The first part of this book will be accessible to anyone, regardless of background: it contains introductory expositions, reports of unusual tournaments, and a fascinating article by John H. Conway on the possibly everlasting contest between an angel and a devil. For those who want to delve more deeply, the book also contains combinatorial studies of chess and Go; reports on computer advances such as the solution of Nine-Men Morris and Pentominoes; and theoretical approaches to such problems as games with many players. If you have read and enjoyed Martin Gardner, or if you like to learn and analyze new games, this book is for you.
Convex geometry is at once simple and amazingly rich. While the classical results go back many decades, during that previous to this book's publication in 1999, the integral geometry of convex bodies had undergone a dramatic revitalization, brought about by the introduction of methods, results and, most importantly, new viewpoints, from probability theory, harmonic analysis and the geometry of finite-dimensional normed spaces. This book is a collection of research and expository articles on convex geometry and probability, suitable for researchers and graduate students in several branches of mathematics coming under the broad heading of 'Geometric Functional Analysis'. It continues the Israel GAFA Seminar series, which is widely recognized as the most useful research source in the area. The collection reflects the work done at the program in Convex Geometry and Geometric Analysis that took place at MSRI in 1996.
During the past few decades, the gradual merger of Discrete Geometry and the newer discipline of Computational Geometry has provided enormous impetus to mathematicians and computer scientists interested in geometric problems. This 2005 volume, which contains 32 papers on a broad range of topics of interest in the field, is an outgrowth of that synergism. It includes surveys and research articles exploring geometric arrangements, polytopes, packing, covering, discrete convexity, geometric algorithms and their complexity, and the combinatorial complexity of geometric objects, particularly in low dimension. There are points of contact with many applied areas such as mathematical programming, visibility problems, kinetic data structures, and biochemistry, as well as with algebraic topology, geometric probability, real algebraic geometry, and combinatorics.
During the past decade, mathematics education has changed rapidly, giving rise to a polarization of opinions among the community of research mathematicians. What is the appropriate balance between theory, technique, and applications? What is the role of technology? How do we fulfil the needs of students entering other fields? The purpose of this volume, the proceedings of a conference held at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley in 1996, is to present a serious discussion of these educational issues, with a balanced representation of opposing ideas. Part I deals with general issues in university mathematics education; Part II presents case studies on particular projects; Part III presents a range of opinions on mathematics education in elementary and secondary schools; and Part IV presents the reports of the working groups.
The 1992/3 academic year at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute was devoted to complex algebraic geometry. This 1996 volume collects survey articles that arose from this event, which took place at a time when algebraic geometry was undergoing a major change. To put it succinctly, algebraic geometry has opened up to ideas and connections from other fields that have traditionally been far away. The editors of the volume, Herbert Clemens and Janos Kollar, chaired the organizing committee. Activities were centered around themes, one per month, under the guidance of experts in each area. There were also four short workshops, which attracted many participants and helped considerably in communicating the new directions in algebraic geometry to a large audience. This book gives a good idea of the intellectual content of the special yearand of the workshops.
Flavors of Geometry is a volume of lectures on four geometrically-influenced fields of mathematics that have experienced great development in recent years. Growing out of a series of introductory lectures given at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in January 1995 and January 1996, the book presents chapters by masters in their respective fields on hyperbolic geometry, dynamics in several complex variables, convex geometry, and volume estimation. Each lecture begins with a discussion of elementary concepts, examines the highlights of the field, and concludes with a look at more advanced material. The style and presentation of the chapters are clear and accessible, and most of the lectures are richly illustrated. Bibiliographies and indexes are included to encourage further reading on the topics discussed.
Finsler geometry generalises Riemannian geometry in the same sense that Banach spaces generalise Hilbert spaces. This book presents an expository account of seven important topics in Riemann–Finsler geometry, ones which have undergone significant development but have not had a detailed pedagogical treatment elsewhere. Each article will open the door to an active area of research, and is suitable for a special topics course in graduate-level differential geometry. The contributors consider issues related to volume, geodesics, curvature, complex differential geometry and parametrised jet bundles, and include a variety of instructive examples.
Model theory has made substantial contributions to semialgebraic, subanalytic, p-adic, rigid and diophantine geometry. These applications range from a proof of the rationality of certain Poincare series associated to varieties over p-adic fields, to a proof of the Mordell-Lang conjecture for function fields in positive characteristic. In some cases (such as the latter) it is the most abstract aspects of model theory which are relevant. This book, originally published in 2000, arising from a series of introductory lectures for graduate students, provides the necessary background to understanding both the model theory and the mathematics behind these applications. The book is unique in that the whole spectrum of contemporary model theory (stability, simplicity, o-minimality and variations) is covered and diverse areas of geometry (algebraic, diophantine, real analytic, p-adic, and rigid) are introduced and discussed, all by leading experts in their fields.
Inverse problems arise in practical situations such as medical imaging, geophysical exploration, and non-destructive evaluation where measurements made on the exterior of a body are used to determine properties of the inaccessible interior. There have been substantial developments in the mathematical theory of inverse problems, and applications have expanded greatly. In this volume, leading experts in the theoretical and applied aspects of inverse problems offer extended surveys on several important topics in modern inverse problems, such as microlocal analysis, reflection seismology, tomography, inverse scattering, and X-ray transforms. Each article covers a particular topic or topics with an emphasis on accessibility and integration with the whole volume. Thus the collection can be at the same time stimulating to researchers and accessible to graduate students.
This book contains eight expository articles by well-known authors of the theory of Galois groups and fundamental groups. They focus on presenting developments, avoiding classical aspects which have already been described at length in the standard literature. The volume grew from the special semester held at the MSRI in Berkeley in 1999 and many of the results are due to work accomplished during that program. Among the subjects covered are elliptic surfaces, Grothendieck's anabelian conjecture, fundamental groups of curves and differential Galois theory in positive characteristic. Although the articles contain fresh results, the authors have striven to make them as introductory as possible, making them accessible to graduate students as well as researchers in algebraic geometry and number theory. The volume also contains a lengthy overview by Leila Schneps that sets the individual articles into the broader context of contemporary research in Galois groups.
Several Complex Variables is a central area of mathematics with strong interactions with partial differential equations, algebraic geometry, number theory, and differential geometry. The 1995–1996 MSRI program on Several Complex Variables emphasized these interactions and concentrated on developments and problems of interest that capitalize on this interplay of ideas and techniques. This collection, first published in 2000, provides a remarkably clear and complete picture of the status of research in these overlapping areas and will provide a basis for significant continued contributions from researchers. Several of the articles are expository or have extensive expository sections, making this an excellent introduction for students to the use of techniques from these other areas in several complex variables. Thanks to its distinguished list of contributors this volume provides a representative sample of the work done in Several Complex Variables.
The German mathematician Felix Klein discovered in 1879 that the surface that we now call the Klein quartic has many remarkable properties, including an incredible 336-fold symmetry, the maximum possible degree of symmetry for any surface of its type. Since then, mathematicians have discovered that the same object comes up in different guises in many areas of mathematics, from complex analysis and geometry to number theory. This volume explores the rich tangle of properties and theories surrounding this multiform object. It includes expository and research articles by renowned mathematicians in different fields. It also includes a beautifully illustrated essay by the mathematical sculptor Helaman Ferguson, who distilled some of the beauty and remarkable properties of this surface into a sculpture entitled 'The Eightfold Way'. The book closes with the first English translation of Klein's seminal article on this surface.
Random matrices arise from, and have important applications to, number theory, probability, combinatorics, representation theory, quantum mechanics, solid state physics, quantum field theory, quantum gravity, and many other areas of physics and mathematics. This 2001 volume of surveys and research results, based largely on lectures given at the Spring 1999 MSRI program of the same name, covers broad areas such as topologic and combinatorial aspects of random matrix theory; scaling limits, universalities and phase transitions in matrix models; universalities for random polynomials; and applications to integrable systems. Its stress on the interaction between physics and mathematics will make it a welcome addition to the shelves of graduate students and researchers in both fields, as will its expository emphasis.
During 1996–7 MSRI held a full academic year program on Combinatorics, with special emphasis on the connections with other branches of mathematics, such as algebraic geometry, topology, commutative algebra, representation theory, and convex geometry. The rich combinatorial problems arising from the study of various algebraic structures are the subject of this book, which represents work done or presented at seminars during the program. It contains contributions on matroid bundles, combinatorial representation theory, lattice points in polyhedra, bilinear forms, combinatorial differential topology and geometry, Macdonald polynomials and geometry, enumeration of matchings, the generalized Baues problem, and Littlewood–Richardson semigroups. These expository articles, written by some of the most respected researchers in the field, will continue to be of use to graduate students and researchers in combinatorics as well as algebra, geometry, and topology.
Spaces of holomorphic functions have been a prominent theme in analysis since early in the twentieth century. Of interest to complex analysts, functional analysts, operator theorists and systems theorists, their study is now flourishing. This volume, an outgrowth of a 1995 program at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, contains expository articles by programme participants. Here researchers and graduate students will encounter Hardy spaces, Bergman spaces, Dirichlet spaces, Hankel and Toeplitz operators, and a sampling of the role these objects play in modern analysis.
First published in 1997, this book contains six in-depth articles on various aspects of the field of tight and taut submanifolds and concludes with an extensive bibliography of the entire field. The book is dedicated to the memory of Nicolaas H. Kuiper; the first paper is an unfinished but insightful survey of the field of tight immersions and maps written by Kuiper himself. Other papers by leading researchers in the field treat topics such as the smooth and polyhedral portions of the theory of tight immersions, taut, Dupin and isoparametric submanifolds of Euclidean space, taut submanifolds of arbitrary complete Riemannian manifolds, and real hypersurfaces in complex space forms with special curvature properties. Taken together these articles provide a comprehensive survey of the field and point toward several directions for future research.
Signal processing is everywhere in modern technology. Its mathematical basis and many areas of application are the subject of this book, based on a series of graduate-level lectures held at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. Emphasis is on challenges in the subject, particular techniques adapted to particular technologies, and certain advances in algorithms and theory. The book covers two main areas: computational harmonic analysis, envisioned as a technology for efficiently analysing real data using inherent symmetries; and the challenges inherent in the acquisition, processing and analysis of images and sensing data in general [EMDASH] ranging from sonar on a submarine to a neuroscientist's fMRI study.