Alain Valette - Böcker

This text is a self contained treatment of expander graphs and in particular their explicit construction. Expander graphs are both highly connected but sparse, and besides their interest within combinatorics and graph theory, they also find various applications in computer science and engineering. The reader needs only a background in elementary algebra, analysis and combinatorics; the authors supply the necessary background material from graph theory, number theory, group theory and representation theory. The text can therefore be used as a brief introduction to these subjects as well as an illustration of how such topics are synthesised in modern mathematics.

This text is a self contained treatment of expander graphs and in particular their explicit construction. Expander graphs are both highly connected but sparse, and besides their interest within combinatorics and graph theory, they also find various applications in computer science and engineering. The reader needs only a background in elementary algebra, analysis and combinatorics; the authors supply the necessary background material from graph theory, number theory, group theory and representation theory. The text can therefore be used as a brief introduction to these subjects as well as an illustration of how such topics are synthesised in modern mathematics.

Property (T) is a rigidity property for topological groups, first formulated by D. Kazhdan in the mid 1960's with the aim of demonstrating that a large class of lattices are finitely generated. Later developments have shown that Property (T) plays an important role in an amazingly large variety of subjects, including discrete subgroups of Lie groups, ergodic theory, random walks, operator algebras, combinatorics, and theoretical computer science. This monograph offers a comprehensive introduction to the theory. It describes the two most important points of view on Property (T): the first uses a unitary group representation approach, and the second a fixed point property for affine isometric actions. Via these the authors discuss a range of important examples and applications to several domains of mathematics. A detailed appendix provides a systematic exposition of parts of the theory of group representations that are used to formulate and develop Property (T).

A collection of research articles and survey papers, Limits of Graphs in Group Theory and Computer Science highlights modern state of the art, current methods and open problems. The main research topics include the geometric, combinatorial and computational aspects of group theory. The book focuses on the study of large families of finite graphs with certain expanding properties and their embeddings into Hilbert and Banach spaces. The authors investigate the structure of finitely generated groups giving rise to such graphs and new interactions with broad areas of theoretical computer science are considered.

A locally compact group has the Haagerup property, or is a-T-menable in the sense of Gromov, if it admits a proper isometric action on some affine Hilbert space. As Gromov's pun is trying to indicate, this definition is designed as a strong negation to Kazhdan's property (T), characterized by the fact that every isometric action on some affine Hilbert space has a fixed point.The aim of this book is to cover, for the first time in book form, various aspects of the Haagerup property. New characterizations are brought in, using ergodic theory or operator algebras. Several new examples are given and new approaches to previously known examples are proposed. Connected Lie groups with the Haagerup property are completely characterized.---The book is extremely interesting, stimulating and well written (...) and it is strongly recommended to graduate students and researchers in the fields of geometry, group theory, harmonic analysis, ergodic theory and operator algebras.The first chapter, by Valette, is a stimulating introduction to the whole book.(Mathematical Reviews)This book constitutes a collective volume due to five authors, featuring important breakthroughs in an intensively studied subject.(Zentralblatt MATH)

A locally compact group has the Haagerup property, or is a-T-menable in the sense of Gromov, if it admits a proper isometric action on some affine Hilbert space. As Gromov's pun is trying to indicate, this definition is designed as a strong negation to Kazhdan's property (T), characterized by the fact that every isometric action on some affine Hilbert space has a fixed point.The aim of this book is to cover, for the first time in book form, various aspects of the Haagerup property. New characterizations are brought in, using ergodic theory or operator algebras. Several new examples are given, and new approaches to previously known examples are proposed. Connected Lie groups with the Haagerup property are completely characterized.

Six leading experts lecture on a wide spectrum of recent results on the subject of the title, providing both a solid reference and deep insights on current research activity. Michael Cowling presents a survey of various interactions between representation theory and harmonic analysis on semisimple groups and symmetric spaces. Alain Valette recalls the concept of amenability and shows how it is used in the proof of rigidity results for lattices of semisimple Lie groups. Edward Frenkel describes the geometric Langlands correspondence for complex algebraic curves, concentrating on the ramified case where a finite number of regular singular points is allowed. Masaki Kashiwara studies the relationship between the representation theory of real semisimple Lie groups and the geometry of the flag manifolds associated with the corresponding complex algebraic groups. David Vogan deals with the problem of getting unitary representations out of those arising from complex analysis, such as minimal globalizations realized on Dolbeault cohomology with compact support. Nolan Wallach illustrates how representation theory is related to quantum computing, focusing on the study of qubit entanglement.

A concise introduction to the techniques used to prove the Baum-Connes conjecture. The Baum-Connes conjecture predicts that the K-homology of the reduced C^*-algebra of a group can be computed as the equivariant K-homology of the classifying space for proper actions. The approach is expository, but it contains proofs of many basic results on topological K-homology and the K-theory of C^*-algebras. It features a detailed introduction to Bredon homology for infinite groups, with applications to K-homology. It also contains a detailed discussion of naturality questions concerning the assembly map, a topic not well documented in the literature. The book is aimed at advanced graduate students and researchers in the area, leading to current research problems.