Dale Husemöller - Böcker

Fibre bundles play an important role in just about every aspect of modern geometry and topology. Basic properties, homotopy classification, and characteristic classes of fibre bundles have become an essential part of graduate mathematical education for students in geometry and mathematical physics. In this third edition two new chapters on the gauge group of a bundle and on the differential forms representing characteristic classes of complex vector bundles on manifolds have been added. These chapters result from the important role of the gauge group in mathematical physics and the continual usefulness of characteristic classes defined with connections on vector bundles.

This book is an introduction to the theory of elliptic curves, ranging from its most elementary aspects to current research. The first part, which grew out of Tate's Haverford lectures, covers the elementary arithmetic theory of elliptic curves over the rationals. The next two chapters recast the arguments used in the proof of the Mordell theorem into the context of Galois cohomology and descent theory. This is followed by three chapters on the analytic theory of elliptic curves, including such topics as elliptic functions, theta functions, and modular functions. Next, the theory of endomorphisms and elliptic curves over infinite and local fields are discussed. The book concludes with three chapters surveying recent results in the arithmetic theory, especially those related to the conjecture of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer. This new edition contains three new chapters and the addition of two appendices by Stefan Theisen and Otto Forster. Dale Husemoller is a member of the faculty at the Max Planck Institute of Mathematics.

There are three new appendices, one by Stefan Theisen on the role of Calabi– Yau manifolds in string theory and one by Otto Forster on the use of elliptic curves in computing theory and coding theory. In the third appendix we discuss the role of elliptic curves in homotopy theory. In these three introductions the reader can get a clue to the far-reaching implications of the theory of elliptic curves in mathematical sciences. During the ?nal production of this edition, the ICM 2002 manuscript of Mike Hopkins became available. This report outlines the role of elliptic curves in ho- topy theory. Elliptic curves appear in the form of the Weierstasse equation and its related changes of variable. The equations and the changes of variable are coded in an algebraic structure called a Hopf algebroid, and this Hopf algebroid is related to a cohomology theory called topological modular forms. Hopkins and his coworkers have used this theory in several directions, one being the explanation of elements in stable homotopy up to degree 60. In the third appendix we explain how what we described in Chapter 3 leads to the Weierstrass Hopf algebroid making a link with Hopkins’ paper.

In this third edition two new chapters on the gauge group of a bundle and on the differential forms representing characteristic classes of complex vector bundles on manifolds have been added.

Based on several recent courses given to mathematical physics students, this volume is an introduction to bundle theory with the aim to provide newcomers to the field with solid foundations in topological K-theory. A fundamental theme, emphasized in the book, centers around the gluing of local bundle data related to bundles into a global object. One renewed motivation for studying this subject, which has developed for almost 50 years in many directions, comes from quantum field theory, especially string theory, where topological invariants play an important role.