G. -C Rota - Böcker

Originally published in 1977, this volume is concerned with the relationship between symmetries of a linear second-order partial differential equation of mathematical physics, the coordinate systems in which the equation admits solutions via separation of variables, and the properties of the special functions that arise in this manner. Some group-theoretic twists in the ancient method of separation of variables that can be used to provide a foundation for much of special function theory are shown. In particular, it is shown explicitly that all special functions that arise via separation of variables in the equations of mathematical physics can be studied using group theory.

This 1985 text develops the theory of angular momentum from the viewpoint of a fundamental symmetry in nature and shows how this concept relates to applied areas of research in modern quantum physics.

Originally published in 1979, this book shows the beautiful simplifications that can be brought to the theory of differential equations by treating such equations from the product integral viewpoint. The first chapter of the book, dealing with linear ordinary differential equations, should be accessible to anyone with a knowledge of matrix theory and elementary calculus. Later chapters assume more sophistication on the part of the reader. The essential unity of these subjects is illustrated by the fact that the idea of the product integral can be naturally and effectively used to deal with all of them.

This is a version of Gevrey's classical treatise on the heat equations. Included in this volume are discussions of initial and/or boundary value problems, numerical methods, free boundary problems and parameter determination problems. The material is presented as a monograph and/or information source book. After the first six chapters of standard classical material, each chapter is written as a self-contained unit except for an occasional reference to elementary definitions, theorems and lemmas in previous chapters.

In this book, which was originally published in 1985, Arto Salomaa gives an introduction to certain mathematical topics central to theoretical computer science: computability and recursive functions, formal languages and automata, computational complexity and cryptography. Without sacrificing readability, the presentation is essentially self-contained, with detailed proofs of all statements provided. Professor Salomaa is well known for his books in this area. The present work provides an insight into the basics, together with explanations of some of the more important developments in the field.

This is an up-to-date and integrated introduction to model theory, designed to be used for graduate courses (for students who are familiar with first-order logic), and as a reference for more experienced logicians and mathematicians. Model theory is concerned with the notions of definition, interpretation and structure in a very general setting, and is applied to a wide variety of other areas such as set theory, geometry, algebra (in particular group theory), and computer science (e.g. logic programming and specification). Professor Hodges emphasises definability and methods of construction, and introduces the reader to advanced topics such as stability. He also provides the reader with much historical information and a full bibliography, enhancing the book's use as a reference.

An interval is a natural way of specifying a number that is specified only within certain tolerances. Interval analysis consists of the tools and methods needed to solve linear and nonlinear systems of equations in the presence of data uncertainties. Applications include the sensitivity analysis of solutions of equations depending on parameters, the solution of global nonlinear problems, and the verification of results obtained by finite-precision arithmetic. In this book emphasis is laid on those aspects of the theory which are useful in actual computations. On the other hand, the theory is developed with full mathematical rigour. In order to keep the book self-contained, various results from linear algebra (Perron-Frobenius theory, M- and H- matrices) and analysis (existence of solutions to nonlinear systems) are proved, often from a novel and more general viewpoint. An extensive bibliography is included.

This unique book develops the classical subjects of geometric probability and integral geometry, and the more modern one of stochastic geometry, in rather a novel way to provide a unifying framework in which they can be studied. The author focuses on factorisation properties of measures and probabilities implied by the assumption of their invariance with respect to a group, in order to investigate non-trivial factors. The study of these properties is the central theme of the book. Basic facts about integral geometry and random point process theory are developed in a simple geometric way, so that the whole approach is suitable for a non-specialist audience. Even in the later chapters, where the factorisation principles are applied to geometrical processes, the prerequisites are only standard courses on probability and analysis. The main ideas presented here have application to such areas as stereology and tomography, geometrical statistics, pattern and texture analysis. This book will be well suited as a starting point for individuals working in those areas to learn about the mathematical framework. It will also prove valuable as an introduction to geometric probability theory and integral geometry based on modern ideas.

This is the first volume of a two volume set that provides a modern account of basic Banach algebra theory including all known results on general Banach *-algebras. This account emphasises the role of *-algebra structure and explores the algebraic results which underlie the theory of Banach algebras and *-algebras. This first volume is an independent, self-contained reference on Banach algebra theory. Each topic is treated in the maximum interesting generality within the framework of some class complex algebras rather than topological algebras. In both volumes proofs are presented in complete detail at a level accessible to graduate students. In addition, the books contain a wealth of historical comments, background material, examples, particularly in noncommutative harmonic analysis, and an extensive bibliography. Together these books will become the standard reference for the general theory of *-algebras.

The theory of finite fields is a branch of algebra that has come to the fore because of its diverse applications in such areas as combinatorics, coding theory and the mathematical study of switching ciruits. This book is devoted entirely to the theory of finite fields, and it provides comprehensive coverage of the literature. Bibliographical notes at the end of each chapter give an historical survey of the development of the subject. Worked-out examples and lists of exercises found throughout the book make it useful as a text for advanced-level courses.

Minkowski geometry is a type of non-Euclidean geometry in a finite number of dimensions in which distance is not 'uniform' in all directions. This book presents the first comprehensive treatment of Minkowski geometry since the 1940s. The author begins by describing the fundamental metric properties and the topological properties of existence of Minkowski space. This is followed by a treatment of two-dimensional spaces and characterisations of Euclidean space among normed spaces. The central three chapters present the theory of area and volume in normed spaces, a fascinating geometrical interplay among the various roles of the ball in Euclidean space. Later chapters deal with trigonometry and differential geometry in Minkowski spaces. The book ends with a brief look at J. J. Schaffer's ideas on the intrinsic geometry of the unit sphere. Minkowski Geometry will appeal to students and researchers interested in geometry, convexity theory and functional analysis.

In this treatise, the authors present the general theory of orthogonal polynomials on the complex plane and several of its applications. The assumptions on the measure of orthogonality are general, the only restriction is that it has compact support on the complex plane. In the development of the theory the main emphasis is on asymptotic behaviour and the distribution of zeros. In the following chapters, the author explores the exact upper and lower bounds are given for the orthonormal polynomials and for the location of their zeros; regular n-th root asymptotic behaviour; and applications of the theory, including exact rates for convergence of rational interpolants, best rational approximants and non-diagonal Pade approximants to Markov functions (Cauchy transforms of measures). The results are based on potential theoretic methods, so both the methods and the results can be extended to extremal polynomials in norms other than L2 norms. A sketch of the theory of logarithmic potentials is given in an appendix.

Research in computational group theory, an active subfield of computational algebra, has emphasised three areas: finite permutation groups, finite solvable groups, and finitely presented groups. This book deals with the third of these areas. The author emphasises the connections with fundamental algorithms from theoretical computer science, particularly the theory of automata and formal languages, computational number theory, and computational commutative algebra. The LLL lattice reduction algorithm and various algorithms for Hermite and Smith normal forms from computational number theory are used to study the abelian quotients of a finitely presented group. The work of Baumslag, Cannonito and Miller on computing nonabelian polycyclic quotients is described as a generalisation of Buchberger's Gröbner basis methods to right ideals in the integral group ring of a polycyclic group. Researchers in computational group theory, mathematicians interested in finitely presented groups and theoretical computer scientists will find this book useful.

Non-commutative fields (also called skew fields or division rings) have not been studied as thoroughly as their commutative counterparts, and most accounts have hitherto been confined to division algebras - that is skew fields finite dimensional over their centre. Based on the author's LMS lecture note volume Skew Field Constructions, the present work offers a comprehensive account of skew fields. The axiomatic foundation, and a precise description of the embedding problem, is followed by an account of algebraic and topological construction methods, in particular, the author's general embedding theory is presented with full proofs, leading to the construction of skew fields. The powerful coproduct theorem of G. M. Bergman is proved here, as well as the properties of the matrix reduction functor, a useful but little-known construction providing a source of examples and counter-examples. The construction and basic properties of existentially closed skew fields are given, leading to an example of a model class with an infinite forcing companion which is not axiomatizable.

This book is devoted to the study of classical combinatorial structures such as random graphs, permutations, and systems of random linear equations in finite fields. The author shows how the application of the generalized scheme of allocation in the study of random graphs and permutations reduces the combinatorial problems to classical problems of probability theory on the summation of independent random variables. He concentrates on research by Russian mathematicians, including a discussion of equations containing an unknown permutation and a presentation of techniques for solving systems of random linear equations in finite fields. These results will interest specialists in combinatorics and probability theory and will also be useful in applied areas of probabilistic combinatorics such as communication theory, cryptology, and mathematical genetics.

A Handbook of Categorical Algebra is designed to give, in three volumes, a detailed account of what should be known by everybody working in, or using, category theory. As such it will be a unique reference. The volumes are written in sequence, with the first being essentially self-contained, and are accessible to graduate students with a good background in mathematics. Volume 1, which is devoted to general concepts, can be used for advanced undergraduate courses on category theory. After introducing the terminology and proving the fundamental results concerning limits, adjoint functors and Kan extensions, the categories of fractions are studied in detail; special consideration is paid to the case of localizations. The remainder of the first volume studies various 'refinements' of the fundamental concepts of category and functor.

The Handbook of Categorical Algebra is designed to give, in three volumes, a detailed account of what should be known by everybody working in, or using, category theory. As such it will be a unique reference. The volumes are written in sequence. The second, which assumes familiarity with the material in the first, introduces important classes of categories that have played a fundamental role in the subject's development and applications. In addition, after several chapters discussing specific categories, the book develops all the major concepts concerning Benabou's ideas of fibred categories. There is ample material here for a graduate course in category theory, and the book should also serve as a reference for users.

The Handbook of Categorical Algebra is intended to give, in three volumes, a rather detailed account of what, ideally, everybody working in category theory should know, whatever the specific topic of research they have chosen. The book is planned also to serve as a reference book for both specialists in the field and all those using category theory as a tool. Volume 3 begins with the essential aspects of the theory of locales, proceeding to a study in chapter 2 of the sheaves on a locale and on a topological space, in their various equivalent presentations: functors, etale maps or W-sets. Next, this situation is generalized to the case of sheaves on a site and the corresponding notion of Grothendieck topos is introduced. Chapter 4 relates the theory of Grothendieck toposes with that of accessible categories and sketches, by proving the existence of a classifying topos for all coherent theories.

This book presents an up-to-date, unified treatment of research in bounded arithmetic and complexity of propositional logic, with emphasis on independence proofs and lower bound proofs. The author discusses the deep connections between logic and complexity theory and lists a number of intriguing open problems. An introduction to the basics of logic and complexity theory is followed by discussion of important results in propositional proof systems and systems of bounded arithmetic. More advanced topics are then treated, including polynomial simulations and conservativity results, various witnessing theorems, the translation of bounded formulas (and their proofs) into propositional ones, the method of random partial restrictions and its applications, direct independence proofs, complete systems of partial relations, lower bounds to the size of constant-depth propositional proofs, the method of Boolean valuations, the issue of hard tautologies and optimal proof systems, combinatorics and complexity theory within bounded arithmetic, and relations to complexity issues of predicate calculus. Students and researchers in mathematical logic and complexity theory will find this comprehensive treatment an excellent guide to this expanding interdisciplinary area.

The starting point of this book is Sperner's theorem, which answers the question: What is the maximum possible size of a family of pairwise (with respect to inclusion) subsets of a finite set? This theorem stimulated the development of a fast growing theory dealing with external problems on finite sets and, more generally, on finite partially ordered sets. This book presents Sperner theory from a unified point of view, bringing combinatorial techniques together with methods from programming, linear algebra, Lie-algebra representations and eigenvalue methods, probability theory, and enumerative combinatorics. Researchers and graduate students in discrete mathematics, optimisation, algebra, probability theory, number theory, and geometry will find many powerful new methods arising from Sperner theory.

In Semimodular Lattices: Theory and Applications Manfred Stern uses successive generalizations of distributive and modular lattices to outline the development of semimodular lattices from Boolean algebras. He focuses on the important theory of semimodularity, its many ramifications, and its applications in discrete mathematics, combinatorics, and algebra. The book surveys and analyzes Garrett Birkhoff's concept of semimodularity and the various related concepts in lattice theory, and it presents theoretical results as well as applications in discrete mathematics group theory and universal algebra. The author also deals with lattices that are 'close' to semimodularity or can be combined with semimodularity, e.g. supersolvable, admissible, consistent, strong, and balanced lattices. Researchers in lattice theory, discrete mathematics, combinatorics, and algebra will find this book invaluable.

This book provides a comprehensive presentation of geometric results, primarily from the theory of convex sets, that have been proved by the use of Fourier series or spherical harmonics. An important feature of the book is that all necessary tools from the classical theory of spherical harmonics are presented with full proofs. These tools are used to prove geometric inequalities, stability results, uniqueness results for projections and intersections by hyperplanes or half-spaces and characterisations of rotors in convex polytopes. Again, full proofs are given. To make the treatment as self-contained as possible the book begins with background material in analysis and the geometry of convex sets. This treatise will be welcomed both as an introduction to the subject and as a reference book for pure and applied mathematics.

This book provides an integrated treatment of the theory of nonnegative matrices (matrices with only positive numbers or zero as entries) and some related classes of positive matrices, concentrating on connections with game theory, combinatorics, inequalities, optimisation and mathematical economics. The wide variety of applications, which include price fixing, scheduling and the fair division problem, have been carefully chosen both for their elegant mathematical content and for their accessibility to students with minimal preparation. Many results in matrix theory are also presented. The treatment is rigorous and almost all results are proved completely. These results and applications will be of great interest to researchers in linear programming, statistics and operations research. The minimal prerequisites also make the book accessible to first-year graduate students.

This book provided the first self-contained comprehensive exposition of the theory of dynamical systems as a core mathematical discipline closely intertwined with most of the main areas of mathematics. The authors introduce and rigorously develop the theory while providing researchers interested in applications with fundamental tools and paradigms. The book begins with a discussion of several elementary but fundamental examples. These are used to formulate a program for the general study of asymptotic properties and to introduce the principal theoretical concepts and methods. The main theme of the second part of the book is the interplay between local analysis near individual orbits and the global complexity of the orbit structure. The third and fourth parts develop the theories of low-dimensional dynamical systems and hyperbolic dynamical systems in depth. Over 400 systematic exercises are included in the text. The book is aimed at students and researchers in mathematics at all levels from advanced undergraduate up.

Now in paperback, this classic book is addressed to all lovers of number theory. On the one hand, it gives a comprehensive introduction to constructive algebraic number theory, and is therefore especially suited as a textbook for a course on that subject. On the other hand many parts go beyond an introduction and make the user familiar with recent research in the field. New methods which have been developed for experimental number theoreticians are included along with new and important results. Both computer scientists interested in higher arithmetic and those teaching algebraic number theory will find the book of value.

The approach to quantum field theory in this book is part way between building a mathematical model of the subject and presenting the mathematics that physicists actually use. It starts with the need to combine special relativity and quantum mechanics and culminates in a basic understanding of the standard model of electroweak and strong interactions. The book is divided into five parts: 1. Canonical quantization of scalar fields; 2. Weyl, Dirac and vector fields; 3. Functional integral quantization; 4. The standard model of the electroweak and strong interactions; 5. Renormalization. This should be a useful reference for anybody with interests in quantum theory and related areas of function theory, functional analysis, differential geometry or topological invariant theory.

This book covers most of the known results on reducibility of polynomials over arbitrary fields, algebraically closed fields and finitely generated fields. Results valid only over finite fields, local fields or the rational field are not covered here, but several theorems on reducibility of polynomials over number fields that are either totally real or complex multiplication fields are included. Some of these results are based on recent work of E. Bombieri and U. Zannier (presented here by Zannier in an appendix). The book also treats other subjects like Ritt's theory of composition of polynomials, and properties of the Mahler measure, and it concludes with a bibliography of over 300 items. This unique work will be a necessary resource for all number theorists and researchers in related fields.

This book provides a lucid and comprehensive introduction to the differential geometric study of partial differential equations. It was the first book to present substantial results on local solvability of general and, in particular, nonlinear PDE systems without using power series techniques. The book describes a general approach to systems of partial differential equations based on ideas developed by Lie, Cartan and Vessiot. The most basic question is that of local solvability, but the methods used also yield classifications of various families of PDE systems. The central idea is the exploitation of singular vector field systems and their first integrals. These considerations naturally lead to local Lie groups, Lie pseudogroups and the equivalence problem, all of which are covered in detail. This book will be a valuable resource for graduate students and researchers in partial differential equations, Lie groups and related fields.

Asymptotics and Mellin-Barnes Integrals, first published in 2001, provides an account of the use and properties of a type of complex integral representation that arises frequently in the study of special functions typically of interest in classical analysis and mathematical physics. After developing the properties of these integrals, their use in determining the asymptotic behaviour of special functions is detailed. Although such integrals have a long history, the book's account includes recent research results in analytic number theory and hyperasymptotics. The book also fills a gap in the literature on asymptotic analysis and special functions by providing a thorough account of the use of Mellin-Barnes integrals that is otherwise not available in other standard references on asymptotics.