Izu Vaisman - Böcker

The present work grew out of a study of the Maslov class (e. g. (37]), which is a fundamental invariant in asymptotic analysis of partial differential equations of quantum physics. One of the many in­ terpretations of this class was given by F. Kamber and Ph. Tondeur (43], and it indicates that the Maslov class is a secondary characteristic class of a complex trivial vector bundle endowed with a real reduction of its structure group. (In the basic paper of V. I. Arnold about the Maslov class (2], it is also pointed out without details that the Maslov class is characteristic in the category of vector bundles mentioned pre­ viously. ) Accordingly, we wanted to study the whole range of secondary characteristic classes involved in this interpretation, and we gave a short description of the results in (83]. It turned out that a complete exposition of this theory was rather lengthy, and, moreover, I felt that many potential readers would have to use a lot of scattered references in order to find the necessary information from either symplectic geometry or the theory of the secondary characteristic classes. On the otherhand, both these subjects are of a much larger interest in differential geome­ try and topology, and in the applications to physical theories.

Everybody having even the slightest interest in analytical mechanics remembers having met there the Poisson bracket of two functions of 2n variables (pi, qi) f g ~(8f8g 8 8 ) (0.1) {f,g} = L...~[ji - [ji~ ,;=1 p, q q p, and the fundamental role it plays in that field. In modern works, this bracket is derived from a symplectic structure, and it appears as one of the main in- gredients of symplectic manifolds. In fact, it can even be taken as the defining clement of the structure (e.g., [TIl]). But, the study of some mechanical sys- tems, particularly systems with symmetry groups or constraints, may lead to more general Poisson brackets. Therefore, it was natural to define a mathematical structure where the notion of a Poisson bracket would be the primary notion of the theory, and, from this viewpoint, such a theory has been developed since the early 19708, by A. Lichnerowicz, A. Weinstein, and many other authors (see the references at the end of the book). But, it has been remarked by Weinstein [We3] that, in fact, the theory can be traced back to S. Lie himself [Lie].

Everybody having even the slightest interest in analytical mechanics remembers having met there the Poisson bracket of two functions of 2n variables (pi, qi) f g ~(8f8g 8 8 ) (0.1) {f,g} = L...~[ji - [ji~ ,;=1 p, q q p, and the fundamental role it plays in that field. In modern works, this bracket is derived from a symplectic structure, and it appears as one of the main in- gredients of symplectic manifolds. In fact, it can even be taken as the defining clement of the structure (e.g., [TIl]). But, the study of some mechanical sys- tems, particularly systems with symmetry groups or constraints, may lead to more general Poisson brackets. Therefore, it was natural to define a mathematical structure where the notion of a Poisson bracket would be the primary notion of the theory, and, from this viewpoint, such a theory has been developed since the early 19708, by A. Lichnerowicz, A. Weinstein, and many other authors (see the references at the end of the book). But, it has been remarked by Weinstein [We3] that, in fact, the theory can be traced back to S. Lie himself [Lie].

This volume discusses the classical subjects of Euclidean, affine and projective geometry in two and three dimensions, including the classification of conics and quadrics, and geometric transformations. These subjects are important both for the mathematical grounding of the student and for applications to various other subjects. They may be studied in the first year or as a second course in geometry.The material is presented in a geometric way, and it aims to develop the geometric intuition and thinking of the student, as well as his ability to understand and give mathematical proofs. Linear algebra is not a prerequisite, and is kept to a bare minimum.The book includes a few methodological novelties, and a large number of exercises and problems with solutions. It also has an appendix about the use of the computer program MAPLEV in solving problems of analytical and projective geometry, with examples.