N. J. Hitchin - Böcker

This textbook is designed to give graduate students an understanding of integrable systems via the study of Riemann surfaces, loop groups, and twistors. The book has its origins in a series of lecture courses given by the authors, all of whom are internationally known mathematicians and renowned expositors. It is written in an accessible and informal style, and fills a gap in the existing literature. The introduction by Nigel Hitchin addresses the meaning of integrability: how do we recognize an integrable system? His own contribution then develops connections with algebraic geometry, and includes an introduction to Riemann surfaces, sheaves, and line bundles. Graeme Segal takes the Kortewegde Vries and nonlinear Schrödinger equations as central examples, and explores the mathematical structures underlying the inverse scattering transform. He explains the roles of loop groups, the Grassmannian, and algebraic curves. In the final part of the book, Richard Ward explores the connection between integrability and the self-dual Yang-Mills equations, and describes the correspondence between solutions to integrable equations and holomorphic vector bundles over twistor space.

In this book, Professor Lounesto offers a unique introduction to Clifford algebras and spinors. The initial chapters could be read by undergraduates; vectors, complex numbers and quaternions are introduced with an eye on Clifford algebras. The next chapters will also interest physicists, and include treatments of the quantum mechanics of the electron, electromagnetism and special relativity with a flavour of Clifford algebras. This book also gives the first comprehensive survey of recent research on Clifford algebras. A new classification of spinors is introduced, based on bilinear covariants of physical observables. This reveals a new class of spinors, residing between the Weyl, Majorana and Dirac spinors. Scalar products of spinors are classified by involutory anti-automorphisms of Clifford algebras. This leads to the chessboard of automorphism groups of scalar products of spinors. On the analytic side, Brauer-Wall groups and Witt rings are discussed, and Caucy's integral formula is generalized to higher dimensions.

This book provides a self-contained introduction to quantum groups as algebraic objects. Based on the author's lecture notes from a Part III pure mathematics course at Cambridge University, it is suitable for use as a textbook for graduate courses in quantum groups or as a supplement to modern courses in advanced algebra. The book assumes a background knowledge of basic algebra and linear algebra. Some familiarity with semisimple Lie algebras would also be helpful. The book is aimed as a primer for mathematicians and takes a modern approach leading into knot theory, braided categories and noncommutative differential geometry. It should also be useful for mathematical physicists.

The theory of the numerical range of a linear operator on an arbitrary normed space had its beginnings around 1960, and during the 1970s the subject has developed and expanded rapidly. This book presents a self-contained exposition of the subject as a whole. The authors develop various applications, in particular to the study of Banach algebras where the numerical range provides an important link between the algebraic and metric structures.

This set of notes, for graduate students who are specializing in algebraic topology, adopts a novel approach to the teaching of the subject. It begins with a survey of the most beneficial areas for study, with recommendations regarding the best written accounts of each topic. Because a number of the sources are rather inaccessible to students, the second part of the book comprises a collection of some of these classic expositions, from journals, lecture notes, theses and conference proceedings. They are connected by short explanatory passages written by Professor Adams, whose own contributions to this branch of mathematics are represented in the reprinted articles.

This introduction to commutative algebra gives an account of some general properties of rings and modules, with their applications to number theory and geometry. It assumes only that the reader has completed an undergraduate algebra course. The fresh approach and simplicity of proof enable a large amount of material to be covered; exercises and examples are included throughout the notes.

These notes provide a reasonably self-contained introductory survey of certain aspects of harmonic analysis on compact groups. The first part of the book seeks to give a brief account of integration theory on compact Hausdorff spaces. The second, larger part starts from the existence and essential uniqueness of an invariant integral on every compact Hausdorff group. Topics subsequently outlined include representations, the Peter-Weyl theory, positive definite functions, summability and convergence, spans of translates, closed ideals and invariant subspaces, spectral synthesis problems, the Hausdorff-Young theorem, and lacunarity.

A comprehensive treatment of elliptic functions is linked by these notes to a study of their application to elliptic curves. This approach provides geometers with the opportunity to acquaint themselves with aspects of their subject virtually ignored by other texts. The exposition is clear and logically carries themes from earlier through to later topics. This enthusiastic work of scholarship is made complete with the inclusion of some interesting historical details and a very comprehensive bibliography.

The study of abelian manifolds forms a natural generalization of the theory of elliptic functions, that is, of doubly periodic functions of one complex variable. When an abelian manifold is embedded in a projective space it is termed an abelian variety in an algebraic geometrical sense. This introduction presupposes little more than a basic course in complex variables. The notes contain all the material on abelian manifolds needed for application to geometry and number theory, although they do not contain an exposition of either application. Some geometrical results are included however.

Graduate students in many branches of mathematics need to know something about topological groups and the Haar integral to enable them to understand applications in their own fields. In this introduction to the subject, Professor Higgins covers the basic theorems they are likely to need, assuming only some elementary group theory. The book is based on lecture courses given for the London M.Sc. degree in 1969 and 1972, and the treatment is more algebraic than usual, reflecting the interests of the author and his audience. The volume ends with an informal account of one important application of the Haar integral, to the representation theory of compact groups, and suggests further reading on this and similar topics.

Sheaf theory provides a means of discussing many different kinds of geometric objects in respect of the connection between their local and global properties. It finds its main applications in topology and modern algebraic geometry where it has been used as a tool for solving, with great success, several long-standing problems. This text is based on a lecture course for graduate pure mathematicians which builds up enough of the foundations of sheaf theory to give a broad definition of manifold, covering as special cases the algebraic geometer's schemes as well as the topological, differentiable and analytic kinds, and to define sheaf cohomology for application to such objects. Exercises are provided at the end of each chapter and at various places in the text. Hints and solutions to some of them are given at the end of the book.

Some of the results on automatic continuity of intertwining operators and homomorphisms that were obtained between 1960 and 1973 are here collected together to provide a detailed discussion of the subject. The book will be appreciated by graduate students of functional analysis who already have a good foundation in this and in the theory of Banach algebras.

These notes derive from a course of lectures delivered at the University of Florida in Gainesville during 1971/2. Dr Gagen presents a simplified treatment of recent work by H. Bender on the classification of non-soluble groups with abelian Sylow 2-subgroups, together with some background material of wide interest. The book is for research students and specialists in group theory and allied subjects such as finite geometries.

These notes present an investigation of a condition similar to Euclid's parallel axiom for subsets of finite sets. The background material to the theory of parallelisms is introduced and the author then describes the links this theory has with other topics from the whole range of combinatorial theory and permutation groups. These include network flows, perfect codes, Latin squares, block designs and multiply-transitive permutation groups, and long and detailed appendices are provided to serve as introductions to these various subjects. Many of the results are published for the first time.

Stiefel manifolds are an interesting family of spaces much studied by algebraic topologists. These notes, which originated in a course given at Harvard University, describe the state of knowledge of the subject, as well as the outstanding problems. The emphasis throughout is on applications (within the subject) rather than on theory. However, such theory as is required is summarized and references to the literature are given, thus making the book accessible to non-specialists and particularly graduate students. Many examples are given and further problems suggested.

The theory of Lie groups is a very active part of mathematics and it is the twofold aim of these notes to provide a self-contained introduction to the subject and to make results about the structure of Lie groups and compact groups available to a wide audience. Particular emphasis is placed upon results and techniques which explicate the interplay between a Lie group and its Lie algebra, and, in keeping with current trends, a coordinate-free notation is used. Much of the general theory is illustrated by examples and exercises involving specific Lie groups.

These lecture notes begin with an introduction to topological groups and proceed to a proof of the important Pontryagin-van Kampen duality theorem and a detailed exposition of the structure of locally compact abelian groups. Measure theory and Banach algebra are entirely avoided and only a small amount of group theory and topology is required, dealing with the subject in an elementary fashion. With about a hundred exercises for the student, it is a suitable text for first-year graduate courses.

This book is based on a set of lectures given to a mixed audience of physicists and mathematicians. The desire to be intelligible to both groups is the underlying preoccupation of the author. Physicists nowadays are particularly interested in phase transitions. The typical situation is that a system of interacting particles exhibits an abrupt change of behaviour at a certain temperature, although the local forces between the particles are thought to be smooth functions of temperature. This account discusses the theory behind a simple model of such phenomena. An important tool is the mathematical discipline known as the Theory of Graphs. There are five chapters, each subdivided into sections. The first chapter is intended as a broad introduction to the subject, and it is written in a more informal manner than the rest. Notes and references for each chapter are given at the end of the chapter.

The theory of von Neumann algebras has undergone rapid development since the work of Tonita, Takesaki and Conner. These notes, based on lectures given at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, provide an introduction to the subject and demonstrate the important role of the theory of crossed products. Part I deals with general continuous crossed products and proves the commutation theorem and the duality theorem. Part II discusses the structure of Type III von Neumann algebras and considers crossed products with modular actions. Restricting the treatment to the case of o-finite von Neumann algebras enables the author to work with faithful normal states.

In 1977 several eminent mathematicians were invited to Durham to present papers at a short conference on homological and combinatorial techniques in group theory. The lectures, published here, aimed at presenting in a unified way new developments in the area. Group theory is approached from a geometrical viewpoint and much of the material has not previously been published. The various ways in which topological ideas can be used in group theory are also brought together. The volume concludes with an extensive set of problems, ranging from explicit questions demanding detailed calculation to fundamental questions motivating research in the area. These lectures will be of interest mainly to researchers in pure mathematics but will also prove useful in connection with relevant postgraduate courses.

The purpose of this unique book is to establish purely algebraic foundations for the development of certain parts of topology. Some topologists seek to understand geometric properties of solutions to finite systems of equations or inequalities and configurations which in some sense actually occur in the real world. Others study spaces constructed more abstractly using infinite limit processes. Their goal is to determine just how similar or different these abstract spaces are from those which are finitely described. However, as topology is usually taught, even the first, more concrete type of problem is approached using the language and methods of the second type. Professor Brumfiel's thesis is that this is unnecessary and, in fact, misleading philosophically. He develops a type of algebra, partially ordered rings, in which it makes sense to talk about solutions of equations and inequalities and to compare geometrically the resulting spaces. The importance of this approach is primarily that it clarifies the sort of geometrical questions one wants to ask and answer about those spaces which might have physical significance.

In these notes, first published in 1980, Professor Northcott provides a self-contained introduction to the theory of affine algebraic groups for mathematicians with a basic knowledge of communicative algebra and field theory. The book divides into two parts. The first four chapters contain all the geometry needed for the second half of the book which deals with affine groups. Alternatively the first part provides a sure introduction to the foundations of algebraic geometry. Any affine group has an associated Lie algebra. In the last two chapters, the author studies these algebras and shows how, in certain important cases, their properties can be transferred back to the groups from which they arose. These notes provide a clear and carefully written introduction to algebraic geometry and algebraic groups.

These notes comprise an introduction to combinatorial group theory and represent an extensive revision of the author's earlier book in this series, which arose from lectures to final-year undergraduates and first-year graduates at the University of Nottingham. Many new examples and exercises have been added and the treatment of a number of topics has been improved and expanded. In addition, there are new chapters on the triangle groups, small cancellation theory and groups from topology. The connections between the theory of group presentations and other areas of mathematics are emphasized throughout. The book can be used as a text for beginning research students and, for specialists in other fields, serves as an introduction both to the subject and to more advanced treatises.

As a result of the work of the nineteenth-century mathematician Arthur Cayley, algebraists and geometers have extensively studied permutation of sets. In the special case that the underlying set is linearly ordered, there is a natural subgroup to study, namely the set of permutations that preserves that order. In some senses. these are universal for automorphisms of models of theories. The purpose of this book is to make a thorough, comprehensive examination of these groups of permutations. After providing the initial background Professor Glass develops the general structure theory, emphasizing throughout the geometric and intuitive aspects of the subject. He includes many applications to infinite simple groups, ordered permutation groups and lattice-ordered groups. The streamlined approach will enable the beginning graduate student to reach the frontiers of the subject smoothly and quickly. Indeed much of the material included has never been available in book form before, so this account should also be useful as a reference work for professionals.

The most important examples of finite groups are the group of permutations of a set of n objects, known as the symmetric group, and the group of non-singular n-by-n matrices over a finite field, which is called the general linear group. This book examines the representation theory of the general linear groups, and reveals that there is a close analogy with that of the symmetric groups. It consists of an essay which was joint winner of the Cambridge University Adams Prize 1981-2, and is intended to be accessible to mathematicians with no previous specialist knowledge of the topics involved. Many people have studied the representations of general linear groups over fields of the natural characteristic, but this volume explores new territory by considering the case where the characteristic of the ground field is not the natural one. Not only are the results in the book elegant and interesting in their own right, but they suggest many lines for further investigation.

This book is concerned with the research conducted in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the theory of commutative Neotherian rings. It consists of articles by invited speakers at the Symposium of Commutative Algebra held at the University of Durham in July 1981; these articles are all based on lectures delivered at the Symposium. The purpose of this book is to provide a record of at least some aspects of the Symposium, which several of the world leaders in the field attended. Several articles are included which provide surveys, incorporating historical perspective, details of progress made and indications of possible future lines of investigation. The book will be of interest to scholars of commutative and local algebra.

The book is written in three parts. Part I consists of preparatory work on algebras, needed in Parts II and III. This material is presented in a classical, though unusual, way. Part II consists of a modern description of the theory of Brauer groups over fields (from as elementary a point of view as possible). Part III covers some new developments in the theory which, until now, have not been available except in journals. The principal topic discussed in this section is reduced K,-theory. This book will be of interest to graduate students in pure mathematics and to professional mathematicians.

A 'soliton' is a localized nonlinear wave of permanent form which may interact strongly with other solitons so that when they separate after the interaction they regain their original forms. This textbook is an account of the theory of solitons and of the diverse applications of the theory to nonlinear systems arising in the physical sciences. The essence of the book is an introduction to the method of inverse scattering. Solitary waves, cnoidal waves, conservation laws, the initial-value problem for the Korteweg-de Vries equation, the Lax method, the sine-Gordon equation and Backlund transformations are treated. The book will be useful for research workers who wish to learn about solitons as well as graduate students in mathematics, physics and engineering.

Originally published in 1983, the principal object of this book is to discuss in detail the structure of finite group rings over fields of characteristic, p, P-adic rings and, in some cases, just principal ideal domains, as well as modules of such group rings. The approach does not emphasize any particular point of view, but aims to present a smooth proof in each case to provide the reader with maximum insight. However, the trace map and all its properties have been used extensively. This generalizes a number of classical results at no extra cost and also has the advantage that no assumption on the field is required. Finally, it should be mentioned that much attention is paid to the methods of homological algebra and cohomology of groups as well as connections between characteristic 0 and characteristic p.