NANKAI TRACTS IN MATHEMATICS – serie

These lecture notes are based on a series of lectures given at the Nankai Institute of Mathematics in the fall of 1998. They provide an overview of the work of the author and the late Chih-Han Sah on various aspects of Hilbert's Third Problem: Are two Euclidean polyhedra with the same volume “scissors-congruent”, i.e. can they be subdivided into finitely many pairwise congruent pieces? The book starts from the classical solution of this problem by M Dehn. But generalization to higher dimensions and other geometries quickly leads to a great variety of mathematical topics, such as homology of groups, algebraic K-theory, characteristic classes for flat bundles, and invariants for hyperbolic manifolds. Some of the material, particularly in the chapters on projective configurations, is published here for the first time.

These lecture notes are based on a series of lectures given at the Nankai Institute of Mathematics in the fall of 1998. They provide an overview of the work of the author and the late Chih-Han Sah on various aspects of Hilbert's Third Problem: Are two Euclidean polyhedra with the same volume “scissors-congruent”, i.e. can they be subdivided into finitely many pairwise congruent pieces? The book starts from the classical solution of this problem by M Dehn. But generalization to higher dimensions and other geometries quickly leads to a great variety of mathematical topics, such as homology of groups, algebraic K-theory, characteristic classes for flat bundles, and invariants for hyperbolic manifolds. Some of the material, particularly in the chapters on projective configurations, is published here for the first time.

This invaluable book is based on the notes of a graduate course on differential geometry which the author gave at the Nankai Institute of Mathematics. It consists of two parts: the first part contains an introduction to the geometric theory of characteristic classes due to Shiing–shen Chern and André Weil, as well as a proof of the Gauss–Bonnet–Chern theorem based on the Mathai–Quillen construction of Thom forms; the second part presents analytic proofs of the Poincaré–Hopf index formula, as well as the Morse inequalities based on deformations introduced by Edward Witten.

Finsler geometry is just Riemannian geometry without a quadratic restriction. It has applications in many fields of natural sciences, including physics, psychology, and ecology. The book is intended to provide basic materials on Finsler geometry for readers and to bring them to the frontiers of active research on related topics.This book is comprised of three parts. In Part I (Chapters 1-4), the author introduces the basics, such as Finsler metrics, the Chern connection, geometric invariant quantities, etc., and gives some rigidity results on Finsler manifolds with certain curvature properties. Part II (Chapters 5-6) covers the theory of geodesics, using which the author establishes some comparison theorems, which are fundamental tools to study global Finsler geometry. In Part III (Chapters 7-9), the author presents recent developments in nonlinear geometric analysis on Finsler spaces, partly based on the author's recent works on Finsler harmonic functions, the eigenvalue problem, and heat flow. The author has made efforts to ensure that the contents are accessible to advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers who are interested in Finsler geometry.

The Bernstein problem and the Plateau problem are central topics in the theory of minimal submanifolds. This important book presents the Douglas-Rado solution to the Plateau problem, but the main emphasis is on the Bernstein problem and its new developments in various directions: the value distribution of the Gauss image of a minimal surface in Euclidean 3-space, Simons' work for minimal graphic hypersurfaces, and author's own contributions to Bernstein type theorems for higher codimension. The author also introduces some related topics, such as submanifolds with parallel mean curvature, Weierstrass type representation for surfaces of mean curvature 1 in hyperbolic 3-space, and special Lagrangian submanifolds.

Shiing-Shen Chern (1911–2004) was one of the leading differential geometers of the twentieth century. In 1946, he founded the Mathematical Institute of Academia Sinica in Shanghai, which was later moved to Nanking. In 1981, he founded the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) at Berkeley and acted as the director until 1984. In 1985, he founded the Nankai Institute of Mathematics in Tianjin. He was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1975; the Wolf Prize in mathematics in 1984; and the Shaw Prize in mathematical sciences in 2004.Chern's works span all the classic fields of differential geometry: the Chern-Simons theory; the Chern-Weil theory, linking curvature invariants to characteristic classes; Chern classes; and other areas such as projective differential geometry and webs that are mathematically rich but currently have a lower profile. He also published work in integral geometry, value distribution theory of holomorphic functions, and minimal submanifolds.Inspired by Chern and his work, former colleagues, students and friends — themselves highly regarded mathematicians in their own right — come together to honor and celebrate Chern's huge contributions. The volume, organized by Phillip Griffiths of the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), contains contributions by Michael Atiyah (University of Edinburgh), C-M Bai (Nankai), Robert Bryant (Duke University), Kung-Ching Chang (Peking University), Jeff Cheeger (New York University), Simon K Donaldson (Imperial College), Hélène Esnault (Universität Duisburg–Essen), Mo-Lin Ge (Nankai), Mark Green (University of California at Los Angeles), Phillip Griffiths (Institute for Advanced Study), F Reese Harvey (Rice University), Alain Hénaut (Université Bordeaux 1), Niky Kamran (McGill University), Bruce Kleiner (Yale), H Blaine Lawson, Jr (Suny at Stony Brook), Yiming Long (Nankai), Xiaonan Ma (UMR 7640 du CNRS), Luc Pirio (IRMAR, France), Graeme Segal (Oxford), Gang Tian (MIT), Jean-Marie Trepreau (Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu), Jeff Viaclovsky (MIT), Wei Wang (Nankai), Wentsun Wu (Chinese Academy of Sciences), C N Yang (Tsinghua), Tan Zhang (Murray State University), Weiping Zhang (Nankai) and others.

Shiing-Shen Chern (1911–2004) was one of the leading differential geometers of the twentieth century. In 1946, he founded the Mathematical Institute of Academia Sinica in Shanghai, which was later moved to Nanking. In 1981, he founded the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) at Berkeley and acted as the director until 1984. In 1985, he founded the Nankai Institute of Mathematics in Tianjin. He was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1975; the Wolf Prize in mathematics in 1984; and the Shaw Prize in mathematical sciences in 2004.Chern's works span all the classic fields of differential geometry: the Chern-Simons theory; the Chern-Weil theory, linking curvature invariants to characteristic classes; Chern classes; and other areas such as projective differential geometry and webs that are mathematically rich but currently have a lower profile. He also published work in integral geometry, value distribution theory of holomorphic functions, and minimal submanifolds.Inspired by Chern and his work, former colleagues, students and friends — themselves highly regarded mathematicians in their own right — come together to honor and celebrate Chern's huge contributions. The volume, organized by Phillip Griffiths of the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), contains contributions by Michael Atiyah (University of Edinburgh), C-M Bai (Nankai), Robert Bryant (Duke University), Kung-Ching Chang (Peking University), Jeff Cheeger (New York University), Simon K Donaldson (Imperial College), Hélène Esnault (Universität Duisburg–Essen), Mo-Lin Ge (Nankai), Mark Green (University of California at Los Angeles), Phillip Griffiths (Institute for Advanced Study), F Reese Harvey (Rice University), Alain Hénaut (Université Bordeaux 1), Niky Kamran (McGill University), Bruce Kleiner (Yale), H Blaine Lawson, Jr (Suny at Stony Brook), Yiming Long (Nankai), Xiaonan Ma (UMR 7640 du CNRS), Luc Pirio (IRMAR, France), Graeme Segal (Oxford), Gang Tian (MIT), Jean-Marie Trepreau (Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu), Jeff Viaclovsky (MIT), Wei Wang (Nankai), Wentsun Wu (Chinese Academy of Sciences), C N Yang (Tsinghua), Tan Zhang (Murray State University), Weiping Zhang (Nankai) and others.

In the theory of minimal submanifolds, Bernstein's problem and Plateau's problem are central topics. This important book presents the Douglas–Rado solution to Plateau's problem, but the main emphasis is on Bernstein's problem and its new developments in various directions: the value distribution of the Gauss image of a minimal surface in Euclidean 3-space, Simons' work for minimal graphic hypersurfaces, and the author's own contributions to Bernstein type theorems for higher codimension. The author also introduces some related topics, such as submanifolds with parallel mean curvature, Weierstrass type representation for surfaces of mean curvature 1 in hyperbolic 3-space, and special Lagrangian submanifolds.This new edition contains the author's recent work on the Lawson–Osserman's problem for higher codimension, and on Chern's problem for minimal hypersurfaces in the sphere. Both Chern's problem and Lawson–Osserman's problem are important problems in minimal surface theory which are still unsolved. In addition, some new techniques were developed to address those problems in detail, which are of interest in the field of geometric analysis.

Etale cohomology is an important branch in arithmetic geometry. This book covers the main materials in SGA 1, SGA 4, SGA 4 1/2 and SGA 5 on etale cohomology theory, which includes decent theory, etale fundamental groups, Galois cohomology, etale cohomology, derived categories, base change theorems, duality, and l-adic cohomology. The prerequisites for reading this book are basic algebraic geometry and advanced commutative algebra.

Etale cohomology is an important branch in arithmetic geometry. This book covers the main materials in SGA 1, SGA 4, SGA 4 1/2 and SGA 5 on etale cohomology theory, which includes decent theory, etale fundamental groups, Galois cohomology, etale cohomology, derived categories, base change theorems, duality, and ℓ-adic cohomology. The prerequisites for reading this book are basic algebraic geometry and advanced commutative algebra.

The book introduces the basic notions in Symplectic and Contact Geometry at the level of the second year graduate student. It also contains many exercises, some of which are solved only in the last chapter.We begin with the linear theory, then give the definition of symplectic manifolds and some basic examples, review advanced calculus, discuss Hamiltonian systems, tour rapidly group and the basics of contact geometry, and solve problems in chapter 8. The material just described can be used as a one semester course on Symplectic and Contact Geometry.The book contains also more advanced material, suitable to advanced graduate students and researchers.

This book provides a self-contained representation of the local version of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem. It contains proofs of the Hodge theorem, the local index theorems for the Dirac operator and some first order geometric elliptic operators by using the heat equation method. The proofs are up to the standard of pure mathematics. In addition, a Chern root algorithm is introduced for proving the local index theorems, and it seems to be as efficient as other methods.

The dense packing of microscopic spheres (i.e. atoms) is the basic geometric arrangement in crystals of mono-atomic elements with weak covalent bonds, which achieves the optimal “known density” of B/√18. In 1611, Johannes Kepler had already “conjectured” that B/√18 should be the optimal “density” of sphere packings. Thus, the central problems in the study of sphere packings are the proof of Kepler's conjecture that B/√18 is the optimal density, and the establishing of the least action principle that the hexagonal dense packings in crystals are the geometric consequence of optimization of density. This important book provides a self-contained proof of both, using vector algebra and spherical geometry as the main techniques and in the tradition of classical geometry.

This invaluable book is based on the notes of a graduate course on differential geometry which the author gave at the Nankai Institute of Mathematics. It consists of two parts: the first part contains an introduction to the geometric theory of characteristic classes due to Shiing–shen Chern and André Weil, as well as a proof of the Gauss–Bonnet–Chern theorem based on the Mathai–Quillen construction of Thom forms; the second part presents analytic proofs of the Poincaré–Hopf index formula, as well as the Morse inequalities based on deformations introduced by Edward Witten.

The Wei-Liang Chow and Kuo-Tsai Chen Memorial Conference was proposed and held by Prof S S Chern in Nankai Institute of Mathematics. It was devoted to memorializing those two outstanding and original Chinese mathematicians who had made significant contributions to algebraic geometry and algebraic topology, respectively. It also provided a forum for leading mathematicians to expound and discuss their views on new ideas in these fields, as well as trends in 21st Century mathematics. About 100 mathematicians participated in the conference, including Sir Michael Atiyah, Jacob Palis, Phillip Griffiths, David Eisenbud, Philippe Tondeur, Yujiro Kawamata, Tian Gang, etc.This invaluable volume contains the selected papers presented at the conference. The topics include canonical maps of Gorenstein 3-folds, fundamental groups of algebraic curves, Chen's interated integrals, algebraic fiber spaces, and others.

Riemann-Finsler geometry is a subject that concerns manifolds with Finsler metrics, including Riemannian metrics. It has applications in many fields of the natural sciences. Curvature is the central concept in Riemann-Finsler geometry. This invaluable textbook presents detailed discussions on important curvatures such as the Cartan torsion, the S-curvature, the Landsberg curvature and the Riemann curvature. It also deals with Finsler metrics with special curvature or geodesic properties, such as projectively flat Finsler metrics, Berwald metrics, Finsler metrics of scalar flag curvature or isotropic S-curvature, etc. Instructive examples are given in abundance, for further description of some important geometric concepts. The text includes the most recent results, although many of the problems discussed are classical.

Riemann-Finsler geometry is a subject that concerns manifolds with Finsler metrics, including Riemannian metrics. It has applications in many fields of the natural sciences. Curvature is the central concept in Riemann-Finsler geometry. This invaluable textbook presents detailed discussions on important curvatures such as the Cartan torsion, the S-curvature, the Landsberg curvature and the Riemann curvature. It also deals with Finsler metrics with special curvature or geodesic properties, such as projectively flat Finsler metrics, Berwald metrics, Finsler metrics of scalar flag curvature or isotropic S-curvature, etc. Instructive examples are given in abundance, for further description of some important geometric concepts. The text includes the most recent results, although many of the problems discussed are classical.

This subject has been of great interest both to topologists and to number theorists. The first part of this book describes some of the work of Kuo-Tsai Chen on iterated integrals and the fundamental group of a manifold. The author attempts to make his exposition accessible to beginning graduate students. He then proceeds to apply Chen's constructions to algebraic geometry, showing how this leads to some results on algebraic cycles and the Abel-Jacobi homomorphism. Finally, he presents a more general point of view relating Chen's integrals to a generalization of the concept of linking numbers, and ends up with a new invariant of homology classes in a projective algebraic manifold. The book is based on a course given by the author at the Nankai Institute of Mathematics in the fall of 2001.

This volumes provides a comprehensive review of interactions between differential geometry and theoretical physics, contributed by many leading scholars in these fields. The contributions promise to play an important role in promoting the developments in these exciting areas. Besides the plenary talks, the coverage includes: models and related topics in statistical physics; quantum fields, strings and M-theory; Yang-Mills fields, knot theory and related topics; K-theory, including index theory and non-commutative geometry; mirror symmetry, conformal and topological quantum field theory; development of integrable systems; and random matrix theory.