Student Mathematical Library - Böcker

This book is based on an undergraduate course taught at the IAS/Park City Mathematics Institute (Utah) on linear and nonlinear waves. The first part of the text overviews the concept of a wave, describes one-dimensional waves using functions of two variables, provides an introduction to partial differential equations, and discusses computer-aided visualization techniques. The second part of the book discusses traveling waves, leading to a description of solitary waves and soliton solutions of the Klein-Gordon and Korteweg-deVries equations. The wave equation is derived to model the small vibrations of a taut string, and solutions are constructed via d'Alembert's formula and Fourier series.The last part of the book discusses waves arising from conservation laws. After deriving and discussing the scalar conservation law, its solution is described using the method of characteristics, leading to the formation of shock and rarefaction waves. Applications of these concepts are then given for models of traffic flow. The intent of this book is to create a text suitable for independent study by undergraduate students in mathematics, engineering, and science. The content of the book is meant to be self-contained, requiring no special reference material. Access to computer software such as MathematicaR, MATLABR, or MapleR is recommended, but not necessary. Scripts for MATLAB applications will be available via the Web. Exercises are given within the text to allow further practice with selected topics.

We learn by doing. We learn mathematics by doing problems. This book is the first volume of a series of books of problems in mathematical analysis. It is mainly intended for students studying the basic principles of analysis. However, given its organization, level, and selection of problems, it would also be an ideal choice for tutorial or problem-solving seminars, particularly those geared toward the Putnam exam. The volume is also suitable for self-study. Each section of the book begins with relatively simple exercises, yet may also contain quite challenging problems. Very often several consecutive exercises are concerned with different aspects of one mathematical problem or theorem.This presentation of material is designed to help student comprehension and to encourage them to ask their own questions and to start research. The collection of problems in the book is also intended to help teachers who wish to incorporate the problems into lectures. Solutions for all the problems are provided. The book covers three topics: real numbers, sequences, and series, and is divided into two parts: exercises and/or problems, and solutions. Specific topics covered in this volume include the following: basic properties of real numbers, continued fractions, monotonic sequences, limits of sequences, Stolz's theorem, summation of series, tests for convergence, double series, arrangement of series, Cauchy product, and infinite products. Also available from the AMS are ""Problems in Mathematical Analysis II"" and ""Problems in Analysis III"" in the ""Student Mathematical Library"" series.

We learn by doing. We learn mathematics by doing problems. And we learn more mathematics by doing more problems. This is the sequel to ""Problems in Mathematical Analysis I"" (Volume 4 in the ""Student Mathematical Library"" series). If you want to hone your understanding of continuous and differentiable functions, this book contains hundreds of problems to help you do so. The emphasis here is on real functions of a single variable. The topics include: continuous functions, the intermediate value property, uniform continuity, mean value theorems, Taylors formula, convex functions, sequences and series of functions. The book is mainly geared toward students studying the basic principles of analysis.However, given its selection of problems, organization, and level, it would be an ideal choice for tutorial or problem-solving seminars, particularly those geared toward the Putnam exam. It is also suitable for self-study. The presentation of the material is designed to help student comprehension, to encourage them to ask their own questions, and to start research. The collection of problems will also help teachers who wish to incorporate problems into their lectures. The problems are grouped into sections according to the methods of solution. Solutions for the problems are provided. This is the sequel to ""Problems in Mathematical Analysis I"" (Volume 4 in the ""Student Mathematical Library"" series). Also available from the AMS is ""Problems in Analysis III"".

This title is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students interested in ordinary differential equations and numerical methods. This book provides a conceptual introduction to the theory of ordinary differential equations, concentrating on the initial value problem for equations of evolution and with applications to the calculus of variations and classical mechanics, along with a discussion of chaos theory and ecological models. It has a careful introduction to the theory of numerical methods with an unusual treatment of the analysis of errors and stability of various numerical solution algorithms. While the book would be suitable as a textbook for an undergraduate or elementary graduate course in ordinary differential equations, the authors have designed the text also to be useful for motivated students wishing to learn the material on their own or desiring to supplement an ODE textbook being used in a course they are taking with a text offering a more conceptual approach to the subject.

There have been many wonderful developments in the theory of minimal surfaces and geometric measure theory in the past 25 to 30 years. Many of the researchers who have produced these excellent results were inspired by this little book - or by Fred Almgren himself. The book is indeed a delightful invitation to the world of variational geometry. A central topic is Plateau's Problem, which is concerned with surfaces that model the behavior of soap films.When trying to resolve the problem, however, one soon finds that smooth surfaces are insufficient: Varifolds are needed. With varifolds, one can obtain geometrically meaningful solutions without having to know in advance all their possible singularities. This new tool makes possible much exciting new analysis and many new results. Plateau's problem and varifolds live in the world of geometric measure theory, where differential geometry and measure theory combine to solve problems which have variational aspects. The author's hope in writing this book was to encourage young mathematicians to study this fascinating subject further. Judging from the success of his students, it achieves this exceedingly well.

It is remarkable that so much about Lie groups could be packed into this small book. But after reading it, students will be well-prepared to continue with more advanced, graduate-level topics in differential geometry or the theory of Lie groups. The theory of Lie groups involves many areas of mathematics: algebra, differential geometry, algebraic geometry, analysis, and differential equations. In this book, Arvanitoyeorgos outlines enough of the prerequisites to get the reader started. He then chooses a path through this rich and diverse theory that aims for an understanding of the geometry of Lie groups and homogeneous spaces. In this way, he avoids the extra detail needed for a thorough discussion of representation theory. Lie groups and homogeneous spaces are especially useful to study in geometry, as they provide excellent examples where quantities (such as curvature) are easier to compute.A good understanding of them provides lasting intuition, especially in differential geometry. The author provides several examples and computations. Topics discussed include the classification of compact and connected Lie groups, Lie algebras, geometrical aspects of compact Lie groups and reductive homogeneous spaces, and important classes of homogeneous spaces, such as symmetric spaces and flag manifolds. Applications to more advanced topics are also included, such as homogeneous Einstein metrics, Hamiltonian systems, and homogeneous geodesics in homogeneous spaces. The book is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and research mathematicians interested in differential geometry and neighboring fields, such as topology, harmonic analysis, and mathematical physics.

This is a genuine introduction to algebraic geometry. The author makes no assumption that readers know more than can be expected of a good undergraduate. He introduces fundamental concepts in a way that enables students to move on to a more advanced book or course that relies more heavily on commutative algebra. The language is purposefully kept on an elementary level, avoiding sheaf theory and cohomology theory. The introduction of new algebraic concepts is always motivated by a discussion of the corresponding geometric ideas. The main point of the book is to illustrate the interplay between abstract theory and specific examples. The book contains numerous problems that illustrate the general theory.The text is suitable for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students. It contains sufficient material for a one-semester course. The reader should be familiar with the basic concepts of modern algebra. A course in one complex variable would be helpful, but is not necessary. It is also an excellent text for those working in neighboring fields (algebraic topology, algebra, Lie groups, etc.) who need to know the basics of algebraic geometry.

The best way to penetrate the subtleties of the theory of integration is by solving problems. This book, like its two predecessors, is a wonderful source of interesting and challenging problems. As a resource, it is unequaled. It offers a much richer selection than is found in any current textbook. Moreover, the book includes a complete set of solutions. This is the third volume of ""Problems in Mathematical Analysis"". The topic here is integration for real functions of one real variable.The first chapter is devoted to the Riemann and the Riemann-Stieltjes integrals. Chapter 2 deals with Lebesgue measure and integration. The authors include some famous, and some not so famous, inequalities related to Riemann integration. Many of the problems for Lebesgue integration concern convergence theorems and the interchange of limits and integrals. The book closes with a section on Fourier series, with a concentration on Fourier coefficients of functions from particular classes and on basic theorems for convergence of Fourier series.The book is mainly geared toward students studying the basic principles of analysis. However, given its selection of problems, organization, and level, it would be an ideal choice for tutorial or problem-solving seminars, particularly those geared toward the Putnam exam. It is also suitable for self-study. The presentation of the material is designed to help student comprehension, to encourage them to ask their own questions, and to start research. The collection of problems will also help teachers who wish to incorporate problems into their lectures. The problems are grouped into sections according to the methods of solution. Solutions for the problems are provided. ""Problems in Mathematical Analysis I and II"" are available as Volumes 4 and 12 in the AMS series, ""Student Mathematical Library"".

Mathematical modelling is a subject without boundaries. It is the means by which mathematics becomes useful to virtually any subject. Moreover, modelling has been and continues to be a driving force for the development of mathematics itself. This book explains the process of modelling real situations to obtain mathematical problems that can be analyzed, thus solving the original problem. The presentation is in the form of case studies, which are developed much as they would be in true applications. In many cases, an initial model is created, then modified along the way. Some cases are familiar, such as the evaluation of an annuity. Others are unique, such as the fascinating situation in which an engineer, armed only with a slide rule, had 24 hours to compute whether a valve would hold when a temporary rock plug was removed from a water tunnel. Each chapter ends with a set of exercises and some suggestions for class projects.Some projects are extensive, as with the explorations of the predator-prey model; others are more modest. The text was designed to be suitable for a one-term course for advanced undergraduates. The selection of topics and the style of exposition reflect this choice. The authors have also succeeded in demonstrating just how enjoyable the subject can be. This is an ideal text for classes on modelling. It can also be used in seminars or as preparation for mathematical modelling competitions.

How many dimensions does our universe require for a comprehensive physical description? In 1905, Poincare argued philosophically about the necessity of the three familiar dimensions, while recent research is based on 11 dimensions or even 23 dimensions. The notion of dimension itself presented a basic problem to the pioneers of topology. Cantor asked if dimension was a topological feature of Euclidean space. To answer this question, some important topological ideas were introduced by Brouwer, giving shape to a subject whose development dominated the twentieth century. The basic notions in topology are varied and a comprehensive grounding in point-set topology, the definition and use of the fundamental group, and the beginnings of homology theory requires considerable time.The goal of this book is a focused introduction through these classical topics, aiming throughout at the classical result of the Invariance of Dimension. This text is based on the author's course given at Vassar College and is intended for advanced undergraduate students. It is suitable for a semester-long course on topology for students who have studied real analysis and linear algebra. It is also a good choice for a capstone course, senior seminar, or independent study.

This book presents a course in the geometry of convex polytopes in arbitrary dimension, suitable for an advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate student. The book starts with the basics of polytope theory. Schlegel and Gale diagrams are introduced as geometric tools to visualize polytopes in high dimension and to unearth bizarre phenomena in polytopes. The heart of the book is a treatment of the secondary polytope of a point configuration and its connections to the state polytope of the toric ideal defined by the configuration. These polytopes are relatively recent constructs with numerous connections to discrete geometry, classical algebraic geometry, symplectic geometry, and combinatorics.The connections rely on Grobner bases of toric ideals and other methods from commutative algebra. The book is self-contained and does not require any background beyond basic linear algebra. With numerous figures and exercises, it can be used as a textbook for courses on geometric, combinatorial, and computational aspects of the theory of polytopes.

Ramanujan is recognized as one of the great number theorists of the twentieth century. Here now is the first book to provide an introduction to his work in number theory. Most of Ramanujan's work in number theory arose out of $q$-series and theta functions. This book provides an introduction to these two important subjects and to some of the topics in number theory that are inextricably intertwined with them, including the theory of partitions, sums of squares and triangular numbers, and the Ramanujan tau function. The majority of the results discussed here are originally due to Ramanujan or were rediscovered by him. Ramanujan did not leave us proofs of the thousands of theorems he recorded in his notebooks, and so it cannot be claimed that many of the proofs given in this book are those found by Ramanujan. However, they are all in the spirit of his mathematics.The subjects examined in this book have a rich history dating back to Euler and Jacobi, and they continue to be focal points of contemporary mathematical research. Therefore, at the end of each of the seven chapters, Berndt discusses the results established in the chapter and places them in both historical and contemporary contexts. The book is suitable for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students interested in number theory.

The book gives an introduction to $p$-adic numbers from the point of view of number theory, topology, and analysis. Compared to other books on the subject, its novelty is both a particularly balanced approach to these three points of view and an emphasis on topics accessible to undergraduates. In addition, several topics from real analysis and elementary topology which are not usually covered in undergraduate courses (totally disconnected spaces and Cantor sets, points of discontinuity of maps and the Baire Category Theorem, surjectivity of isometries of compact metric spaces) are also included in the book. They will enhance the reader's understanding of real analysis and intertwine the real and $p$-adic contexts of the book. The book is based on an advanced undergraduate course given by the author. The choice of the topic was motivated by the internal beauty of the subject of $p$-adic analysis, an unusual one in the undergraduate curriculum, and abundant opportunities to compare it with its much more familiar real counterpart. The book includes a large number of exercises. Answers, hints, and solutions for most of them appear at the end of the book. Well written, with obvious care for the reader, the book can be successfully used in a topic course or for self-study.

Surfaces are among the most common and easily visualized mathematical objects, and their study brings into focus fundamental ideas, concepts, and methods from geometry, topology, complex analysis, Morse theory, and group theory. At the same time, many of those notions appear in a technically simpler and more graphic form than in their general 'natural' settings. The first, primarily expository, chapter introduces many of the principal actors - the round sphere, flat torus, Mobius strip, Klein bottle, elliptic plane, etc. - as well as various methods of describing surfaces, beginning with the traditional representation by equations in three-dimensional space, proceeding to parametric representation, and also introducing the less intuitive, but central for our purposes, representation as factor spaces.It concludes with a preliminary discussion of the metric geometry of surfaces, and the associated isometry groups. Subsequent chapters introduce fundamental mathematical structures - topological, combinatorial (piecewise linear), smooth, Riemannian (metric), and complex - in the specific context of surfaces. The focal point of the book is the Euler characteristic, which appears in many different guises and ties together concepts from combinatorics, algebraic topology, Morse theory, ordinary differential equations, and Riemannian geometry.The repeated appearance of the Euler characteristic provides both a unifying theme and a powerful illustration of the notion of an invariant in all those theories. The assumed background is the standard calculus sequence, some linear algebra, and rudiments of ODE and real analysis. All notions are introduced and discussed, and virtually all results proved, based on this background. This book is a result of the MASS course in geometry in the fall semester of 2007.

This book is based on notes from the course developed and taught for more than 30 years at the Department of Mathematics of Leningrad University. The goal of the course was to present the basics of quantum mechanics and its mathematical content to students in mathematics. This book differs from the majority of other textbooks on the subject in that much more attention is paid to general principles of quantum mechanics. In particular, the authors describe in detail the relation between classical and quantum mechanics. When selecting particular topics, the authors emphasise those that are related to interesting mathematical theories. In particular, the book contains a discussion of problems related to group representation theory and to scattering theory. This book is rather elementary and concise, and it does not require prerequisites beyond the standard undergraduate mathematical curriculum. It is aimed at giving a mathematically oriented student the opportunity to grasp the main points of quantum theory in a mathematical framework.

The study of 3-dimensional spaces brings together elements from several areas of mathematics. The most notable are topology and geometry, but elements of number theory and analysis also make appearances. In the past 30 years, there have been striking developments in the mathematics of 3-dimensional manifolds. This book aims to introduce undergraduate students to some of these important developments. ""Low-Dimensional Geometry"" starts at a relatively elementary level, and its early chapters can be used as a brief introduction to hyperbolic geometry. However, the ultimate goal is to describe the very recently completed geometrization program for 3-dimensional manifolds. The journey to reach this goal emphasizes examples and concrete constructions as an introduction to more general statements. This includes the tessellations associated to the process of gluing together the sides of a polygon. Bending some of these tessellations provides a natural introduction to 3-dimensional hyperbolic geometry and to the theory of kleinian groups, and it eventually leads to a discussion of the geometrization theorems for knot complements and 3-dimensional manifolds. This book is illustrated with many pictures, as the author intended to share his own enthusiasm for the beauty of some of the mathematical objects involved. However, it also emphasizes mathematical rigor and, with the exception of the most recent research breakthroughs, its constructions and statements are carefully justified.

The heat equation can be derived by averaging over a very large number of particles. Traditionally, the resulting PDE is studied as a deterministic equation, an approach that has brought many significant results and a deep understanding of the equation and its solutions. By studying the heat equation by considering the individual random particles, however, one gains further intuition into the problem. While this is now standard for many researchers, this approach is generally not presented at the undergraduate level. In this book, Lawler introduces the heat equation and the closely related notion of harmonic functions from a probabilistic perspective. The theme of the first two chapters of the book is the relationship between random walks and the heat equation. The first chapter discusses the discrete case, random walk and the heat equation on the integer lattice; and the second chapter discusses the continuous case, Brownian motion and the usual heat equation. Relationships are shown between the two. For example, solving the heat equation in the discrete setting becomes a problem of diagonalization of symmetric matrices, which becomes a problem in Fourier series in the continuous case. Random walk and Brownian motion are introduced and developed from first principles. The latter two chapters discuss different topics: martingales and fractal dimension, with the chapters tied together by one example, a random Cantor set. The idea of this book is to merge probabilistic and deterministic approaches to heat flow. It is also intended as a bridge from undergraduate analysis to graduate and research perspectives. The book is suitable for advanced undergraduates, particularly those considering graduate work in mathematics or related areas.

This volume contains a collection of clever mathematical applications of linear algebra, mainly in combinatorics, geometry, and algorithms. Each chapter covers a single main result with motivation and full proof in at most ten pages and can be read independently of all other chapters (with minor exceptions), assuming only a modest background in linear algebra. The topics include a number of well-known mathematical gems, such as Hamming codes, the matrix-tree theorem, the Lovasz bound on the Shannon capacity, and a counterexample to Borsuk's conjecture, as well as other, perhaps less popular but similarly beautiful results, e.g., fast associativity testing, a lemma of Steinitz on ordering vectors, a monotonicity result for integer partitions, or a bound for set pairs via exterior products. The simpler results in the first part of the book provide ample material to liven up an undergraduate course of linear algebra. The more advanced parts can be used for a graduate course of linear-algebraic methods or for seminar presentations. Table of Contents: Fibonacci numbers, quickly; Fibonacci numbers, the formula; The clubs of Oddtown; Same-size intersections; Error-correcting codes; Odd distances; Are these distances Euclidean?; Packing complete bipartite graphs; Equiangular lines; Where is the triangle?; Checking matrix multiplication; Tiling a rectangle by squares; Three Petersens are not enough; Petersen, Hoffman-Singleton, and maybe 57; Only two distances; Covering a cube minus one vertex; Medium-size intersection is hard to avoid; On the difficulty of reducing the diameter; The end of the small coins; Walking in the yard; Counting spanning trees; In how many ways can a man tile a board?; More bricks--more walls?; Perfect matchings and determinants; Turning a ladder over a finite field; Counting compositions; Is it associative?; The secret agent and umbrella; Shannon capacity of the union: a tale of two fields; Equilateral sets; Cutting cheaply using eigenvectors; Rotating the cube; Set pairs and exterior products; Index. (STML/53)

Many problems in number theory have simple statements, but their solutions require a deep understanding of algebra, algebraic geometry, complex analysis, group representations, or a combination of all four. The original simply stated problem can be obscured in the depth of the theory developed to understand it. This book is an introduction to some of these problems, and an overview of the theories used nowadays to attack them, presented so that the number theory is always at the forefront of the discussion. Lozano-Robledo gives an introductory survey of elliptic curves, modular forms, and $L$-functions. His main goal is to provide the reader with the big picture of the surprising connections among these three families of mathematical objects and their meaning for number theory. As a case in point, Lozano-Robledo explains the modularity theorem and its famous consequence, Fermat's Last Theorem. He also discusses the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture and other modern conjectures. The book begins with some motivating problems and includes numerous concrete examples throughout the text, often involving actual numbers, such as 3, 4, 5, $\frac{3344161}{747348}$, and $\frac{2244035177043369699245575130906674863160948472041} {8912332268928859588025535178967163570016480830}$. The theories of elliptic curves, modular forms, and $L$-functions are too vast to be covered in a single volume, and their proofs are outside the scope of the undergraduate curriculum. However, the primary objects of study, the statements of the main theorems, and their corollaries are within the grasp of advanced undergraduates. This book concentrates on motivating the definitions, explaining the statements of the theorems and conjectures, making connections, and providing lots of examples, rather than dwelling on the hard proofs. The book succeeds if, after reading the text, students feel compelled to study elliptic curves and modular forms in all their glory.

The Erd s problem asks, What is the smallest possible number of distinct distances between points of a large finite subset of the Euclidean space in dimensions two and higher? The main goal of this book is to introduce the reader to the techniques, ideas, and consequences related to the Erd s problem. The authors introduce these concepts in a concrete and elementary way that allows a wide audience--from motivated high school students interested in mathematics to graduate students specializing in combinatorics and geometry--to absorb the content and appreciate its far-reaching implications. In the process, the reader is familiarized with a wide range of techniques from several areas of mathematics and can appreciate the power of the resulting symbiosis. The book is heavily problem oriented, following the authors' firm belief that most of the learning in mathematics is done by working through the exercises. Many of these problems are recently published results by mathematicians working in the area. The order of the exercises is designed both to reinforce the material presented in the text and, equally importantly, to entice the reader to leave all worldly concerns behind and launch head first into the multifaceted and rewarding world of Erd s combinatorics.

Very roughly speaking, representation theory studies symmetry in linear spaces. It is a beautiful mathematical subject which has many applications, ranging from number theory and combinatorics to geometry, probability theory, quantum mechanics, and quantum field theory. The goal of this book is to give a ``holistic'' introduction to representation theory, presenting it as a unified subject which studies representations of associative algebras and treating the representation theories of groups, Lie algebras, and quivers as special cases. Using this approach, the book covers a number of standard topics in the representation theories of these structures. Theoretical material in the book is supplemented by many problems and exercises which touch upon a lot of additional topics; the more difficult exercises are provided with hints. The book is designed as a textbook for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students. It should be accessible to students with a strong background in linear algebra and a basic knowledge of abstract algebra.

What can we compute--even with unlimited resources? Is everything within reach? Or are computations necessarily drastically limited, not just in practice, but theoretically? These questions are at the heart of computability theory. The goal of this book is to give the reader a firm grounding in the fundamentals of computability theory and an overview of currently active areas of research, such as reverse mathematics and algorithmic randomness. Turing machines and partial recursive functions are explored in detail, and vital tools and concepts including coding, uniformity, and diagonalization are described explicitly. From there the material continues with universal machines, the halting problem, parametrization and the recursion theorem, and thence to computability for sets, enumerability, and Turing reduction and degrees. A few more advanced topics round out the book before the chapter on areas of research. The text is designed to be self-contained, with an entire chapter of preliminary material including relations, recursion, induction, and logical and set notation and operators. That background, along with ample explanation, examples, exercises, and suggestions for further reading, make this book ideal for independent study or courses with few prerequisites.

In the last 200 years, harmonic analysis has been one of the most influential bodies of mathematical ideas, having been exceptionally significant both in its theoretical implications and in its enormous range of applicability throughout mathematics, science, and engineering. In this book, the authors convey the remarkable beauty and applicability of the ideas that have grown from Fourier theory. They present for an advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate student audience the basics of harmonic analysis, from Fourier's study of the heat equation, and the decomposition of functions into sums of cosines and sines (frequency analysis), to dyadic harmonic analysis, and the decomposition of functions into a Haar basis (time localization). While concentrating on the Fourier and Haar cases, the book touches on aspects of the world that lies between these two different ways of decomposing functions: time-frequency analysis (wavelets). Both finite and continuous perspectives are presented, allowing for the introduction of discrete Fourier and Haar transforms and fast algorithms, such as the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and its wavelet analogues. The approach combines rigorous proof, inviting motivation, and numerous applications. Over 250 exercises are included in the text. Each chapter ends with ideas for projects in harmonic analysis that students can work on independently. This book is published in cooperation with IAS/Park City Mathematics Institute.

This is an intuitively motivated presentation of many topics in classical mechanics and related areas of control theory and calculus of variations. All topics throughout the book are treated with zero tolerance for unrevealing definitions and for proofs which leave the reader in the dark. Some areas of particular interest are: an extremely short derivation of the ellipticity of planetary orbits; a statement and an explanation of the “tennis racket paradox''; a heuristic explanation (and a rigorous treatment) of the gyroscopic effect; a revealing equivalence between the dynamics of a particle and statics of a spring; a short geometrical explanation of Pontryagin's Maximum Principle, and more. In the last couple of chapters, aimed at more advanced readers, the Hamiltonian and the momentum are compared to forces in a certain static problem. This gives a palpable physical meaning to some seemingly abstract concepts and theorems. With minimal prerequisites consisting of basic calculus and basic undergraduate physics, this book is suitable for courses from an undergraduate to a beginning graduate level, and for a mixed audience of mathematics, physics and engineering students. Much of the enjoyment of the subject lies in solving almost 200 problems in this book. This book is published in cooperation with Mathematics Advanced Study Semesters.

Ramsey theory is the study of the structure of mathematical objects that is preserved under partitions. In its full generality, Ramsey theory is quite powerful, but can quickly become complicated. By limiting the focus of this book to Ramsey theory applied to the set of integers, the authors have produced a gentle, but meaningful, introduction to an important and enticing branch of modern mathematics. Ramsey Theory on the Integers offers students a glimpse into the world of mathematical research and the opportunity for them to begin pondering unsolved problems.For this new edition, several sections have been added and others have been significantly updated. Among the newly introduced topics are: rainbow Ramsey theory, an “inequality” version of Schur's theorem, monochromatic solutions of recurrence relations, Ramsey results involving both sums and products, monochromatic sets avoiding certain differences, Ramsey properties for polynomial progressions, generalizations of the Erdos-Ginzberg-Ziv theorem, and the number of arithmetic progressions under arbitrary colorings. Many new results and proofs have been added, most of which were not known when the first edition was published. Furthermore, the book's tables, exercises, lists of open research problems, and bibliography have all been significantly updated.This innovative book also provides the first cohesive study of Ramsey theory on the integers. It contains perhaps the most substantial account of solved and unsolved problems in this blossoming subject. This breakthrough book will engage students, teachers, and researchers alike.

This book is about the theory and practice of integer factorisation presented in a historic perspective. It describes about twenty algorithms for factoring and a dozen other number theory algorithms that support the factoring algorithms. Most algorithms are described both in words and in pseudocode to satisfy both number theorists and computer scientists. Each of the ten chapters begins with a concise summary of its contents. The book starts with a general explanation of why factoring integers is important. The next two chapters present number theory results that are relevant to factoring. Further on there is a chapter discussing, in particular, mechanical and electronic devices for factoring, as well as factoring using quantum physics and DNA molecules. Another chapter applies factoring to breaking certain cryptographic algorithms. Yet another chapter is devoted to practical vs. theoretical aspects of factoring. The book contains more than 100 examples illustrating various algorithms and theorems. It also contains more than 100 interesting exercises to test the reader's understanding. Hints or answers are given for about a third of the exercises. The book concludes with a dozen suggestions of possible new methods for factoring integers. This book is written for readers who want to learn more about the best methods of factoring integers, many reasons for factoring, and some history of this fascinating subject. It can be read by anyone who has taken a first course in number theory.

This book is intended for a first course in the calculus of variations, at the senior or beginning graduate level. The reader will learn methods for finding functions that maximize or minimize integrals. The text lays out important necessary and sufficient conditions for extrema in historical order, and it illustrates these conditions with numerous worked-out examples from mechanics, optics, geometry, and other fields.The exposition starts with simple integrals containing a single independent variable, a single dependent variable, and a single derivative, subject to weak variations, but steadily moves on to more advanced topics, including multivariate problems, constrained extrema, homogeneous problems, problems with variable endpoints, broken extremals, strong variations, and sufficiency conditions. Numerous line drawings clarify the mathematics.Each chapter ends with recommended readings that introduce the student to the relevant scientific literature and with exercises that consolidate understanding.

The winding number is one of the most basic invariants in topology. It measures the number of times a moving point $P$ goes around a fixed point $Q$, provided that $P$ travels on a path that never goes through $Q$ and that the final position of $P$ is the same as its starting position. This simple idea has far-reaching applications. The reader of this book will learn how the winding number can help us show that every polynomial equation has a root (the fundamental theorem of algebra), guarantee a fair division of three objects in space by a single planar cut (the ham sandwich theorem), explain why every simple closed curve has an inside and an outside (the Jordan curve theorem), relate calculus to curvature and the singularities of vector fields (the Hopf index theorem), allow one to subtract infinity from infinity and get a finite answer (Toeplitz operators), generalize to give a fundamental and beautiful insight into the topology of matrix groups (the Bott periodicity theorem). All these subjects and more are developed starting only from mathematics that is common in final-year undergraduate courses. This book is published in cooperation with Mathematics Advanced Study Semesters.

This book offers a gentle introduction to the mathematics of both sides of game theory: combinatorial and classical. The combination allows for a dynamic and rich tour of the subject united by a common theme of strategic reasoning.The first four chapters develop combinatorial game theory, beginning with an introduction to game trees and mathematical induction, then investigating the games of Nim and Hackenbush. The analysis of these games concludes with the cornerstones of the Sprague-Grundy Theorem and the Simplicity Principle.The last eight chapters of the book offer a scenic journey through the mathematical highlights of classical game theory. This contains a thorough treatment of zero-sum games and the von Neumann Minimax Theorem, as well as a student-friendly development and proof of the Nash Equilibrium Theorem. The Folk Theorem, Arrow's voting paradox, evolutionary biology, cake cutting, and other engaging auxiliary topics also appear.The book is designed as a textbook for an undergraduate mathematics class. With ample material and limited dependencies between the chapters, the book is adaptable to a variety of situations and a range of audiences. Instructors, students, and independent readers alike will appreciate the flexibility in content choices as well as the generous sets of exercises at various levels.