JULIAN BARBOUR
Absolute or Relative Motion?
The Discovery of Dynamics Volume 1
This is the first in a two volume series discussing the theories of
Einstein, Newton and other ideas of late 19th and early 20th century
physics as in-depth research and basis for Barbour's theory that
time is an illusion. This first volume explains the history and
philosophy that led to the development of classical dynamics by
Newton, and then places Newtonian dynamics in the perspective of
as yet unresolved questions relating to the basic concepts of space,
time and motion. Most of the book is concerned with the preparatory
work in astronomy and the mathematical study of terrestrial motions
that made Newton's work possible, with the final sections analyzing
Newton's own discoveries, his synthesis of a viable scheme of
dynamics, and his introduction of the concept of universal
gravitation.
paper
2001 Not Yet Published
768 pp.; 75 illus.; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; 0-19-513202-5
FREEMAN J. DYSON
The Sun, The Genome, and The Internet
Tools of Scientific Revolutions
One of America's most renowned physicists looks at how we can use new technologies to create a more equitable future
In this visionary look into the future, Freeman Dyson argues that technological changes fundamentally alter our ethical and social arrangements and that three rapidly advancing new technologies--solar energy, genetic engineering, and world-wide communication--together have the potential to create a more equal
distribution of the world's wealth.
Dyson begins by rejecting the idea that scientific revolutions are primarily concept driven. He shows rather that new tools are more often the sparks that ignite scientific discovery. Such tool-driven revolutions have profound social consequences--the invention of the telescope turning the Medieval world view upside down, the widespread use of household appliances in the 1950s replacing servants, to cite just two examples. In looking ahead, Dyson suggests that solar energy, genetics, and the Internet will have similarly transformative effects, with the potential to produce a more just and equitable society. Solar power could bring electricity to
even the poorest, most remote areas of third world nations, allowing everyone access to the vast stores of information on the Internet and effectively ending the cultural isolation of the poorest countries.
Similarly, breakthroughs in genetics may well enable us to give our children healthier lives and grow more efficient crops, thus restoring the economic and human vitality of village cultures devalued and dislocated by the global market. Written with passionate conviction about the ethical uses of science, The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet is both a brilliant reinterpretation of the scientific process and a challenge to use new technologies to close, rather than widen, the gap between rich and poor.
Freeman Dyson is Professor Emeritus of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University. He is the author of Disturbing the Universe, Infinite in All Directions, Weapons and Hope, and many other books. He is a recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award and The Phi Beta Kappa Award in science, among many other honors. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
cloth
1999
Due: 02/04/00 Tentative
NYPL/OUP Lectures
144 pp.; 5-1/2 x 8-1/4; 0-19-512942-3
DONALD C. BENSON
The Moment of Proof
Mathematical Epiphanies
The joy of mathematical discovery--the pleasure that comes from sudden insight into mathematical truth--captured for the general reader
When Archimedes, while bathing, suddenly hit upon the principle of buoyancy, he ran wildly through the streets of Syracuse, stark naked, crying "eureka!" In The Moment of Proof, Donald Benson attempts to convey to general readers the feeling of eureka--the joy of discovery--that mathematicians feel when they first
encounter an elegant proof.
This is not an introduction to mathematics so much as an introduction to the pleasures of mathematical thinking. And indeed the delights of this book are many and varied. The book is packed with intriguing conundrums--Loyd's Fifteen Puzzle, the Petersburg Paradox, the Chaos Game, the Monty Hall Problem, the Prisoners' Dilemma--as well as many mathematical curiosities. We learn how to perform the arithmetical proof called "casting out nines" and are introduced to Russian peasant multiplication, a bizarre way to
multiply numbers that actually works. The book shows us how to calculate the number of ways a chef can combine ten or fewer spices to flavor his soup (1,024) and how many people we would have to gather in a room to have a 50-50 chance of two having the same birthday (23 people). But most important, Benson takes us step by step through these many mathematical wonders, so that we arrive at the solution much the way a working scientist would--and with much the same feeling of surprise.
Every fan of mathematical puzzles will be enthralled by The Moment of Proof. Indeed, anyone interested in mathematics or in scientific discovery in general will want to own this book.
Donald C. Benson is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Davis. He lives in Davis, California.
cloth
0195117212
1999 In Stock
352 pp.; 1 halftone, 92 linecuts; 7-3/8 x 9-1/4; 0-19-511721-2
Edward Effros, Department of Mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles,
and Zhong-Jin Ruan, Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignOperator Spaces
Effros is internationally known for his work in this area Touches on two areas of mathematics - functional analysis and mathematical physics Starts at an elementary level but also includes some very recent research
Description
Readership: Graduate students and researchers in functional analysis. A secondary market amongst mathematical physicists and researchers in the area of quantum computers and quantum computation.
This book combines an elementary introduction to the theory of 'quantized Banach spaces' with a discussion of some of its most surprising non-classical aspects. Only elementary notions of functional analysis are used, hence the book will be accessible to a wide range of researchers in analysis, mathematical physics, and
quantum computation.
Contents/contributors
1 Matrix and operator conventions
2 The representation theorem
3 Constructions and examples
4 The extension theorem
5 Operator systems and decompositions
6 Injectivity
7 The projective tensor product
8 The injective tensor product
9 The Haagerup tensor product
10 Infinite matrices and asymptotic constructions
11 The approximation property
12 Mapping spaces
13 Absolutely summing mappings
14 Local reflexivity, exactness and nuclearity
15 Local reflexivity and exact integrality
16 Non-commutative harmonic analysis
17 An abstract characterization for non-self-adjoint operator algebras
Appendix
368 pages, 234mm x 156mm
Series: London Mathematical Society Monographs
Details
Hardback, 0-19-853482-5
Publication date: June 2000
Dominic David Joyce, University Lecturer and Tutorial Fellow, Lincoln College, Oxford
Compact Manifolds with Special Holonomy
Thorough coverage, major results such as the Calabi conjectures are provided in full Goes from the basics to the cutting edge of research Many examples
For the physicists: mathematical explanations of Calabi-Yau manifolds which are important in string theory
Readership: Research mathematicians working in geometry, some graduate students, and also mathematical physicists working in string theory.
This is a combination of a graduate textbook on Riemannian holonomy groups, and a research monograph on compact manifolds with the exceptional holonomy groups G2 and Spin (7). It is the first book on compact manifolds with exceptional holonomy, and contains much new research material and many new examples.
464 pages, 234mm x 156mm
Series: Oxford Mathematical Monographs
Details
Hardback, 0-19-850601-5
Publication date: July 2000
Hans Reiter, late Professor of Mathematics,
and Jan D. Stegeman, Department of Mathematics, University of UtrechtClassical Harmonic Analysis and Locally Compact Groups
Second Edition
New edition of well-known classic text Topics relevant for today's research Includes reference to the older literature as well as the most recent Thorough coverage suitable for graduate students as well as researchers
Stegeman was a student of Hans Reiter who wrote the first edition
Readership: Primary Market: Research Mathematicians in harmonic analysis, functional analysis, theory of Banach algebras Secondary Market: Graduate students, research students taking courses in Fourier analysis, harmonic analysis
A revised and expanded second edition of Reiter's classic text, this book deals with various developments in analysis centring around around the fundamental work of Wiener, Carleman, and Weil. It starts with the classical theory of Fourier transforms in euclidean space, continues with a study at certain general function
algebras, and then discusses functions defined on locally compact groups. The book gives a systematic introduction to these topics and endeavours to provide tools for further research. The new edition contains relevent material that was unavailable when the first edition was published.
Contents
1 Classical harmonic analysis and Wiener's theorem
2 Function algebras and the generalization of Wiener's theorem
3 Locally compact groups and Haar measures
4 Locally compact abelian groups and the foundations of harmonic analysis
5 Functions on locally compact abelian groups
6 Wiener's theorem and locally compact abelian groups
7 The spectrum and its applications
8 Functions on general locally compact groups
A. Additional material
B. Notes and additional references
C. Summary of notations
320 pages, 234mm x 156mm
Series: London Mathematical Society Monographs
Hardback, 0-19-851189-2
Publication date: 20 July 2000
Sergei B. Kuksin,
Professor of Mathematics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and Steklov Mathematical Institute, MoscowHamiltonian Partial Differential Equations
First book on qualitative theory of Hamiltonian PDEs First book to contain the 'KAM for PDEs' theory
Central subject area of modern mathematics and theoretical physics
256 pages, 4 line figures, 234mm x 156mm
Series: Oxford Lecture Series in Mathematics and Its Applications
Hardback (laminated boards),
0-19-850395-4
Publication date: 28 September 2000
Readership: Postgraduate mathematics students and researchers working in differential equations, dynamical systems, and integrable systems. Postgraduate physics students and researchers working in theoretical physics and hydrodynamics.
The present book is the first one in the new subject area of non-integrable Hamiltonian partial differential equations, using the approach of analysis and geometry rather than algebra to study the equations. The book will be an invaluable source of information for postgraduate mathematics students and researchers
working in analysis as well as for theoretical physicists interested in the topic.
Contents
Preface
Notations
I. Unperturbed equations
1 Some analysis in Hilbert spaces and scales
2 Integrable subsystems and Lax-integrable equations
3 Finite-gap manifolds for the KdV equation and theta-formulas
4 Sine-Gordon equation
5 Linearised equations and their Floquet solutions
6 Linearised Lax-integrable equations
7 Normal forms
II. Perturbed equations
1 A KAM theorem for perturbed nonlinear equations
2 Examples
3 Proof of KAM-theorem on parameter-depending equations
4 Linearised equations
5 First-order linear differential equations on n-torus
Addendum: The theorem of A.N. Kolmogorov
Index
Bibliography
Sergei Yuryevitsh Slavyanov, St Petersburg State University, Russia,
and Wolfgang Lay, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Special Functions
First systematic treatment of topic Applications to many areas in physics, chemistry, engineering, and
economics Book will provide reference point for future research Extensive use of tables and illustrations
384 pages, 234mm x 156mm
Series: Oxford Mathematical Monographs
Hardback, 0-19-850573-6
Publication date: 28 September 2000
Readership: Postgraduate students, lecturers and researchers of mathematics (algebra, special functions), physics, engineering, and chemistry.
The topic of special functions, normally presented as a mere collection of functions exhibiting particular properties, is treated from a fresh and unusual perspective in this book. The authors have based the special functions on the theory of second-order ordinary differential equations in the complex domain. Several
physical applications are presented. Numerous tables and figures will help the reader find his way through the subject.
Contents
Preface
1 Linear Second-order ODE with Polynomial Coefficients
2 The Hypergeometric Class of Equations
3 The Heun Class of Equations
4 Application to Physical Sciences
5 The Painlevé Class of Equations
A. Gamma-Function and Related Functions
B. CTCPs for Heun Equations in General Form
C. Multipole Matrix Elements
D. SFTools - Database of the Special Functions