Octav Cornea, Universite de Montreal, PQ, Canada, Gregory Lupton and John Oprea, Cleveland State University, OH, and Daniel Tanre, Universite de Lille, France

Lusternik-Schnirelmann Category

Expected publication date is July 26, 2003

Description

"Lusternik-Schnirelmann category is like a Picasso painting. Looking at category from different perspectives produces completely different impressions of category's beauty and applicability."

--from the Introduction

Lusternik-Schnirelmann category is a subject with ties to both algebraic topology and dynamical systems. The authors take LS-category as the central theme, and then develop topics in topology and dynamics around it. Included are exercises and many examples. The book presents the material in a rich, expository style.

The book provides a unified approach to LS-category, including foundational material on homotopy theoretic aspects, the Lusternik-Schnirelmann theorem on critical points, and more advanced topics such as Hopf invariants, the construction of functions with few critical points, connections with symplectic geometry, the complexity of algorithms, and category of $3$-manifolds.

This is the first book to synthesize these topics. It takes readers from the very basics of the subject to the state of the art. Prerequisites are few: two semesters of algebraic topology and, perhaps, differential topology. It is suitable for graduate students and researchers interested in algebraic topology and dynamical systems.

Contents

Introduction to LS-category
Lower bounds for LS-category
Upper bounds for category
Localization and category
Rational homotopy and category
Hopf invariants
Category and critical points
Category and symplectic topology
Examples, computations and extensions
Topology and analysis
Basic homotopy
Bibliography
Index

Details:

Series: Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, Volume: 103
Publication Year: 2003
ISBN: 0-8218-3404-5
Paging: 330 pp.
Binding: Hardcover

Steven G. Krantz, Washington University, St. Louis, MO

A Mathematician's Survival Guide:
Graduate School and Early Career Development

Expected publication date is August 17, 2003

Description

With graduate school, young mathematicians take the first step toward a career in mathematics. During this period, they make important decisions that will affect the rest of their careers. Here now is a detailed guide to help students navigate those years and the years that follow.

In his inimitable and forthright style, Steven Krantz addresses the major issues of graduate school, including deciding where to go, passing the qualifying exams, finding an advisor, writing a thesis, and getting that first job. As with his earlier guide, How to Teach Mathematics, Krantz avoids generalities, giving clear advice on how to handle real situations. In addition, he includes a description of the basic elements of a mathematical education, as well as three appendices on the structure of a typical department and university and the standard academic ranks.

Steven G. Krantz is an experienced mathematician and an award-winning author. He has worked in many different types of mathematics departments, supervised both master's and doctoral students, and is currently the Chair of the Mathematics Department at Washington University in St. Louis.

Contents

Getting ready for graduate school
Heading off to graduate school
Preliminaries
Essential elements of a graduate education
Pre-thesis work
Thesis work
Sticky wickets
Practical difficulties
Moral difficulties
Post-graduate-school existence
Life after the thesis
Afterthoughts
The elements of mathematics
What mathematics I need to know
Glossary
The administrative structure of a mathematics department and a university
The academic ranks
The academic composition of a mathematics department
A checklist for graduate school
Bibliography
Index

Details:

Publication Year: 2003
ISBN: 0-8218-3455-X
Paging: approximately 240 pp.
Binding: Softcover

Edited by: Hans Niels Jahnke, University of Essen, Germany

A History of Analysis

Expected publication date is August 31, 2003

Description

Analysis as an independent subject was created as part of the scientific revolution in the seventeenth century. Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Fermat, Huygens, Newton, and Leibniz, to name but a few, contributed to its genesis. Since the end of the seventeenth century, the historical progress of mathematical analysis has displayed unique vitality and momentum. No other mathematical field has so profoundly influenced the development of modern scientific thinking.

Describing this multidimensional historical development requires an in-depth discussion which includes a reconstruction of general trends and an examination of the specific problems. This volume is designed as a collective work of authors who are proven experts in the history of mathematics. It clarifies the conceptual change that analysis underwent during its development while elucidating the influence of specific applications and describing the relevance of biographical and philosophical backgrounds.

The first ten chapters of the book outline chronological development and the last three chapters survey the history of differential equations, the calculus of variations, and functional analysis.

Special features are a separate chapter on the development of the theory of complex functions in the nineteenth century and two chapters on the influence of physics on analysis. One is about the origins of analytical mechanics, and one treats the development of boundary-value problems of mathematical physics (especially potential theory) in the nineteenth century.

The book presents an accurate and very readable account of the history of analysis. Each chapter provides a comprehensive bibliography. Mathematical examples have been carefully chosen so that readers with a modest background in mathematics can follow them. It is suitable for mathematical historians and a general mathematical audience.

Contents

R. Thiele -- Antiquity
J. van Maanen -- Precursors of differentiation and integration
N. Guicciardini -- Newton's method and Leibniz's calculus
H. N. Jahnke -- Algebraic analysis in the 18th century
M. Panza -- The origins of analytic mechanics in the 18th century
J. Lutzen -- The foundation of analysis in the 19th century
T. Archibald -- Analysis and physics in the nineteenth century: The case of boundary-value problems
U. Bottazzini -- Complex function theory, 1780-1900
T. Hochkirchen -- Theory of measure and integration from Riemann to Lebesgue
M. Epple -- The end of the science of quantity: Foundations of analysis, 1860-1910
T. Archibald -- Differential equations: A historical overview to circa 1900
C. Fraser -- The calculus of variations: A historical survey
R. Siegmund-Schultze -- The origins of functional analysis
Index of names
Subject index

Details:

Series: History of Mathematics, Volume: 24
Publication Year: 2003
ISBN: 0-8218-2623-9
Paging: approximately 432 pp.
Binding: Hardcover

Skip Garibaldi, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, Alexander Merkurjev, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, and Jean-Pierre Serre, College de France, Paris, France

Cohomological Invariants in Galois Cohomology

Expected publication date is July 20, 2003

Description

This volume addresses algebraic invariants that occur in the confluence of several important areas of mathematics, including number theory, algebra, and arithmetic algebraic geometry. The invariants are analogues for Galois cohomology of the characteristic classes of topology, which have been extremely useful tools in both topology and geometry. It is hoped that these new invariants will prove similarly useful. Early versions of the invariants arose in the attempt to classify the quadratic forms over a given field.

The authors are well-known experts in the field. Serre, in particular, is recognized as both a superb mathematician and a master author. His book on Galois cohomology from the 1960s was fundamental to the development of the theory. Merkurjev, also an expert mathematician and author, co-wrote The Book of Involutions (Volume 44 in the AMS Colloquium Publications series), an important work that contains preliminary descriptions of some of the main results on invariants described here.

The book also includes letters between Serre and some of the principal developers of the theory. It will be of interest to graduate students and research mathematicians interested in number theory and Galois cohomology.

Contents

Cohomological invariants, Witt invariants, and trace forms

Contents
Introduction
The notion of "invariant"
Cohomological preliminaries: The local case
Cohomological preliminaries: The function field case
Specialization properties of cohomological invariants
Restriction and corestriction of invariants
Cohomological invariants of $O_n,SO_n,\ldots$
Cohomological invariants of etale algebras
Witt invariants
The trace form in dimension $\le 7$
A letter from M. Rost to J-P. Serre
A letter from J-P. Serre to R. S. Garibaldi
A letter from B. Totaro to J-P. Serre

Rost invariants of simply connected algebraic groups

Contents
Rost invariants of simply connected algebraic groups
The groups $H^{d+1}(F,\mathbb{Q}/\mathbb{Z}(d))$
Tables of Dynkin indices
Bibliography
Index of notation
Index of terms

Details:

Series: University Lecture Series,Volume: 28
Publication Year: 2003
ISBN: 0-8218-3287-5
Paging: approximately 176 pp.
Binding: Softcover