Jorn Justesen (Technical University of Denmark)
Tom Hoholdt (Technical University of Denmark)

A Course In Error-Correcting Codes

EMS Textbooks in Mathematics Vol. 1

ISBN 3-03719-001-9
January 2004, 192 pages, hardcover, 16.5 cm x 23.5 cm.

This book is written as a text for a course aimed at 3rd or 4th year students. Only some familiarity with elementary linear algebra and probability is directly assumed, but some maturity is required. The students may specialize in discrete mathematics, computer science, or communication engineering. The book is also a suitable introduction to coding theory for researchers from related fields or for professionals who want to supplement their theoretical basis. The book gives the coding basics for working on projects in any of the above areas, but material specific to one of these fields has not been included. The chapters cover the codes and decoding methods that are currently of most interest in research, development, and application. They give a relatively brief presentation of the essential results, emphasizing the interrelations between different methods and proofs of all important results. A sequence of problems at the end of each chapter serves to review the results and give the student an appreciation of the concepts. In addition, some problems and suggestions for projects indicate direction for further work. The presentation encourages the use of programming tools for studying codes, implementing decoding methods, and simulating performance. Specific examples of programming exercises are provided on the book's home page.

Richard Arratia/ Simon Tavare (University of Southern California, USA),
A. D. Barbour (University of Zurich, Switzerland)

Logarithmic combinatorial structures: a probabilistic approach

EMS Monographs in Mathematics Vol. 1

ISBN 3-03719-000-0
December 2003, 352 pages, hardcover, 16.5 cm x 23.5 cm.

The elements of many classical combinatorial structures can be naturally decomposed into components. Permutations can be decomposed into cycles, polynomials over a finite field into irreducible factors, mappings into connected components. In all of these examples, and in many more, there are strong similarities between the numbers of components of different sizes that are found in the decompositions of `typical' elements of large size. For instance, the total number of components grows logarithmically with the size of the element, and the size of the largest component is an appreciable fraction of the whole. This book explains the similarities in asymptotic behaviour as the result of two basic properties shared by the structures: the conditioning relation and the logarithmic condition. The discussion is conducted in the language of probability, enabling the theory to be developed under rather general and explicit conditions; for the finer conclusions, Stein's method emerges as the key ingredient. The book is thus of particular interest to graduate students and researchers in both combinatorics and probability theory.

Arkady L. Onishchik (Yaroslavl State University, Russia):

Lectures on Real Semisimple Lie Algebras and Their Representations

ESI Lectures in Mathematics and Physics Vol. 1

ISBN 3-03719-002-7
December 2003, 100 pages, softcover, 17.0 cm x 24.0 cm.

In 1914, E. Cartan posed the problem to find all irreducible real linear Lie algebras. An updated exposition of his work was given by Iwahori (1959). This theory reduces the classification of irreducible real representations of a real Lie algebra to a description of the so-called self-conjugate irreducible complex representations of this algebra and to the calculation of an invariant of such a representation (with values +1 or -1) which is called the index. Moreover, these two problems were reduced to the case when the Lie algebra is simple and the highest weight of its irreducible complex representation is fundamental. A complete case-by-case classification for all simple real Lie algebras was given (without proof) in the tables of Tits (1967). But actually a general solution of these problems is contained in a paper of Karpelevich (1955) (written in Russian and not widely known), where inclusions between real forms induced by a complex representation were studied. WE begin with a simplified (and somewhat extended and corrected) exposition of the main part of this paper and relate it to the theory of Cartan - Iwahori. We conclude with some tables, where an involution of the Dynkin diagram which allows us to find self-conjugate representations is described and explicit formulas for the index are given. In a short addendum, written by J. v. Silhan, this involution is interpreted in terms of the Satake diagram. The book is aimed at students in Lie groups, Lie algebras and their representations, as well as researchers in any field where these theories are used. The reader is supposed to know the classical theory of complex semisimple Lie algebras and their finite dimensional representation; the main facts are presented without proofs in Section 1. In the remaining sections the exposition is made with detailed proofs, including the correspondence between real forms and involutive automorphisms, the Cartan decompositions and the conjugacy of maximal compact subgroups of the automorphism group.

Yakov B. Pesin (Pennsylvania State University, USA):

Lectures on partial hyperbolicity and stable ergodicity

Zurich Lectures in Advanced Mathematics Vol. 1

ISBN 3-03719-003-5
January 2004, 144 pages, softcover, 17.0 cm x 24.0 cm.

This book is an introduction to the modern theory of partial hyperbolicity with applications to stable ergodicity theory of smooth dynamical systems. It provides a systematic treatment of the theory and describes all the basic concepts and major results that have been obtained in the area since its creation around the early 1970s. It can be used as a textbook for a graduate student course and is also of interest to professional mathematicians working in the field of dynamical systems and their applications.

Katrin Wehrheim (Princeton University, USA):

Uhlenbeck Compactness

EMS Series of Lectures in Mathematics Vol. 1

ISBN 3-03719-004-3
January 2004, 250 pages, softcover, 17.0 cm x 24.0 cm.

This book gives a detailed account of the analytic foundations of gauge theory -- Uhlenbeck's compactness theorems for general connections and for Yang-Mills connections. It intends to guide graduate students into the analysis of Yang-Mills theory as well as to serve as a reference for researchers in the field. The book is largely self-contained. It contains a number of appendices (e.g. on Sobolev spaces of maps between manifolds) and an introductory part covering the $L^p$-regularity theory for the inhomogenous Neumann problem. The two main parts contain the full proofs of Uhlenbeck's weak and strong compactness theorems on closed manifolds as well as their generalizations to manifolds with boundary and noncompact manifolds. These parts include a number of useful analytic tools such as general patching constructions and local slice theorems.