Antonio Ambrosetti / SISSA, Trieste
Andrea Malchiodi / SISSA, Trieste

Nonlinear Analysis and Semilinear Elliptic Problems

Series: Cambridge Studies in Advanced Mathematics (No. 104)
Hardback (ISBN-13: 9780521863209 | ISBN-10: 0521863201)

Many problems in science and engineering are described by nonlinear differential equations, which can be notoriously difficult to solve. Through the interplay of topological and variational ideas, methods of nonlinear analysis are able to tackle such fundamental problems. This graduate text explains some of the key techniques in a way that will be appreciated by mathematicians, physicists and engineers. Starting from elementary tools of bifurcation theory and analysis, the authors cover a number of more modern topics from critical point theory to elliptic partial differential equations. A series of Appendices give convenient accounts of a variety of advanced topics that will introduce the reader to areas of current research. The book is amply illustrated and many chapters are rounded off with a set of exercises.

* Contains both classical and more modern advanced techniques and is an ideal introduction to Nonlinear Analysis
* Ideal for graduate students and academic researchers in Mathematics and Physics
* Series of Appendices introduces reader to advanced areas of current research
* Discusses both topological and variational tools

Contents

Preface; 1. Preliminaries; Part I. Topological Methods: 2. A primer on bifurcation theory; 3. Topological degree, I; 4. Topological degree, II: global properties; Part II. Variational Methods, I: 5. Critical points: extrema; 6. Constrained critical points; 7. Deformations and the Palais-Smale condition; 8. Saddle points and min-max methods; Part III. Variational Methods, II: 9. Lusternik-Schnirelman theory; 10. Critical points of even functionals on symmetric manifolds; 11. Further results on Elliptic Dirichlet problems; 12. Morse theory; Part IV. Appendices: Appendix 1. Qualitative results; Appendix 2. The concentration compactness principle; Appendix 3. Bifurcation for problems on Rn; Appendix 4. Vortex rings in an ideal fluid; Appendix 5. Perturbation methods; Appendix 6. Some problems arising in differential geometry; Bibliography; Index.

Edited by C. M. Campbell/ M. R. Quick / E. F. Robertson :University of St Andrews, Scotland
G. C. Smith : University of Bath

Groups St Andrews 2005, volume 1.

Series: London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series (No. 339)
Paperback (ISBN-13: 9780521694698 | ISBN-10: 0521694698)

'Groups St Andrews 2005' was held in the University of St Andrews in August 2005 and this first volume of a two-volume book contains selected papers from the international conference. Four main lecture courses were given at the conference, and articles based on their lectures form a substantial part of the Proceedings. This volume contains the contributions by Peter Cameron (Queen Mary, London) and Rostislav Grogorchuk (Texas A&M, USA). Apart from the main speakers, refereed survey and research articles were contributed by other conference participants. Arranged in alphabetical order, these articles cover a wide spectrum of modern group theory. The regular Proceedings of Groups St Andrews conferences have provided snapshots of the state of research in group theory throughout the past 25 years. Earlier volumes have had a major impact on the development of group theory and it is anticipated that this volume will be equally important.

* Contains expository articles by leading mathematicians in group theory
* Forms part of an extensive four-yearly series of such volumes which have shaped the direction of research in group theory
* Provides a snapshot of the state of research in group theory

Contents

Introduction; 1. Aspects of infinite permutation groups Peter J. Cameron; 2. Self-similarity and branching in group theory Rostislav Grigorchuk and Zoran Sunic; 3. On surface groups: motivating examples in combinatorial group theory Peter Ackermann, Benjamin Fine and Gerhard Rosenberger; 4. Nilpotent p-algebras and factorized p-groups Bernhard Amberg and Lev Kazarin; 5. Classification of finite groups by the number of element centralizers Ali Reza Ashrafi and Bijan Taeri; 6. Algorithmic use of the Mal'cev correspondence Bjoern Assmann; 7. Minimal but inefficient presentations for semi-direct products of finite cyclic monoids Firat Ates and A. Sinan C evik; 8. The modular isomorphism problem for finite p-groups with a cyclic subgroup of index p2 Czeslaw Baginski and Alexander Konovalov; 9. On one-generated formations A. Ballester-Bolinches, Clara Calvo and R. Esteban-Romero; 10. New results on products of finite groups A. Ballester-Bolinches, John Cossey and M. C. Pedraza-Aguilera; 11. Radical locally finite T-groups A. Ballester-Bolinches, H. Heineken and Tatiana Pedraza; 12. Explicit tilting complexes for the Broue conjecture on 3-blocks Ayala Bar-Ilan, Tzviya Berrebi, Genadi Chereshnya, Ruth Leabovich, Mikhal Cohen and Mary Schaps; 13. Conjugacy classes of p-regular elements in p-solvable groups Antonio Beltran and Maria Jose Felipe; 14. An algorithm for the unit group of the Burnside ring of a finite group Robert Boltje and Gotz Pfeiffer; 15. Integral group ring of the first Mathieu simple group Victor Bovdi and Alexander Konovalov; 16. Embedding properties in direct products B. Brewster, A. Martinez-Pastor and M. D. Perez-Ramos; 17. Malcev presentations for subsemigroups of groups - a survey Alan J. Cain; 18. Finite groups with extremal conditions on sizes of conjugacy classes and on degrees of irreducible characters David Chillag and Marcel Herzog; 19. Conjugacy class structure in simple algebraic groups Martin Cook; 20. On automorphisms of products of groups Jill Dietz; 21. Linear groups with infinite central dimension Martyn R. Dixon and Leonid A. Kurdachenko; 22. G-automata, counter languages and the Chomsky hierarchy Murray Elder; 23. An embedding theorem for groups universally equivalent to free nilpotent groups Benjamin Fine, Anthony M. Gaglione and Dennis Spellman; 24. Irreducible word problems in groups Ana R. Fonseca, Duncan W. Parkes and Richard M. Thomas; 25. Recent growth results Eric M. Freden and Teresa Knudson.

Edited by C. M. Campbell/ M. R. Quick / E. F. Robertson :University of St Andrews, Scotland
G. C. Smith : University of Bath

Groups St Andrews 2005, volume 2.

Series: London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series (No. 340)
Paperback (ISBN-13: 9780521694704 | ISBN-10: 0521694701)

'Groups St Andrews 2005' was held in the University of St Andrews in August 2005 and this second volume of a two-volume book contains selected papers from the international conference. Four main lecture courses were given at the conference, and articles based on their lectures form a substantial part of the Proceedings. This volume contains the contributions by John Meakin (Lincoln, Nebraska) and Akos Seress (Ohio State). Apart from the main speakers, refereed survey and research articles were contributed by other conference participants. Arranged in alphabetical order, these articles cover a wide spectrum of modern group theory. The regular Proceedings of Groups St Andrews conferences have provided snapshots of the state of research in group theory throughout the past 25 years. Earlier volumes have had a major impact on the development of group theory and it is anticipated that this volume will be equally important.

* Contains expository articles by leading mathematicians in group theory
* Forms part of an extensive four-yearly series of such volumes which have shaped the direction of research in group theory
* Provides a snapshot of the state of research in group theory

Contents

Introduction; 1. Groups and semigroups: connections and contrasts John Meakin; 2. Toward the classification of s-arc transitive graphs Akos Seress; 3. Non-cancellation group computation for some finitely generated nilpotent groups Habtay Ghebrewold; 4. Permutation and quasi-permutation representations of the Chevalley groups Maryam Ghorbany; 5. The shape of solvable groups with odd order S. P. Glasby; 6. Embedding in finitely presented lattice-ordered groups: explicit presentations for constructions A. M. W. Glass, Vincenzo Marra and Daniele Mundici; 7. A note on abelian subgroups of p-groups George Glauberman; 8. On kernel flatness Akbar Golchin; 9. On proofs in finitely presented groups George Havas and Colin Ramsay; 10. Computing with 4-Engel groups George Havas and M. R. Vaughan-Lee; 11. On the size of the commutator subgroup in finite groups Marcel Herzog, Gil Kaplan and Arieh Lev; 12. Groups of infinite matrices Waldemar Holubowski; 13. Triply factorised groups and nearrings Peter Hubert; 14. On the space of cyclic trigonal Riemann surfaces of genus 4 Milagros Izquierdo and Daniel Ying; 15. On simple Kn-groups for n = 5, 6 A. Jafarzadeh and A. Iranmanesh; 16. Products of Sylow subgroups and the solvable radical Gil Kaplan and Dan Levy; 17. On commutators in groups Luise-Charlotte Kappe and Robert Fitzgerald Morse; 18. Inequalities for the Baer invariant of finite groups Saeed Kayvanfar; 19. Automorphisms with centralizers of small rank Evgeny Khukhro and Victor Mazurov; 20. 2-signalizers and normalizers of Sylow 2-subgroups in finite simple groups Anatoly S. Kondratiev and Victor D. Mazurov; 21. On properties of abnormal and pronormal subgroups in some infinite groups Leonid A. Kurdachenko, Javier Otal and Igor Ya. Subbotin; 22. P-localizing group extensions Karl Lorensen; 23. On the n-covers of exceptional groups of Lie type Maria Silvia Lucido; 24. Positively discriminating groups O. Macedonska; 25. Automorphism groups of some chemical graphs G. A. Moghani, A. R. Ashrafi and M. R. Admadi; 26. On c-normal subgroups of some classes of finite groups Z. Mostaghim; 27. Fong characters and their fields of values Lucia Sanus; 28. Arithmetical properties of finite groups W. J. Shi; 29. On prefrattini subgroups of finite groups: a survey X. Soler-Escriva; 30. Frattini extensions and class field theory Th. Weigel; 31. The nilpotency class of groups with fixed point free automorphisms of prime order Lawrence Wilson.

Pierre Cartier / Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, France
Cecile DeWitt-Morette / University of Texas, Austin

Functional Integration
Action and Symmetries

Series: Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics
Hardback (ISBN-13: 9780521866965 | ISBN-10: 0521866960)

Functional integration successfully entered physics as path integrals in the 1942 Ph.D. dissertation of Richard P. Feynman, but it made no sense at all as a mathematical definition. Cartier and DeWitt-Morette have created, in this book, a new approach to functional integration. The book is self-contained: mathematical ideas are introduced, developed generalised and applied. In the authors' hands, functional integration is shown to be a robust, user-friendly and multi-purpose tool that can be applied to a great variety of situations, for example: systems of indistinguishable particles; Aharanov-Bohm systems; supersymmetry; non-gaussian integrals. Problems in quantum field theory are also considered. In the final part the authors outline topics that can be profitably pursued using material already presented.

* A mathematician and a physicist, with a mutual interest in each other's disciplines, use their complementary interests and expertise to illuminate the powerful technique of functional integration
* Functional integration is applied to a great variety of systems and shown to be a robust, user-friendly and multipurpose tool
* Suitable for graduate theoretical physicists wanting to deepen their understanding of the functional integration technique

Contents

Part I. The Physical and Mathematical Environment: 1. The physical and mathematical environment; Part II. Quantum Mechanics: 2. First lesson: Gaussian integrals; 3. Selected examples; 4. Semiclassical expansion - WKB; 5. Semiclassical expansion - beyond WKB; 6. Quantum dynamics: path integrals and operator formalism; Part III. Methods from Differential Geometry: 7. Symmetries; 8. Homotopy; 9. Grassmann analysis: basics; 10. Grassmann analysis: applications; 11. Volume elements, divergences, gradients; Part IV. Non-Gaussian Applications: 12. Poisson processes in physics; 13. A mathematical theory of Poisson processes; 14. First exit time - energy problems; Part V. Problems in Quantum Field Theory: 15. Renormalization 1: an introduction; 16. Renormalization 2: scaling; 17. Renormalization 3: combinatorics Marcus Bery; 18. Volume elements in quantum field theory Bryce DeWitt; Part VI. Projects: 19. Projects; Appendix A. Forward and backward integrals: spaces of pointed paths; Appendix B. Product integrals; Appendix C. A compendium of Gaussian integrals; Appendix D. Wick calculus Alexander Wurm; Appendix E. Jacobi operator; Appendix F. Change of variables of integration; Bibliography; Index.

Igor Herbut / Simon Fraser
University, British Columbia

A Modern Approach to Critical Phenomena

Hardback (ISBN-13: 9780521854528 | ISBN-10: 0521854520)

Critical phenomena is one of the most exciting areas of modern physics. This book provides a thorough but economic introduction into the principles and techniques of the theory of critical phenomena and the renormalization group, from the perspective of modern condensed matter physics. Assuming basic knowledge of quantum and statistical mechanics, the book discusses phase transitions in magnets, superfluids, superconductors, and gauge field theories. Particular attention is given to modern topics such as gauge field fluctuations in superconductors, the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, duality transformations, and quantum phase transitions - all of which are at the forefront of today's physics research. This book contains numerous problems of varying degrees of difficulty, with solutions. These problems provide readers with a wealth of material to test their understanding of the subject. It is ideal for graduate students and more experienced researchers in the fields of condensed matter physics, statistical physics, and many-body physics.

* Has a straightforward and economic style of presentation allowing readers to quickly get to the essence of the material
* Includes a modern selection of topics including several not found in other books
* Contains fully solved and original problems

Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson theory; 3. Renormalization group; 4. Superconducting transition; 5. Near lower critical dimension; 6. Kosterlitz-Thouless transition; 7. Duality in higher dimensions; 8. Quantum phase transitions; Appendix A. Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation; Appendix B. Linked-cluster theorem; Appendix C. Gauge fixing for long-range order; Appendix D. Bibliography; Index.