Books by Israel M. Gelfand

This text is the fifth and final in the series of educational books written by Israel Gelfand with his colleagues for high school students. These books cover the basics of mathematics in a clear and simple format ¿ the style Gelfand was known for internationally. Gelfand prepared these materials so as to be suitable for independent studies, thus allowing students to learn and practice the material at their own pace without a class.Geometry takes a different approach to presenting basic geometry for high-school students and others new to the subject. Rather than following the traditional axiomatic method that emphasizes formulae and logical deduction, it focuses on geometric constructions. Illustrations and problems are abundant throughout, and readers are encouraged to draw figures and ¿move¿ them in the plane, allowing them to develop and enhance their geometrical vision, imagination, and creativity. Chapters are structured so that only certain operations and the instruments to perform these operations are available for drawing objects and figures on the plane. This structure corresponds to presenting, sequentially, projective, affine, symplectic, and Euclidean geometries, all the while ensuring students have the necessary tools to follow along. Geometry is suitable for a large audience, which includes not only high school geometry students, but also teachers and anyone else interested in improving their geometrical vision and intuition, skills useful in many professions. Similarly, experienced mathematicians can appreciate the book¿s unique way of presenting plane geometry in a simple form while adhering to its depth and rigor. ¿Gelfand was a great mathematician and also a great teacher. The book provides an atypical view of geometry. Gelfand gets to the intuitive core of geometry, to the phenomena of shapes and how they move in the plane, leadingus to a better understanding of what coordinate geometry and axiomatic geometry seek to describe.¿ - Mark Saul, PhD, Executive Director, Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival¿The subject matter is presented as intuitive, interesting and fun. No previous knowledge of the subject is required. Starting from the simplest concepts and by inculcating in the reader the use of visualization skills, [and] after reading the explanations and working through the examples, you will be able to confidently tackle the interesting problems posed. I highly recommend the book to any person interested in this fascinating branch of mathematics.¿ - Ricardo Gorrin, a student of the Extended Gelfand Correspondence Program in Mathematics (EGCPM)

I.M. Gelfand (1913 - 2009), one of the world''s leading contemporary mathematicians, largely determined the modern view of functional analysis with its numerous relations to other branches of mathematics, including mathematical physics, algebra, topology, differential geometry and analysis. In this three-volume Collected Papers Gelfand presents a representative sample of his work. Gelfand''s research led to the development of remarkable mathematical theories - most of which are now classics - in the field of Banach algebras, infinite-dimensional representations of Lie groups, the inverse Sturm-Liouville problem, cohomology of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras, integral geometry, generalized functions and general hypergeometric functions. The corresponding papers form the major part of the collection. Some articles on numerical methods and cybernetics as well as a few on biology are also included. A substantial number of the papers have been translated into English especially for this edition. The collection is rounded off by an extensive bibliography with almost 500 references. Gelfand''s Collected Papers will be a great stimulus, especially for the younger generation, and will provide a strong incentive to researchers.

The Gelfand-Serganova theorem, which allows for the geometric interpretation of matroids as convex polytopes with certain symmetry properties, is presented, and in the final chapter, matroid representations and combinatorial flag varieties are discussed.