Books in the Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications series

Asymptotics and Mellin-Barnes Integrals, first published in 2001,provides an account of the use and properties of a type of complex integral representation that arises frequently in the study of special functions typically of interest in classical analysis and mathematical physics.

Polycycles and symmetric polyhedra appear as generalisations of graphs in the modelling of molecular structures, such as the Nobel prize winning fullerenes, occurring in chemistry and crystallography. The chemistry has inspired and informed many interesting questions in mathematics and computer science, which in turn have suggested directions for synthesis of molecules. Here the authors give access to new results in the theory of polycycles and two-faced maps together with the relevant background material and mathematical tools for their study. Organised so that, after reading the introductory chapter, each chapter can be read independently from the others, the book should be accessible to researchers and students in graph theory, discrete geometry, and combinatorics, as well as to those in more applied areas such as mathematical chemistry and crystallography. Many of the results in the subject require the use of computer enumeration; the corresponding programs are available from the author's website.

Originally published in 1981, this book forms volume 15 of the Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications. The text provides a clear and thorough treatment of its subject, adhering to a clean exposition of the mathematical content of serious formulations of rational physical alternatives of quantum theory as elaborated in the influential works of the period, to which the authors made a significant contribution. The treatment falls into three distinct, logical parts: in the first part, the modern version of accumulated wisdom is presented, avoiding as far as possible the traditional language of classical physics for its interpretational character; in the second part, the individual structural elements for the logical content of the theory are laid out; in part three, the results of section two are used to reconstruct the usual Hilbert space formulation of quantum mechanics in a novel way.

This book provides an introduction to measurement theory for non-specialists and puts measurement in the social and behavioural sciences on a firm mathematical foundation. Results are applied to such topics as measurement of utility, psychophysical scaling and decision-making about pollution, energy, transportation and health. The results and questions presented should be of interest to both students and practising mathematicians since the author sets forth an area of mathematics unfamiliar to most mathematicians, but which has many potentially significant applications.

The first modern treatment of orthogonal polynomials from the viewpoint of special functions is now available in paperback. Its encyclopedic coverage includes classical topics such as Jacobi, Hermite, Laguerre, Hahn, Charlier and Meixner polynomials as well as those discovered over the last 50 years, e.g. Askey-Wilson and Al-Salam-Chihara polynomial systems. Multiple orthogonal polynomials are discussed here for the first time in book form. Many modern applications of the subject are dealt with, including birth and death processes, integrable systems, combinatorics, and physical models. A chapter on open research problems and conjectures is designed to stimulate further research on the subject. Thoroughly updated and corrected since its original printing, this book continues to be valued as an authoritative reference not only by mathematicians, but also a wide range of scientists and engineers. Exercises ranging in difficulty are included to help both the graduate student and the newcomer.

A comprehensive introduction to the theory of J-contractive and J-inner matrix valued functions with respect to the open upper half-plane and a number of applications of this theory. It will be of particular interest to those with an interest in operator theory and matrix analysis.

This second edition has been thoroughly updated, with a substantial chapter on multiseries approximants. Applications to statistical mechanics and critical phenomena are extensively covered, and there are extended sections devoted to circuit design, matrix Pade approximation and computational methods.

This is the concluding volume of the second edition of the standard text on design theory. Since the first edition there has been extensive development of the theory and this book has been thoroughly rewritten to reflect this. In particular the growing importance of discrete mathematics to many parts of engineering and science have made designs a useful tool for applications, and this fact has been acknowledged here with the inclusion of an additional chapter on applications. It is suitable for advanced courses and as a reference work, not only for researchers in discrete mathematics or finite algebra, but also for those working in computer and communications engineering and other mathematically oriented disciplines. Exercises are included throughout, and the book concludes with an extensive and updated bibliography of well over 1800 items.

The theory of finite fields is a branch of algebra that has come to the fore because of its diverse applications in such areas as combinatorics, coding theory and the mathematical study of switching ciruits. This book is devoted entirely to the theory of finite fields, and it provides comprehensive coverage of the literature. Bibliographical notes at the end of each chapter give an historical survey of the development of the subject. Worked-out examples and lists of exercises found throughout the book make it useful as a text for advanced-level courses.

Abstract regular polytopes are highly symmetric combinatorial structures with distinctive geometric, algebraic or topological properties. This comprehensive up-to-date account of the subject meets a critical need for a text in this area; no book has been published in this topic since Coxeter's Regular Polytopes (1948) and Regular Complex Polytopes (1974).

In this treatise, the authors present the general theory of orthogonal polynomials on the complex plane and several of its applications. The assumptions on the measure of orthogonality are general, the only restriction is that it has compact support on the complex plane. In the development of the theory the main emphasis is on asymptotic behaviour and the distribution of zeros. In the following chapters, the author explores the exact upper and lower bounds are given for the orthonormal polynomials and for the location of their zeros; regular n-th root asymptotic behaviour; and applications of the theory, including exact rates for convergence of rational interpolants, best rational approximants and non-diagonal Pade approximants to Markov functions (Cauchy transforms of measures). The results are based on potential theoretic methods, so both the methods and the results can be extended to extremal polynomials in norms other than L2 norms. A sketch of the theory of logarithmic potentials is given in an appendix.

This book, first published in 1991, is devoted to the exposition of combinatorial matrix theory. This subject concerns itself with the use of matrix theory and linear algebra in proving results in combinatorics (and vice versa), and with the intrinsic properties of matrices viewed as arrays of numbers rather than algebraic objects in themselves.

This book is intended as a self-contained introduction for non-specialists, or as a reference work for experts, to the particular area of approximation theory that is concerned with exact constants. The results apply mainly to extremal problems in approximation theory, which in turn are closely related to numerical analysis and optimization. The book encompasses a wide range of questions and problems: best approximation by polynomials and splines; linear approximation methods, such as spline-approximation; optimal reconstruction of functions and linear functionals. Many of the results are based on deep facts from analysis and function theory, such as duality theory and comparison theorems; these are presented in chapters 1 and 3. In keeping with the author's intention to make the book as self-contained as possible, chapter 2 contains an introduction to polynomial and spline approximation. Chapters 4 to 7 apply the theory to specific classes of functions. The last chapter deals with n-widths and generalises some of the ideas of the earlier chapters. Each chapter concludes with commentary, exercises and extensions of results. A substantial bibliography is included. Many of the results collected here have not been gathered together in book form before, so it will be essential reading for approximation theorists.

This book presents the mathematical theory of turbulence to engineers and physicists, and the physical theory of turbulence to mathematicians. The mathematical technicalities are kept to a minimum within the book, enabling the language to be at a level understood by a broad audience.

Originally published in 1984, the principal objective of this book is to make the general theory of field extensions accessible to any reader with a modest background in groups, rings and vector spaces. Galois theory is generally regarded as one of the central and most beautiful parts of algebra and its creation marked the culmination of investigations by generations of mathematicians on one of the oldest problems in algebra, the solvability of polynomial equations by radicals.

The purpose of this book, which was first published in 1978, is to give a complete account of the theory of permanents, their history and applications. This volume was the first complete account of the theory of permanents, covering virtually the whole of the subject, a feature that no simple survey of the theory of matrices can even attempt. The work also contains many results stated without formal proofs. This book can be used as a textbook at the advanced undergraduate or graduate level. The only prerequisites are a standard undergraduate course in the theory of matrices and a measure of mathematical maturity.

A revised version of McEliece's classic, this volume is a self-contained introduction to the basic results in the theory of information and coding. It is ideal either for self-study, or for a graduate/undergraduate level course at university. The text includes dozens of worked examples and several hundred problems for solution.

Orthonormal Systems and Banach Space Geometry describes the interplay between orthonormal expansions and Banach space geometry. Using harmonic analysis as a starting platform, classical inequalities and special functions are used to study orthonormal systems leading to an understanding of the advantages of systems consisting of characters on compact Abelian groups. Probabilistic concepts such as random variables and martingales are employed and Ramsey's theorem is used to study the theory of super-reflexivity. The text yields a detailed insight into concepts including type and co-type of Banach spaces, B-convexity, super-reflexivity, the vector-valued Fourier transform, the vector-valued Hilbert transform and the unconditionality property for martingale differences (UMD). A long list of unsolved problems is included as a starting point for research. This book should be accessible to graduate students and researchers with some basic knowledge of Banach space theory, real analysis, probability and algebra.

Current research on the spectral theory of finite graphs may be seen as part of a wider effort to forge closer links between algebra and combinatorics (in particular between linear algebra and graph theory).This book describes how this topic can be strengthened by exploiting properties of the eigenspaces of adjacency matrices associated with a graph. The extension of spectral techniques proceeds at three levels: using eigenvectors associated with an arbitrary labelling of graph vertices, using geometrical invariants of eigenspaces such as graph angles and main angles, and introducing certain kinds of canonical eigenvectors by means of star partitions and star bases. One objective is to describe graphs by algebraic means as far as possible, and the book discusses the Ulam reconstruction conjecture and the graph isomorphism problem in this context. Further problems of graph reconstruction and identification are used to illustrate the importance of graph angles and star partitions in relation to graph structure. Specialists in graph theory will welcome this treatment of important new research.

This book is concerned with the theory of unbounded derivations in C*-algebras, a subject whose study was motivated by questions in quantum physics and statistical mechanics, and to which the author has made a considerable contribution. This presentation concentrates on topics involving quantum statistical mechanics and differentiations on manifolds.

Geometric tomography overlaps with convex geometry and employs many tools from that area, including some formulas from integral geometry. This comprehensive study provides a rigorous treatment of the subject. Although meant primarily for researchers and graduate students in geometry and tomography, brief introductions, suitable for advanced undergraduates, are provided to the basic concepts.

This book is the first volume in a two-volume set, which will provide the complete proof of classification of two important classes of geometries, closely related to each other: Petersen and tilde geometries. This is an essential purchase for researchers into finite group theory, finite geometries and algebraic combinatorics.

Famous mathematical constants include the ratio of circular circumference to diameter, pi=3.14 ..., and the natural logarithmic base, e=2.178 ... Students and professionals usually can name at most a few others, but there are many more buried in the literature and awaiting discovery. How do such constants arise, and why are they important? Here Steven Finch provides 136 essays, each devoted to a mathematical constant or a class of constants, from the well known to the highly exotic. Topics covered include the statistics of continued fractions, chaos in nonlinear systems, prime numbers, sum-free sets, isoperimetric problems, approximation theory, self-avoiding walks and the Ising model (from statistical physics), binary and digital search trees (from theoretical computer science), the Prouhet-Thue-Morse sequence, complex analysis, geometric probability and the traveling salesman problem. This book will be helpful both to readers seeking information about a specific constant, and to readers who desire a panoramic view of all constants coming from a particular field, for example combinatorial enumeration or geometric optimization. Unsolved problems appear virtually everywhere as well. This is an outstanding scholarly attempt to bring together all significant mathematical constants in one place.

This book is a continuation of Theory of Matroids (also edited by Neil White), and again consists of a series of related surveys that have been contributed by authorities in the area. The volume has been carefully edited to ensure a uniform style and notation throughout.

A comprehensive account of the theory and applications of regular variation. It is concerned with the asymptotic behaviour of a real function of a real variable x which is 'close' to a power of x.

The book gives a categorical introduction to some of the key areas of modern mathematics. Researchers, teachers and graduate students in algebra and topology familiar with the very basic notions of category theory will find all the advanced tools needed for their subjects, without being forced to study category theory for its own sake.

Minkowski geometry is a type of non-Euclidean geometry in a finite number of dimensions in which distance is not 'uniform' in all directions. This first comprehensive treatment of the subject since the 1940's is suitable for graduate students and researchers in geometry, convexity theory, and functional analysis.

An interval is a natural way of specifying a number that is specified only within certain tolerances.

This is a version of Gevrey's classical treatise on the heat equations. Included in this volume are discussions of initial and/or boundary value problems, numerical methods, free boundary problems and parameter determination problems.

Combinatorics on words has arisen independently within several branches of mathematics, for instance number theory, group theory and probability, and appears frequently in problems related to theoretical computer science. The first unified treatment of the area was given in Lothaire's book Combinatorics on Words. Originally published in 2002, this book presents several more topics and provides deeper insights into subjects discussed in the previous volume. An introductory chapter provides the reader with all the necessary background material. There are numerous examples, full proofs whenever possible and a notes section discussing further developments in the area. This book is both a comprehensive introduction to the subject and a valuable reference source for researchers.