Books in the London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series series

This book contains selected papers from the international conference 'Groups - St Andrews 1981', held at the University of St Andrews in July/August 1981. Its contents reflect the main topics of the conference: combinatorial group theory; infinite groups; general groups, finite or infinite; computational group theory.

This comprehensive volume highlights some of the most current results about ranks of elliptic curves, statistical properties of families of elliptic curves and their associated L-functions and the emerging uses of random matrix theory in this field. This is the only book to give an in-depth treatment of this subject.

Elliptic cohomology is a very active field of mathematics, with connections to algebraic topology, theoretical physics, number theory and algebraic geometry. This volume represents these connections, with topics including equivariant complex elliptic cohomology, the physics of M-theory, modular characteristics of vertex operator algebras, and higher chromatic analogues of elliptic cohomology.

Containing the latest research, this volume is essential for readers looking for a snapshot of current progress in polynomials and number theory. Contributions by leading experts in the field include recent work on the Schur-Siegel-Smyth trace problem, Mahler measure, the merit factor problem, Barker sequences, and K3-surfaces.

These notes provide a reasonably self-contained introductory survey of certain aspects of harmonic analysis on compact groups. The first part of the book seeks to give a brief account of integration theory on compact Hausdorff spaces. The second, larger part starts from the existence and essential uniqueness of an invariant integral on every compact Hausdorff group. Topics subsequently outlined include representations, the Peter-Weyl theory, positive definite functions, summability and convergence, spans of translates, closed ideals and invariant subspaces, spectral synthesis problems, the Hausdorff-Young theorem, and lacunarity.

It is natural to approach algebraic geometry by highlighting the way it connects algebra and analysis. Serre's GAGA theorem encapsulates this connection and provides the unifying theme for this book, which develops the modern machinery of algebraic geometry needed to give a proof, at a level accessible to undergraduates throughout.

This set of notes, for graduate students who are specializing in algebraic topology, adopts a novel approach to the teaching of the subject. It begins with a survey of the most beneficial areas for study, with recommendations regarding the best written accounts of each topic. Because a number of the sources are rather inaccessible to students, the second part of the book comprises a collection of some of these classic expositions, from journals, lecture notes, theses and conference proceedings. They are connected by short explanatory passages written by Professor Adams, whose own contributions to this branch of mathematics are represented in the reprinted articles.

This introduction to commutative algebra gives an account of some general properties of rings and modules, with their applications to number theory and geometry. It assumes only that the reader has completed an undergraduate algebra course. The fresh approach and simplicity of proof enable a large amount of material to be covered; exercises and examples are included throughout the notes.

Some of the results on automatic continuity of intertwining operators and homomorphisms that were obtained between 1960 and 1973 are here collected together to provide a detailed discussion of the subject. The book will be appreciated by graduate students of functional analysis who already have a good foundation in this and in the theory of Banach algebras.

These notes present an investigation of a condition similar to Euclid's parallel axiom for subsets of finite sets. The background material to the theory of parallelisms is introduced and the author then describes the links this theory has with other topics from the whole range of combinatorial theory and permutation groups. These include network flows, perfect codes, Latin squares, block designs and multiply-transitive permutation groups, and long and detailed appendices are provided to serve as introductions to these various subjects. Many of the results are published for the first time.

In this volume, which is dedicated to H. Seifert, are papers based on talks given at the Isle of Thorns conference on low dimensional topology held in 1982.

The book is written in three parts. Part I consists of preparatory work on algebras, needed in Parts II and III. This material is presented in a classical, though unusual, way. Part II consists of a modern description of the theory of Brauer groups over fields (from as elementary a point of view as possible). Part III covers some new developments in the theory which, until now, have not been available except in journals. The principal topic discussed in this section is reduced K,-theory. This book will be of interest to graduate students in pure mathematics and to professional mathematicians.

This is a memorial volume to the distinguished Canadian-born mathematician Hugh Dowker, one of the most highly regarded topologists in the United Kingdom and sometime Professor at Birkbeck College, London.

In these notes the abstract theory of analytic one-parameter semigroups in Banach algebras is discussed, with the Gaussian, Poisson and fractional integral semigroups in convolution Banach algebras serving as motivating examples. Such semigroups are constructed in a Banach algebra with a bounded approximate identity. Growth restrictions on the semigroup are linked to the structure of the underlying Banach algebra. The Hille-Yosida Theorem and a result of J. Esterle's on the nilpotency of semigroups are proved in detail. The lecture notes are an expanded version of lectures given by the author at the University of Edinburgh in 1980 and can be used as a text for a graduate course in functional analysis.

This book provides a striking synthesis of the standard theory of connections in principal bundles and the Lie theory of Lie groupoids. The concept of Lie groupoid is a little-known formulation of the concept of principal bundle and corresponding to the Lie algebra of a Lie group is the concept of Lie algebroid: in principal bundle terms this is the Atiyah sequence. The author's viewpoint is that certain deep problems in connection theory are best addressed by groupoid and Lie algebroid methods. After preliminary chapters on topological groupoids, the author gives the first unified and detailed account of the theory of Lie groupoids and Lie algebroids. He then applies this theory to the cohomology of Lie algebroids, re-interpreting connection theory in cohomological terms, and giving criteria for the existence of (not necessarily Riemannian) connections with prescribed curvature form. This material, presented in the last two chapters, is work of the author published here for the first time. This book will be of interest to differential geometers working in general connection theory and to researchers in theoretical physics and other fields who make use of connection theory.

This volume contains a selection of the invited papers presented at a LMS Durham Symposium on modern developments in non-classical continuum mechanics. A major aim was to bring together workers in both the abstract and practical aspects of the subject in order to achieve enhanced appreciation of each others' approach.

Since the classification of finite simple groups was announced in 1980 the subject has continued to expand opening many new areas of research. This volume contains a collection of papers, both survey and research, arising from the 1990 Durham conference in which the excellent progress of the decade was surveyed and new goals considered.

This volume contains survey articles based on the invited lectures given at the Twenty-first British Combinatorial Conference held in July 2007 at the University of Reading. By its nature this volume provides an overview of research activity in several areas of combinatorics, from combinatorial number theory to geometry.

The subject of Kleinian groups and hyperbolic 3-manifolds is currently undergoing explosively fast development. This volume contains important expositions on topics such as topology and geometry of 3-manifolds, curve complexes, classical Ahlfors-Bers theory and computer explorations. Researchers in these and related areas will find much of interest here.

The aim of this book is to present the basic concepts of tilting theory as well as the variety of applications. It contains a collection of key articles, which together form a handbook of the subject, and provide both an introduction and reference for newcomers and experts alike.

Noncommutative localization is a powerful algebraic technique for constructing new rings by inverting elements, matrices and more generally morphisms of modules. It is now an important tool not only in pure algebra but also in the topology of non-simply-connected spaces, algebraic geometry and noncommutative geometry.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of modern Banach space theory. It contains sixteen papers that reflect the wide expanse of the subject. Articles are gathered into five sections, each with a key survey: geometrical methods; homological methods; topological methods; operator theoretic methods; function space methods.

Hamilton's Ricci flow has attracted considerable attention since its introduction in 1982, owing partly to its promise in addressing the Poincare conjecture and Thurston's geometrization conjecture. This book gives a concise introduction to the subject with the hindsight of Perelman's breakthroughs from 2002/2003.

Written for mathematical researchers and graduate students in algebraic geometry and number theory, this book is a showcase for the continuing vitality of Russian mathematics. Eight survey articles containing a substantial number of original results are presented by leading Russian researchers, based on lecture courses given at British universities.

This first volume of a two-volume book contains selected papers from the international conference 'Groups St Andrews 2005'. Contributions by Peter Cameron and Rostislav Grogorchuk are included, as are survey and research articles by other conference participants, to provide a snapshot of the state of research in group theory today.

This second volume of a two-volume book contains selected papers from the international conference 'Groups St Andrews 2005'. Contributions by John Meakin and Akos Seress are included, as are survey and research articles by other conference participants, to provide a snapshot of the state of research in group theory today.

This 2006 book gives a self-contained and comprehensive introduction to free probability theory and has its main focus on the combinatorial aspects. It can be used as a textbook for an introductory graduate level course, and is also well-suited for the individual study of free probability.

Written for mathematicians working with the theory of graph spectra, this book explores more than 400 inequalities for eigenvalues of the six matrices associated with finite simple graphs: the adjacency matrix, Laplacian matrix, signless Laplacian matrix, normalized Laplacian matrix, Seidel matrix, and distance matrix. The book begins with a brief survey of the main results and selected applications to related topics, including chemistry, physics, biology, computer science, and control theory. The author then proceeds to detail proofs, discussions, comparisons, examples, and exercises. Each chapter ends with a brief survey of further results. The author also points to open problems and gives ideas for further reading.

In 1977 several eminent mathematicians were invited to Durham to present papers at a short conference on homological and combinatorial techniques in group theory. The lectures, published here, aimed at presenting in a unified way new developments in the area. Group theory is approached from a geometrical viewpoint and much of the material has not previously been published. The various ways in which topological ideas can be used in group theory are also brought together. The volume concludes with an extensive set of problems, ranging from explicit questions demanding detailed calculation to fundamental questions motivating research in the area. These lectures will be of interest mainly to researchers in pure mathematics but will also prove useful in connection with relevant postgraduate courses.

Covers all branches of number theory.