The author develops a deformation theory for degenerations of complex curves; specifically, he treats deformations which induce splittings of the singular fiber of a degeneration. He constructs a deformation of the degeneration in such a way that a subdivisor is "barked" (peeled) off from the singular fiber. These "barking deformations" are related to deformations of surface singularities (in particular, cyclic quotient singularities) as well as the mapping class groups of Riemann surfaces (complex curves) via monodromies. Important applications, such as the classification of atomic...

In this monograph the author presents a coherent exposition of recent results on complete characterization of Kobayashi-hyperbolic manifolds with high-dimensional groups of holomorphic automorphisms. These classification results can be viewed as complex-geometric analogues of those known for Riemannian manifolds with high-dimensional isotropy groups that were extensively studied in the 1950s-70s.

This volume presents a self-contained theory of certain singular coverings of toposes, including branched coverings. This book is distinguished from classical treatments of the subject by its unexpected connection with a topic from functional analysis, namely, distributions. Although primarily aimed at topos theorists, this book may also be used as a textbook for advanced graduate courses introducing topos theory with an emphasis on geometric applications.

Pos_n(R) and Eisenstein Series provides an introduction, requiring minimal prerequisites, to the analysis on symmetric spaces of positive definite real matrices as well as quotients of this space by the unimodular group of integral matrices. The approach is presented in very classical terms and includes material on special functions, notably gamma and Bessel functions, and focuses on certain mathematical aspects of Eisenstein series.

This volume is the first of two volumes containing the revised and completed notes lectures given at the school "Quantum Independent Increment Processes: Structure and Applications to Physics." This school was held at the Alfried-Krupp-Wissenschaftskolleg in Greifswald during the period March 9 - 22, 2003, and supported by the Volkswagen Foundation. The school gave an introduction to current research on quantum independent increment processes aimed at graduate students and non-specialists working in classical and quantum probability, operator algebras, and mathematical physics.

Modern notions and important tools of classical mechanics are used in the study of concrete examples that model physically significant molecular and atomic systems. The parametric nature of these examples leads naturally to the study of the major qualitative changes of such systems (metamorphoses) as the parameters are varied. The symmetries of these systems, discrete or continuous, exact or approximate, are used to simplify the problem through a number of mathematical tools and techniques like normalization and reduction. The book moves gradually from finding relative equilibria using...

This volume contains a systematic discussion of wavelet-type inversion formulae based on group representations, and their close connection to the Plancherel formula for locally compact groups. The connection is demonstrated by the discussion of a toy example, and then employed for two purposes: Mathematically, it serves as a powerful tool, yielding existence results and criteria for inversion formulae which generalize many of the known results. Moreover, the connection provides the starting point for a - reasonably self-contained - exposition of Plancherel theory. Therefore, the volume can...

There has recently been a renewal of interest in Fokker-Planck operators, motivated by problems in statistical physics, in kinetic equations, and differential geometry. Compared to more standard problems in the spectral theory of partial differential operators, those operators are not self-adjoint and only hypoelliptic. The aim of the analysis is to give, as generally as possible, an accurate qualitative and quantitative description of the exponential return to the thermodynamical equilibrium. While exploring and improving recent results in this direction, this volume proposes a review of...