The contributions in this major work focus on a central area of mathematics with strong ties to partial differential equations, algebraic geometry, number theory, and differential geometry. The 1995-96 MSRI program on Several Complex Variables emphasized these interactions and concentrated on current developments and problems that capitalize on this interplay of ideas and techniques. This collection provides a remarkably complete picture of the status of research in these overlapping areas and a basis for significant continued contributions from researchers. Several of the articles are...

This volume collects a series of survey articles on complex algebraic geometry, which in the early 1990s was undergoing a major change. Algebraic geometry has opened up to ideas and connections from other fields that have traditionally been far away. This book gives a good idea of the intellectual content of the change of direction and branching out witnessed by algebraic geometry in the past few years.

Number theory is one of the oldest and most appealing areas of mathematics. Computation has always played a role in number theory, a role which has increased dramatically in the last 20 or 30 years, both because of the advent of modern computers, and because of the discovery of surprising and powerful algorithms. As a consequence, algorithmic number theory has gradually emerged as an important and distinct field with connections to computer science and cryptography as well as other areas of mathematics. This text provides a comprehensive introduction to algorithmic number theory for beginning...

The volume is the outgrowth of a workshop with the same title held at MSRI in the week of November 13-17, 1989, and for those who did not get it, Logic from Computer Science is the converse of Logic in Computer Science, the full name of the highly successful annual LICS conferences. We meant to have a conference which would bring together the LICS commu nity with some of the more traditional "mathematical logicians" and where the emphasis would be on the flow of ideas from computer science to logic rather than the other way around. In a LICS talk, sometimes, the speaker presents a perfectly...

During the week of September 13, 1988 the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute hosted a four day workshop on Arboreal Group Theory. This volume is the product of that meeting. The program centered on the topic of the theory of groups acting on trees and the various applications to hyperbolic geometry. Topics include the theory of length functions, structure of groups acting freely on trees, spaces of hyperbolic structures and their compactifications, and moduli for tree actions.

During late June and early July of 1987 a three week program (dubbed "microprogram") in Commutative Algebra was held at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute at Berkeley. The intent of the microprogram was to survey recent major results and current trends in the theory of commutative rings, especially commutative Noetherian rings. There was enthusiastic international participation. The papers in this volume, some of which are expository, some strictly research, and some a combination, reflect the intent of the program. They give a cross-section of what is happening now in this area....

The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute sponsored a three day conference, May 21-23, 1984 to honor Professor George W. Mackey. The title of the conference, Group Representations, Ergodic Theory, Operator Algebras, and Mathematical Physics, reflects the interests in science that have characterized Professor wide ranging Mackey's work. The conference provided an opportunity for his students, friends and colleagues to honor him and his contributions. The conference was attended by over one hundred people and the participants included five mathematical generations Professor Mackey's...

In 1989-90 the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute conducted a program on Algebraic Topology and its Applications. The main areas of concentration were homotopy theory, K-theory, and applications to geometric topology, gauge theory, and moduli spaces. Workshops were conducted in these three areas. This volume consists of invited, expository articles on the topics studied during this program. They describe recent advances and point to possible new directions. They should prove to be useful references for researchers in Algebraic Topology and related fields, as well as to...

K -Theory has revolutionized the study of operator algebras in the last few years. As the primary component of the subject of "noncommutative topol ogy," K -theory has opened vast new vistas within the structure theory of C* algebras, as well as leading to profound and unexpected applications of opera tor algebras to problems in geometry and topology. As a result, many topolo gists and operator algebraists have feverishly begun trying to learn each others' subjects, and it appears certain that these two branches of mathematics have become deeply and permanently intertwined. Despite the fact...

Essays in Group Theory contains five papers on topics of current interest which were presented in a seminar at MSRI, Berkeley in June, 1985. Special mention should be given to Gromovs paper, one of the most significant in the field in the last decade. It develops the theory of hyperbolic groups to include a version of small cancellation theory sufficiently powerful to recover deep results of Ol'shanskii and Rips. Each of the remaining papers, by Baumslag and Shalen, Gersten, Shalen, and Stallings contains gems. For example, the reader will delight in Stallings' explicit construction of...