About ten years ago, the handful of peculiar numerical diogarithmic identities, known since the time of Euler and Landen, gave rise to new discoveries concerning cyclotomic equations and related polylogarithmic ladders. These discoveries were made mostly by the methods of classical analysis, with help from machine computation. About the same time, starting with Bloch's studies on the application of the dilogarithm in algebraic K-theory and algebraic geometry, many important discoveries were made in diverse areas. This book seeks to provide a synthesis of these two streams of thought. In...

The central theme of this book is an invariant attached to an ideal class of a totally real algebraic number field. This invariant provides us a unified understanding of periods of abelian varieties with complex multiplication and the Stark-Shintani units. This is a new point of view, and the book contains many new results related to it. To place these results in proper perspective and to supply tools to attack unsolved problems, the author gives systematic expositions of fundamental topics. Thus the book treats the multiple gamma function, the Stark conjecture, Shimura's period symbol, the...

Mirror symmetry began when theoretical physicists made some astonishing predictions about rational curves on quintic hypersurfaces in four-dimensional projective space. Understanding the mathematics behind these predictions has been a substantial challenge.

Braid theory and knot theory are related via two famous results due to Alexander and Markov. Alexander's theorem states that any knot or link can be put into braid form. Markov's theorem gives necessary and sufficient conditions to conclude that two braids represent the same knot or link. Thus, one can use braid theory to study knot theory and vice versa. In this book, the author generalizes braid theory to dimension four. He develops the theory of surface braids and applies it to study surface links. In particular, the generalized Alexander and Markov theorems in dimension four are given.

Many important functions of mathematical physics are defined as integrals depending on parameters. The Picard-Lefschetz theory studies how analytic and qualitative properties of such integrals (regularity, algebraicity, ramification, singular points, etc.) depend on the monodromy of corresponding integration cycles. In this book, V. A. Vassiliev presents several versions of the Picard-Lefschetz theory, including the classical local monodromy theory of singularities and complete intersections, Pham's generalized Picard-Lefschetz formulas, stratified Picard-Lefschetz theory, and also twisted...

This monograph offers a rigorous mathematical treatment of the scattering theory of quantum N-particle systems in an external constant magnetic field. In particular, it addresses the question of asymptotic completeness, a classification of all possible trajectories of such systems according to their asymptotic behaviour. The book adopts the so-called time-dependent approach to scattering theory, which relies on a direct study of the Schrodinger unitary group for large times. The modern methods of spectral and scattering theory introduced in the 1980's and 1990's, including the Mourre theory...

The classification of finite simple groups is a landmark result of modern mathematics. The original proof is spread over scores of articles by dozens of researchers. This is the fifth in a multi-volume work in which the authors are assembling the proof with explanations and references. The book, along with background from sections of the previous volumes, presents critical aspects of the classification. In four prior volumes (Surveys of Mathematical Monographs, Volumes 40.1, 40.2, 40.3, and 40.4), the authors began the proof of the classification theorem by establishing certain uniqueness and...

This text focuses on the analysis of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions that describe singularities of solutions to elliptic boundary value problems in domains with corners and edges. The authors treat both classical problems of mathematical physics and general elliptic boundary value problems. The volume is divided into two parts: The first is devoted to the power-logarithmic singularities of solutions to classical boundary value problems of mathematical physics. The second deals with similar singularities for higher order elliptic equations and systems. Chapter 1 collects basic facts concerning...

Riesz space (or a vector lattice) is an ordered vector space that is simultaneously a lattice. A topological Riesz space (also called a locally solid Riesz space) is a Riesz space equipped with a linear topology that has a base consisting of solid sets. Riesz spaces and ordered vector spaces play an important role in analysis and optimization. They also provide the natural framework for any modern theory of integration. This monograph is the revised edition of the authors' book Locally Solid Riesz Spaces (1978, Academic Press). It presents an extensive and detailed study (with complete...

Operads are mathematical devices that describe algebraic structures of many varieties and in various categories. Operads are particularly important in categories with a good notion of 'homotopy', where they play a key role in organizing hierarchies of higher homotopies. This book offers an introduction describing the development of operad theory.