This is a reissue of a classic text, which includes the author's own corrections and provides a very accessible, self contained introduction to the classical theory of orders and maximal orders over a Dedekind ring. It starts wtih a long chapter that provides the algebraic prerequisites for this theory, covering basic material on Dedekind domains, localizations and completions as well as semisimple rings and separable algebras. This is followed by an introduction to the basic tools in studying orders, such as reduced norms and traces, discriminants, and localization of orders. The theory of...

Polycrystalline metals, porous rocks, colloidal suspensions, epitaxial thin films, gels, foams, granular aggregates, sea ice, shape-memory metals, magnetic materials, and electro-rheological fluids are all examples of materials where an understanding of the mathematics on the different length scales is a key to interpreting their physical behavior. In their analysis of these media, scientists coming from a number of disciplines have encountered similar mathematical problems, yet it is rare for researchers in the various fields to meet. The 1995-1996 program at the Institute for Mathematics...

In the past few years, vertex operator algebra theory has been growing both in intrinsic interest and in the scope of its interconnections with areas of mathematics and physics. The structure and representation theory of vertex operator algebras is deeply related to such subjects as monstrous moonshine, conformal field theory and braid group theory. Vertex operator algebras are the mathematical counterpart of chiral algebras in conformal field theory. In the Introduction which follows, we sketch some of the main themes in the historical development and mathematical and physical motivations of...