This book is devoted to an exposition of the theory of finite-dimensional Lie groups and Lie algebras, which is a beautiful and central topic in modern mathematics. At the end of the nineteenth century this theory came to life in the works of Sophus Lie. It had its origins in Lie's idea of applying Galois theory to differential equations and in Klein's "Erlanger Programm" of treat- ing symmetry groups as the fundamental objects in geometry. Lie's approach to many problems of analysis and geometry was mainly local, that is, valid in local coordinate systems only. At the beginning of the...

What is the true mark of inspiration? Ideally it may mean the originality, freshness and enthusiasm of a new breakthrough in mathematical thought. The reader will feel this inspiration in all four seminal papers by Duistermaat, Guillemin and Hormander presented here for the first time ever in one volume. However, as time goes by, the price researchers have to pay is to sacrifice simplicity for the sake of a higher degree of abstraction. Thus the original idea will only be a foundation on which more and more abstract theories are being built. It is the unique feature of this book to combine...