This book consists of two parts, different in form but similar in spirit. The first, which comprises chapters 0 through 9, is a revised and somewhat enlarged version of the 1972 book Geometrie Differentielle. The second part, chapters 10 and 11, is an attempt to remedy the notorious absence in the original book of any treatment of surfaces in three-space, an omission all the more unforgivable in that surfaces are some of the most common geometrical objects, not only in mathematics but in many branches of physics. Geometrie Differentielle was based on a course I taught in Paris in 1969- 70 and...

Is Nine-Men's Morris, in the hands of perfect players, a win for white or for black--or a draw? Can king, rook, and knight always defeat king and two knights in chess? What can Go players learn from economists? What are nimbers, tinies, switches, minies? This book deals with combinatorial games, that is, games not involving chance or hidden information. Their study is at once old and young: though some games, such as chess, have been analyzed for centuries, the first full analysis of a nontrivial combinatorial game (Nim) only appeared in 1902. This book deals with combinatorial games, that...

This book documents the recent focus on a branch of Riemannian geometry called Comparison Geometry. The simple idea of comparing the geometry of an arbitrary Riemannian manifold with the geometries of constant curvature spaces has seen a tremendous evolution recently. This volume is an up-to-date reflection of the recent development regarding spaces with lower (or two-sided) curvature bounds. The content reflects some of the most exciting activities in comparison geometry during the year and especially of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute's workshop devoted to the subject. This...

Flavors of Geometry is a collection of lectures on four geometrically-influenced fields of mathematics that have experienced great development in recent years. It presents chapters by masters in their fields on hyperbolic geometry, dynamics in several complex variables, convex geometry, and volume estimation. Each lecture begins with a discussion of elementary concepts, examines the highlights of the field, and concludes with a look at more advanced material. The style and presentation of the chapters are clear and accessible, and many of the lectures are richly illustrated. The book includes...

K-theory has helped convert the theory of operator algebras from a simple branch of functional analysis to a subject with broad applicability throughout mathematics, especially in geometry and topology, and many mathematicians of diverse backgrounds must learn the essential parts of the theory. This book is the only comprehensive treatment of K-theory for operator algebras, and is intended to help students, non specialists, and specialists learn the subject. This first paperback printing has been revised and expanded and contains an updated reference list. This book develops K-theory, the...

Is Nine-Men's Morris, in the hands of perfect players, a win for white or for black--or a draw? Can king, rook, and knight always defeat king and two knights in chess? What can Go players learn from economists? What are nimbers, tinies, switches, minies? This book deals with combinatorial games, that is, games not involving chance or hidden information. Their study is at once old and young: though some games, such as chess, have been analyzed for centuries, the first full analysis of a nontrivial combinatorial game (Nim) only appeared in 1902. This book deals with combinatorial games, that...

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...

Although topology was recognized by Gauss and Maxwell to play a pivotal role in the formulation of electromagnetic boundary value problems, it is a largely unexploited tool for field computation. The development of algebraic topology since Maxwell provides a framework for linking data structures, algorithms, and computation to topological aspects of three-dimensional electromagnetic boundary value problems. This book attempts to expose the link between Maxwell and a modern approach to algorithms. The first chapters lay out the relevant facts about homology and cohomology, stressing their...

This book is a state-of-the-art look at combinatorial games, that is, games not involving chance or hidden information. It contains a fascinating collection of articles by some of the top names in the field, such as Elwyn Berlekamp and John Conway, plus other researchers in mathematics and computer science, together with some top game players. The articles run the gamut from new theoretical approaches (infinite games, generalizations of game values, 2-player cellular automata, Alpha-Beta pruning under partial orders) to the very latest in some of the hottest games (Amazons, Chomp,...