Matroids appear in diverse areas of mathematics, from combinatorics to algebraic topology and geometry. This largely self-contained work provides an intuitive and interdisciplinary treatment of Coxeter matroids, a new and beautiful generalization of matroids which is based on a finite Coxeter group.

Key topics and features:

* Systematic, clearly written exposition with ample references to current research

* Matroids are examined in terms of symmetric and finite reflection groups

* Finite reflection groups and Coxeter groups are developed from scratch

*...

Dedicated to the memory of Chih-Han Sah, this volume covers a number of topics, including: combinatorial geometry, connections between logic and geometry, Lie groups, algebras and their representations, and non-communcative algebra and its relations to physics.

After reading the manuscript, some biologists inquired why, on the basis of the broad experimental material presented in this book, we had not come up with a model describing the operation of the cerebellum. To answer this question, we decided to write a preface to our book. How the nervous system copes with the complexity of the world is one of the central problems of neurophys iology. The question was clearly formulated for the frrst time by N. A. Bernstein. Considering the problem of motor control, he pointed out that the main objective of motor coordination is to overcome the redundant...

Irene Dorfman died in Moscow on April 6, 1994, shortly after seeing her beautiful book on Dirac structures I]. The present volume contains a collection of papers aiming at celebrating her outstanding contributions to mathematics. Her most important discoveries are associated with the algebraic structures arising in the study of integrable equations. Most of the articles contained in this volume are in the same spirit. Irene, working as a student of Israel Gel'fand made the fundamental dis covery that integrability is closely related to the existence of bi-Hamiltonian structures 2], 3]....

The Seminar has taken place at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, since 1990 and it has become a tradition, starting in 1992, that the Seminar be held during July at IHES in Bures-sur-Yvette, France. This is the second Gelfand Seminar volume published by Birkhauser, the first having covered the years 1990-1992. Most of the papers in this volume result from Seminar talks at Rutgers, and some from talks at IHES. In the case of a few of the papers the authors did not attend, but the papers are in the spirit of the Seminar. This is true in particular of V. Arnold's paper. He has...

It is very tempting but a little bit dangerous to compare the style of two great mathematicians or of their schools. I think that it would be better to compare papers from both schools dedicated to one area, geometry and to leave conclusions to a reader of this volume. The collaboration of these two schools is not new. One of the best mathematics journals Functional Analysis and its Applications had I.M. Gelfand as its chief editor and V.I. Arnold as vice-chief editor. Appearances in one issue of the journal presenting remarkable papers from seminars of Arnold and Gelfand always left a strong...

This Seminar began in Moscow in November 1943 and has continued without interruption up to the present. We are happy that with this vol ume, Birkhiiuser has begun to publish papers of talks from the Seminar. It was, unfortunately, difficult to organize their publication before 1990. Since 1990, most of the talks have taken place at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Parallel seminars were also held in Moscow, and during July, 1992, at IRES in Bures-sur-Yvette, France. Speakers were invited to submit papers in their own style, and to elaborate on what they discussed in the...