Fast solvers for elliptic PDEs form a pillar of scientific computing. They enable detailed and accurate simulations of electromagnetic fields, fluid flows, biochemical processes, and much more. This textbook provides an introduction to fast solvers from the point of view of integral equation formulations, which lead to unparalleled accuracy and speed in many applications. The focus is on fast algorithms for handling dense matrices that arise in the discretization of integral operators, such as the fast multipole method and fast direct solvers. While the emphasis is on techniques for dense...