Layer Potential Techniques in Spectral Analysis


Book Description

Since the early part of the twentieth century, the use of integral equations has developed into a range of tools for the study of partial differential equations. This includes the use of single- and double-layer potentials to treat classical boundary value problems. The aim of this book is to give a self-contained presentation of an asymptotic theory for eigenvalue problems using layer potential techniques with applications in the fields of inverse problems, band gap structures, and optimal design, in particular the optimal design of photonic and phononic crystals. Throughout this book, it is shown how powerful the layer potentials techniques are for solving not only boundary value problems but also eigenvalue problems if they are combined with the elegant theory of Gohberg and Sigal on meromorphic operator-valued functions. The general approach in this book is developed in detail for eigenvalue problems for the Laplacian and the Lame system in the following two situations: one under variation of domains or boundary conditions and the other due to the presence of inclusions. The book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students working in the fields of partial differential equations, integral equations, and inverse problems. Researchers in engineering and physics may also find this book helpful.




Applied Analysis of Composite Media


Book Description

Applied Analysis of Composite Media: Analytical and Computational Approaches presents formulas and techniques that can used to study 2D and 3D problems in composites and random porous media. The main strength of this book is its broad range of applications that illustrate how these techniques can be applied to investigate elasticity, viscous flow and bacterial motion in composite materials. In addition to paying attention to constructive computations, the authors have also included information on codes via a designated webpage. This book will be extremely useful for postgraduate students, academic researchers, mathematicians and industry professionals who are working in structured media. - Provides a uniform, computational methodology that can be applied to the main classes of transport and elastic problems by using a combination of exact formulae, advanced simulations and asymptotic methods - Includes critical phenomena in transport and elastic problems for composites and porous media - Applies computational methodology to biological structures - Presents computer protocols/algorithms that can be used for materials design







Connective Real $K$-Theory of Finite Groups


Book Description

Focusing on the study of real connective $K$-theory including $ko^*(BG)$ as a ring and $ko_*(BG)$ as a module over it, the authors define equivariant versions of connective $KO$-theory and connective $K$-theory with reality, in the sense of Atiyah, which give well-behaved, Noetherian, uncompleted versions of the theory.




Renormalization and Effective Field Theory


Book Description

This book tells mathematicians about an amazing subject invented by physicists and it tells physicists how a master mathematician must proceed in order to understand it. Physicists who know quantum field theory can learn the powerful methodology of mathematical structure, while mathematicians can position themselves to use the magical ideas of quantum field theory in “mathematics” itself. The retelling of the tale mathematically by Kevin Costello is a beautiful tour de force. —Dennis Sullivan This book is quite a remarkable contribution. It should make perturbative quantum field theory accessible to mathematicians. There is a lot of insight in the way the author uses the renormalization group and effective field theory to analyze perturbative renormalization; this may serve as a springboard to a wider use of those topics, hopefully to an eventual nonperturbative understanding. —Edward Witten Quantum field theory has had a profound influence on mathematics, and on geometry in particular. However, the notorious difficulties of renormalization have made quantum field theory very inaccessible for mathematicians. This book provides complete mathematical foundations for the theory of perturbative quantum field theory, based on Wilson's ideas of low-energy effective field theory and on the Batalin–Vilkovisky formalism. As an example, a cohomological proof of perturbative renormalizability of Yang–Mills theory is presented. An effort has been made to make the book accessible to mathematicians who have had no prior exposure to quantum field theory. Graduate students who have taken classes in basic functional analysis and homological algebra should be able to read this book.




Eigenvalue Distribution of Large Random Matrices


Book Description

Random matrix theory is a wide and growing field with a variety of concepts, results, and techniques and a vast range of applications in mathematics and the related sciences. The book, written by well-known experts, offers beginners a fairly balanced collection of basic facts and methods (Part 1 on classical ensembles) and presents experts with an exposition of recent advances in the subject (Parts 2 and 3 on invariant ensembles and ensembles with independent entries). The text includes many of the authors' results and methods on several main aspects of the theory, thus allowing them to present a unique and personal perspective on the subject and to cover many topics using a unified approach essentially based on the Stieltjes transform and orthogonal polynomials. The exposition is supplemented by numerous comments, remarks, and problems. This results in a book that presents a detailed and self-contained treatment of the basic random matrix ensembles and asymptotic regimes. This book will be an important reference for researchers in a variety of areas of mathematics and mathematical physics. Various chapters of the book can be used for graduate courses; the main prerequisite is a basic knowledge of calculus, linear algebra, and probability theory.




Nonlinear Dispersive Equations


Book Description

This book provides a self-contained presentation of classical and new methods for studying wave phenomena that are related to the existence and stability of solitary and periodic travelling wave solutions for nonlinear dispersive evolution equations. Simplicity, concrete examples, and applications are emphasized throughout in order to make the material easily accessible. The list of classical nonlinear dispersive equations studied include Korteweg-de Vries, Benjamin-Ono, and Schrodinger equations. Many special Jacobian elliptic functions play a role in these examples. The author brings the reader to the forefront of knowledge about some aspects of the theory and motivates future developments in this fascinating and rapidly growing field. The book can be used as an instructive study guide as well as a reference by students and mature scientists interested in nonlinear wave phenomena.




Descriptive Set Theory


Book Description

Descriptive Set Theory is the study of sets in separable, complete metric spaces that can be defined (or constructed), and so can be expected to have special properties not enjoyed by arbitrary pointsets. This subject was started by the French analysts at the turn of the 20th century, most prominently Lebesgue, and, initially, was concerned primarily with establishing regularity properties of Borel and Lebesgue measurable functions, and analytic, coanalytic, and projective sets. Its rapid development came to a halt in the late 1930s, primarily because it bumped against problems which were independent of classical axiomatic set theory. The field became very active again in the 1960s, with the introduction of strong set-theoretic hypotheses and methods from logic (especially recursion theory), which revolutionized it. This monograph develops Descriptive Set Theory systematically, from its classical roots to the modern ?effective? theory and the consequences of strong (especially determinacy) hypotheses. The book emphasizes the foundations of the subject, and it sets the stage for the dramatic results (established since the 1980s) relating large cardinals and determinacy or allowing applications of Descriptive Set Theory to classical mathematics. The book includes all the necessary background from (advanced) set theory, logic and recursion theory.




Random Walk Intersections


Book Description

Involves important and non-trivial results in contemporary probability theory motivated by polymer models, as well as other topics of importance in physics and chemistry.




Parabolic Geometries I


Book Description

Parabolic geometries encompass a very diverse class of geometric structures, including such important examples as conformal, projective, and almost quaternionic structures, hypersurface type CR-structures and various types of generic distributions. The characteristic feature of parabolic geometries is an equivalent description by a Cartan geometry modeled on a generalized flag manifold (the quotient of a semisimple Lie group by a parabolic subgroup). Background on differential geometry, with a view towards Cartan connections, and on semisimple Lie algebras and their representations, which play a crucial role in the theory, is collected in two introductory chapters. The main part discusses the equivalence between Cartan connections and underlying structures, including a complete proof of Kostant's version of the Bott–Borel–Weil theorem, which is used as an important tool. For many examples, the complete description of the geometry and its basic invariants is worked out in detail. The constructions of correspondence spaces and twistor spaces and analogs of the Fefferman construction are presented both in general and in several examples. The last chapter studies Weyl structures, which provide classes of distinguished connections as well as an equivalent description of the Cartan connection in terms of data associated to the underlying geometry. Several applications are discussed throughout the text.