Author: Robert Osserman Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 3662034840 Category : Mathematics Languages : en Pages : 279
Book Description
Few people outside of mathematics are aware of the varieties of mathemat ical experience - the degree to which different mathematical subjects have different and distinctive flavors, often attractive to some mathematicians and repellant to others. The particular flavor of the subject of minimal surfaces seems to lie in a combination of the concreteness of the objects being studied, their origin and relation to the physical world, and the way they lie at the intersection of so many different parts of mathematics. In the past fifteen years a new component has been added: the availability of computer graphics to provide illustrations that are both mathematically instructive and esthetically pleas ing. During the course of the twentieth century, two major thrusts have played a seminal role in the evolution of minimal surface theory. The first is the work on the Plateau Problem, whose initial phase culminated in the solution for which Jesse Douglas was awarded one of the first two Fields Medals in 1936. (The other Fields Medal that year went to Lars V. Ahlfors for his contributions to complex analysis, including his important new insights in Nevanlinna Theory.) The second was the innovative approach to partial differential equations by Serge Bernstein, which led to the celebrated Bernstein's Theorem, stating that the only solution to the minimal surface equation over the whole plane is the trivial solution: a linear function.
Author: Shoo Rayner Publisher: ISBN: 9781908944368 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 54
Book Description
Geometry is brought to life as Euclid explains principles of Geometry to his friends. With jokes and lots of illustrations, discover the beauty of geometry and, before you know it, you too will soon be a friend of Euclid! Shoo Rayner adds humour and simplicity to a tricky subject. A perfect introduction.
Author: Maks A. Akivis Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 0387215115 Category : Mathematics Languages : en Pages : 272
Book Description
This book surveys the differential geometry of varieties with degenerate Gauss maps, using moving frames and exterior differential forms as well as tensor methods. The authors illustrate the structure of varieties with degenerate Gauss maps, determine the singular points and singular varieties, find focal images and construct a classification of the varieties with degenerate Gauss maps.
Author: Mark V. Lawson Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: 148224649X Category : Mathematics Languages : en Pages : 384
Book Description
Algebra & Geometry: An Introduction to University Mathematics provides a bridge between high school and undergraduate mathematics courses on algebra and geometry. The author shows students how mathematics is more than a collection of methods by presenting important ideas and their historical origins throughout the text. He incorporates a hands-on approach to proofs and connects algebra and geometry to various applications. The text focuses on linear equations, polynomial equations, and quadratic forms. The first several chapters cover foundational topics, including the importance of proofs and properties commonly encountered when studying algebra. The remaining chapters form the mathematical core of the book. These chapters explain the solution of different kinds of algebraic equations, the nature of the solutions, and the interplay between geometry and algebra
Author: Viktor Vasilʹevich Prasolov Vladimir Mikhaĭlovich Tikhomirov Publisher: American Mathematical Soc. ISBN: 9780821897973 Category : Mathematics Languages : en Pages : 276
Book Description
This book provides a systematic introduction to various geometries, including Euclidean, affine, projective, spherical, and hyperbolic geometries. Also included is a chapter on infinite-dimensional generalizations of Euclidean and affine geometries. A uniform approach to different geometries, based on Klein's Erlangen Program is suggested, and similarities of various phenomena in all geometries are traced. An important notion of duality of geometric objects is highlighted throughout the book. The authors also include a detailed presentation of the theory of conics and quadrics, including the theory of conics for non-Euclidean geometries. The book contains many beautiful geometric facts and has plenty of problems, most of them with solutions, which nicely supplement the main text. With more than 150 figures illustrating the arguments, the book can be recommended as a textbook for undergraduate and graduate-level courses in geometry.
Author: Pavel Pech Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company ISBN: 9813107030 Category : Mathematics Languages : en Pages : 252
Book Description
This textbook presents various automatic techniques based on Gröbner bases elimination to prove well-known geometrical theorems and formulas. Besides proving theorems, these methods are used to discover new formulas, solve geometric inequalities, and construct objects — which cannot be easily done with a ruler and compass. Each problem is firstly solved by an automatic theorem proving method. Secondly, problems are solved classically — without using computer where possible — so that readers can compare the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches.
Author: Vaughn Climenhaga Publisher: American Mathematical Soc. ISBN: 1470434792 Category : Geometry Languages : en Pages : 420
Book Description
Groups arise naturally as symmetries of geometric objects, and so groups can be used to understand geometry and topology. Conversely, one can study abstract groups by using geometric techniques and ultimately by treating groups themselves as geometric objects. This book explores these connections between group theory and geometry, introducing some of the main ideas of transformation groups, algebraic topology, and geometric group theory. The first half of the book introduces basic notions of group theory and studies symmetry groups in various geometries, including Euclidean, projective, and hyperbolic. The classification of Euclidean isometries leads to results on regular polyhedra and polytopes; the study of symmetry groups using matrices leads to Lie groups and Lie algebras. The second half of the book explores ideas from algebraic topology and geometric group theory. The fundamental group appears as yet another group associated to a geometric object and turns out to be a symmetry group using covering spaces and deck transformations. In the other direction, Cayley graphs, planar models, and fundamental domains appear as geometric objects associated to groups. The final chapter discusses groups themselves as geometric objects, including a gentle introduction to Gromov's theorem on polynomial growth and Grigorchuk's example of intermediate growth. The book is accessible to undergraduate students (and anyone else) with a background in calculus, linear algebra, and basic real analysis, including topological notions of convergence and connectedness. This book is a result of the MASS course in algebra at Penn State University in the fall semester of 2009.
Author: Yi-Zhi Huang Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 9780817638290 Category : Mathematics Languages : en Pages : 304
Book Description
The theory of vertex operator algebras and their representations has been showing its power in the solution of concrete mathematical problems and in the understanding of conceptual but subtle mathematical and physical struc tures of conformal field theories. Much of the recent progress has deep connec tions with complex analysis and conformal geometry. Future developments, especially constructions and studies of higher-genus theories, will need a solid geometric theory of vertex operator algebras. Back in 1986, Manin already observed in [Man) that the quantum theory of (super )strings existed (in some sense) in two entirely different mathematical fields. Under canonical quantization this theory appeared to a mathematician as the representation theories of the Heisenberg, Vir as oro and affine Kac Moody algebras and their superextensions. Quantization with the help of the Polyakov path integral led on the other hand to the analytic theory of algebraic (super ) curves and their moduli spaces, to invariants of the type of the analytic curvature, and so on. He pointed out further that establishing direct mathematical connections between these two forms of a single theory was a "big and important problem. " On the one hand, the theory of vertex operator algebras and their repre sentations unifies (and considerably extends) the representation theories of the Heisenberg, Virasoro and Kac-Moody algebras and their superextensions.
Author: Sean Carroll Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 0593186583 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 305
Book Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Most appealing... technical accuracy and lightness of tone... Impeccable.”—Wall Street Journal “A porthole into another world.”—Scientific American “Brings science dissemination to a new level.”—Science The most trusted explainer of the most mind-boggling concepts pulls back the veil of mystery that has too long cloaked the most valuable building blocks of modern science. Sean Carroll, with his genius for making complex notions entertaining, presents in his uniquely lucid voice the fundamental ideas informing the modern physics of reality. Physics offers deep insights into the workings of the universe but those insights come in the form of equations that often look like gobbledygook. Sean Carroll shows that they are really like meaningful poems that can help us fly over sierras to discover a miraculous multidimensional landscape alive with radiant giants, warped space-time, and bewilderingly powerful forces. High school calculus is itself a centuries-old marvel as worthy of our gaze as the Mona Lisa. And it may come as a surprise the extent to which all our most cutting-edge ideas about black holes are built on the math calculus enables. No one else could so smoothly guide readers toward grasping the very equation Einstein used to describe his theory of general relativity. In the tradition of the legendary Richard Feynman lectures presented sixty years ago, this book is an inspiring, dazzling introduction to a way of seeing that will resonate across cultural and generational boundaries for many years to come.
Author: Robert Osserman
Author: Shoo Rayner
Author: Maks A. Akivis
Author: Mark V. Lawson
Author: Viktor Vasilʹevich Prasolov Vladimir Mikhaĭlovich Tikhomirov
Author: Pavel Pech
Author: Vaughn Climenhaga
Author: Yi-Zhi Huang
Author: D. A. Brannan
Author: Sean Carroll