* Contains research and survey articles by well known and respected mathematicians on recent developments and research trends in differential geometry and topology * Dedicated in honor of Lieven Vanhecke, as a tribute to his many fruitful and inspiring contributions to these fields * Papers include all necessary introductory and contextual material to appeal to non-specialists, as well as researchers and differential geometers
The geometry and analysis of CR manifolds is the subject of this expository work, which presents all the basic results on this topic, including results from the folklore of the subject.
The goal of these notes is to provide a fast introduction to symplectic geometry for graduate students with some knowledge of differential geometry, de Rham theory and classical Lie groups. This text addresses symplectomorphisms, local forms, contact manifolds, compatible almost complex structures, Kaehler manifolds, hamiltonian mechanics, moment maps, symplectic reduction and symplectic toric manifolds. It contains guided problems, called homework, designed to complement the exposition or extend the reader's understanding. There are by now excellent references on symplectic geometry, a subset of which is in the bibliography of this book. However, the most efficient introduction to a subject is often a short elementary treatment, and these notes attempt to serve that purpose. This text provides a taste of areas of current research and will prepare the reader to explore recent papers and extensive books on symplectic geometry where the pace is much faster. For this reprint numerous corrections and clarifications have been made, and the layout has been improved.
This book arises from the INdAM Meeting "Complex and Symplectic Geometry", which was held in Cortona in June 2016. Several leading specialists, including young researchers, in the field of complex and symplectic geometry, present the state of the art of their research on topics such as the cohomology of complex manifolds; analytic techniques in Kähler and non-Kähler geometry; almost-complex and symplectic structures; special structures on complex manifolds; and deformations of complex objects. The work is intended for researchers in these areas.
This monograph studies the problem of characterizing canonical metrics on Hermitian locally symmetric manifolds X of non-compact/compact types in terms of curvature conditions. The proofs of these metric rigidity theorems are applied to the study of holomorphic mappings between manifolds X of the same type. Moreover, a dual version of the generalized Frankel Conjecture on characterizing compact Khler manifolds are also formulated.
Manifolds, the higher-dimensional analogs of smooth curves and surfaces, are fundamental objects in modern mathematics. Combining aspects of algebra, topology, and analysis, manifolds have also been applied to classical mechanics, general relativity, and quantum field theory. In this streamlined introduction to the subject, the theory of manifolds is presented with the aim of helping the reader achieve a rapid mastery of the essential topics. By the end of the book the reader should be able to compute, at least for simple spaces, one of the most basic topological invariants of a manifold, its de Rham cohomology. Along the way, the reader acquires the knowledge and skills necessary for further study of geometry and topology. The requisite point-set topology is included in an appendix of twenty pages; other appendices review facts from real analysis and linear algebra. Hints and solutions are provided to many of the exercises and problems. This work may be used as the text for a one-semester graduate or advanced undergraduate course, as well as by students engaged in self-study. Requiring only minimal undergraduate prerequisites, 'Introduction to Manifolds' is also an excellent foundation for Springer's GTM 82, 'Differential Forms in Algebraic Topology'.
This text on contact topology is a comprehensive introduction to the subject, including recent striking applications in geometric and differential topology: Eliashberg's proof of Cerf's theorem via the classification of tight contact structures on the 3-sphere, and the Kronheimer-Mrowka proof of property P for knots via symplectic fillings of contact 3-manifolds. Starting with the basic differential topology of contact manifolds, all aspects of 3-dimensional contact manifolds are treated in this book. One notable feature is a detailed exposition of Eliashberg's classification of overtwisted contact structures. Later chapters also deal with higher-dimensional contact topology. Here the focus is on contact surgery, but other constructions of contact manifolds are described, such as open books or fibre connected sums. This book serves both as a self-contained introduction to the subject for advanced graduate students and as a reference for researchers.
This book presents many of the main developments of the past two decades in the study of real submanifolds in complex space, providing crucial background material for researchers and advanced graduate students. The techniques in this area borrow from real and complex analysis and partial differential equations, as well as from differential, algebraic, and analytical geometry. In turn, these latter areas have been enriched over the years by the study of problems in several complex variables addressed here. The authors, M. Salah Baouendi, Peter Ebenfelt, and Linda Preiss Rothschild, include extensive preliminary material to make the book accessible to nonspecialists. One of the most important topics that the authors address here is the holomorphic extension of functions and mappings that satisfy the tangential Cauchy-Riemann equations on real submanifolds. They present the main results in this area with a novel and self-contained approach. The book also devotes considerable attention to the study of holomorphic mappings between real submanifolds, and proves finite determination of such mappings by their jets under some optimal assumptions. The authors also give a thorough comparison of the various nondegeneracy conditions for manifolds and mappings and present new geometric interpretations of these conditions. Throughout the book, Cauchy-Riemann vector fields and their orbits play a central role and are presented in a setting that is both general and elementary.
This book presents William Clifford’s English translation of Bernhard Riemann’s classic text together with detailed mathematical, historical and philosophical commentary. The basic concepts and ideas, as well as their mathematical background, are provided, putting Riemann’s reasoning into the more general and systematic perspective achieved by later mathematicians and physicists (including Helmholtz, Ricci, Weyl, and Einstein) on the basis of his seminal ideas. Following a historical introduction that positions Riemann’s work in the context of his times, the history of the concept of space in philosophy, physics and mathematics is systematically presented. A subsequent chapter on the reception and influence of the text accompanies the reader from Riemann’s times to contemporary research. Not only mathematicians and historians of the mathematical sciences, but also readers from other disciplines or those with an interest in physics or philosophy will find this work both appealing and insightful.
