This textbook provides a gentle introduction to intersection homology and perverse sheaves, where concrete examples and geometric applications motivate concepts throughout. By giving a taste of the main ideas in the field, the author welcomes new readers to this exciting area at the crossroads of topology, algebraic geometry, analysis, and differential equations. Those looking to delve further into the abstract theory will find ample references to facilitate navigation of both classic and recent literature. Beginning with an introduction to intersection homology from a geometric and topological viewpoint, the text goes on to develop the sheaf-theoretical perspective. Then algebraic geometry comes to the fore: a brief discussion of constructibility opens onto an in-depth exploration of perverse sheaves. Highlights from the following chapters include a detailed account of the proof of the Beilinson–Bernstein–Deligne–Gabber (BBDG) decomposition theorem, applications of perverse sheaves to hypersurface singularities, and a discussion of Hodge-theoretic aspects of intersection homology via Saito’s deep theory of mixed Hodge modules. An epilogue offers a succinct summary of the literature surrounding some recent applications. Intersection Homology & Perverse Sheaves is suitable for graduate students with a basic background in topology and algebraic geometry. By building context and familiarity with examples, the text offers an ideal starting point for those entering the field. This classroom-tested approach opens the door to further study and to current research.
Due to the lack of proper bibliographical sources stratification theory seems to be a "mysterious" subject in contemporary mathematics. This book contains a complete and elementary survey - including an extended bibliography - on stratification theory, including its historical development. Some further important topics in the book are: Morse theory, singularities, transversality theory, complex analytic varieties, Lefschetz theorems, connectivity theorems, intersection homology, complements of affine subspaces and combinatorics. The book is designed for all interested students or professionals in this area.
Now more that a quarter of a century old, intersection homology theory has proven to be a powerful tool in the study of the topology of singular spaces, with deep links to many other areas of mathematics, including combinatorics, differential equations, group representations, and number theory. Like its predecessor, An Introduction to Intersection Homology Theory, Second Edition introduces the power and beauty of intersection homology, explaining the main ideas and omitting, or merely sketching, the difficult proofs. It treats both the basics of the subject and a wide range of applications, providing lucid overviews of highly technical areas that make the subject accessible and prepare readers for more advanced work in the area. This second edition contains entirely new chapters introducing the theory of Witt spaces, perverse sheaves, and the combinatorial intersection cohomology of fans. Intersection homology is a large and growing subject that touches on many aspects of topology, geometry, and algebra. With its clear explanations of the main ideas, this book builds the confidence needed to tackle more specialist, technical texts and provides a framework within which to place them.
The central theme of this book is the restoration of Poincaré duality on stratified singular spaces by using Verdier-self-dual sheaves such as the prototypical intersection chain sheaf on a complex variety. Highlights include complete and detailed proofs of decomposition theorems for self-dual sheaves, explanation of methods for computing twisted characteristic classes and an introduction to the author's theory of non-Witt spaces and Lagrangian structures.
This volume is based on the lecture notes of six courses delivered at a Cimpa Summer School in Temuco, Chile, in January 2001. Leading experts contribute with introductory articles covering a broad area in probability and its applications, such as mathematical physics and mathematics of finance. Written at graduate level, the lectures touch the latest advances on each subject, ranging from classical probability theory to modern developments. Thus the book will appeal to students, teachers and researchers working in probability theory or related fields.
This is the second volume of the Handbook of the Geometry and Topology of Singularities, a series which aims to provide an accessible account of the state-of-the-art of the subject, its frontiers, and its interactions with other areas of research. This volume consists of ten chapters which provide an in-depth and reader-friendly survey of some of the foundational aspects of singularity theory and related topics. Singularities are ubiquitous in mathematics and science in general. Singularity theory interacts energetically with the rest of mathematics, acting as a crucible where different types of mathematical problems interact, surprising connections are born and simple questions lead to ideas which resonate in other parts of the subject, and in other subjects. Authored by world experts, the various contributions deal with both classical material and modern developments, covering a wide range of topics which are linked to each other in fundamental ways. The book is addressed to graduate students and newcomers to the theory, as well as to specialists who can use it as a guidebook.
This is essentially a book on singular homology and cohomology with special emphasis on products and manifolds. It does not treat homotopy theory except for some basic notions, some examples, and some applica tions of (co-)homology to homotopy. Nor does it deal with general(-ised) homology, but many formulations and arguments on singular homology are so chosen that they also apply to general homology. Because of these absences I have also omitted spectral sequences, their main applications in topology being to homotopy and general (co-)homology theory. Cech cohomology is treated in a simple ad hoc fashion for locally compact subsets of manifolds; a short systematic treatment for arbitrary spaces, emphasizing the universal property of the Cech-procedure, is contained in an appendix. The book grew out of a one-year's course on algebraic topology, and it can serve as a text for such a course. For a shorter basic course, say of half a year, one might use chapters II, III, IV (§§ 1-4), V (§§ 1-5, 7, 8), VI (§§ 3, 7, 9, 11, 12). As prerequisites the student should know the elementary parts of general topology, abelian group theory, and the language of categories - although our chapter I provides a little help with the latter two. For pedagogical reasons, I have treated integral homology only up to chapter VI; if a reader or teacher prefers to have general coefficients from the beginning he needs to make only minor adaptions.