Basic properties, homotopy classification, and characteristic classes of fibre bundles have become an essential part of graduate mathematical education for students in geometry and mathematical physics. The new edition of this text includes two additional chapters, one on the gauge group of a bundle and the other on the differential forms representing characteristic classes of complex vector bundles on manifolds.
The book divides naturally into several parts according to the level of the material, the background required of the reader, and the style of presentation with respect to details of proofs. For example, the first part, to Chapter 6, is undergraduate in level, the second part requires a background in Galois theory and the third some complex analysis, while the last parts, from Chapter 12 on, are mostly at graduate level. A general outline ofmuch ofthe material can be found in Tate's colloquium lectures reproduced as an article in Inven tiones [1974]. The first part grew out of Tate's 1961 Haverford Philips Lectures as an attempt to write something for publication c10sely related to the original Tate notes which were more or less taken from the tape recording of the lectures themselves. This inc1udes parts of the Introduction and the first six chapters The aim ofthis part is to prove, by elementary methods, the Mordell theorem on the finite generation of the rational points on elliptic curves defined over the rational numbers. In 1970 Tate teturned to Haverford to give again, in revised form, the originallectures of 1961 and to extend the material so that it would be suitable for publication. This led to a broader plan forthe book.
The theory cf quadratic forms and the intimately related theory of sym metrie bilinear forms have a lang and rich his tory, highlighted by the work of Legendre, Gauss, Minkowski, and Hasse. (Compare [Dickson] and [Bourbaki, 24, p. 185].) Our exposition will concentrate on the rela tively recent developments which begin with and are inspired by Witt's 1937 paper "Theorie der quadratischen Formen in beliebigen Körpern." We will be particularly interested in the work of A. Pfister and M. Knebusch. However, some older material will be described, particularly in Chapter II. The presentation is based on lectures by Milnor at the Institute for Ad vanced Study, and at Haverford College under the Phillips Lecture Pro gram, during the Fall of 1970, as weIl as Iectures at Princeton University il1 1966. We want to thank J. Cunningham, M. Knebusch, M. Kneser, A. Rosenberg, W. Scharlau and J.-P. Serre for helpful suggestions and corrections. Prerequisites. The reader should be familiar with the rudiments of algebra., incJuding for example the concept of tensor product for mo dules over a commutative ring. A few individual sections will require quite a bit more. The logical relationship between the various chapters can be roughly described by the diagram below. There are also five appendices, largely self-contained, which treat special topics. I. Arbitrary commutative rings I H. The ring of V. Miscellaneous IIl. Fields integers examples IV. Dedekind domains Contents Chapter r. Basie Coneepts ...
The book divides naturally into several parts according to the level of the material, the background required of the reader, and the style of presentation with respect to details of proofs. For example, the first part, to Chapter 6, is undergraduate in level, the second part requires a background in Galois theory and the third some complex analysis, while the last parts, from Chapter 12 on, are mostly at graduate level. A general outline ofmuch ofthe material can be found in Tate's colloquium lectures reproduced as an article in Inven tiones [1974]. The first part grew out of Tate's 1961 Haverford Philips Lectures as an attempt to write something for publication c10sely related to the original Tate notes which were more or less taken from the tape recording of the lectures themselves. This inc1udes parts of the Introduction and the first six chapters The aim ofthis part is to prove, by elementary methods, the Mordell theorem on the finite generation of the rational points on elliptic curves defined over the rational numbers. In 1970 Tate teturned to Haverford to give again, in revised form, the originallectures of 1961 and to extend the material so that it would be suitable for publication. This led to a broader plan forthe book.
Based on several recent courses given to mathematical physics students, this volume is an introduction to bundle theory. It aims to provide newcomers to the field with solid foundations in topological K-theory. A fundamental theme, emphasized in the book, centers around the gluing of local bundle data related to bundles into a global object. One renewed motivation for studying this subject, comes from quantum field theory, where topological invariants play an important role.
Basic properties, homotopy classification, and characteristic classes of fibre bundles have become an essential part of graduate mathematical education for students in geometry and mathematical physics. The new edition of this text includes two additional chapters, one on the gauge group of a bundle and the other on the differential forms representing characteristic classes of complex vector bundles on manifolds.
This book uses the beautiful theory of elliptic curves to introduce the reader to some of the deeper aspects of number theory. It assumes only a knowledge of the basic algebra, complex analysis, and topology usually taught in first-year graduate courses.An elliptic curve is a plane curve defined by a cubic polynomial. Although the problem of finding the rational points on an elliptic curve has fascinated mathematicians since ancient times, it was not until 1922 that Mordell proved that the points form a finitely generated group. There is still no proven algorithm for finding the rank of the group, but in one of the earliest important applications of computers to mathematics, Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer discovered a relation between the rank and the numbers of points on the curve computed modulo a prime. Chapter IV of the book proves Mordell's theorem and explains the conjecture of Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer.Every elliptic curve over the rational numbers has an L-series attached to it.Hasse conjectured that this L-series satisfies a functional equation, and in 1955 Taniyama suggested that Hasse's conjecture could be proved by showing that the L-series arises from a modular form. This was shown to be correct by Wiles (and others) in the 1990s, and, as a consequence, one obtains a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. Chapter V of the book is devoted to explaining this work.The first three chapters develop the basic theory of elliptic curves.For this edition, the text has been completely revised and updated.
Based on several recent courses given to mathematical physics students, this volume is an introduction to bundle theory. It aims to provide newcomers to the field with solid foundations in topological K-theory. A fundamental theme, emphasized in the book, centers around the gluing of local bundle data related to bundles into a global object. One renewed motivation for studying this subject, comes from quantum field theory, where topological invariants play an important role.
Based on several recent courses given to mathematical physics students, this volume is an introduction to bundle theory. It aims to provide newcomers to the field with solid foundations in topological K-theory. A fundamental theme, emphasized in the book, centers around the gluing of local bundle data related to bundles into a global object. One renewed motivation for studying this subject, comes from quantum field theory, where topological invariants play an important role.
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