This volume is a tribute to Maxim Kontsevich, one of the most original and influential mathematicians of our time. Maxim’s vision has inspired major developments in many areas of mathematics, ranging all the way from probability theory to motives over finite fields, and has brought forth a paradigm shift at the interface of modern geometry and mathematical physics. Many of his papers have opened completely new directions of research and led to the solutions of many classical problems. This book collects papers by leading experts currently engaged in research on topics close to Maxim’s heart. Contributors: S. Donaldson A. Goncharov D. Kaledin M. Kapranov A. Kapustin L. Katzarkov A. Noll P. Pandit S. Pimenov J. Ren P. Seidel C. Simpson Y. Soibelman R. Thorngren

This volume contains the proceedings of the AMS Special Session on Higher Structures in Topology, Geometry, and Physics, held virtually on March 26–27, 2022. The articles give a snapshot survey of the current topics surrounding the mathematical formulation of field theories. There is an intricate interplay between geometry, topology, and algebra which captures these theories. The hallmark are higher structures, which one can consider as the secondary algebraic or geometric background on which the theories are formulated. The higher structures considered in the volume are generalizations of operads, models for conformal field theories, string topology, open/closed field theories, BF/BV formalism, actions on Hochschild complexes and related complexes, and their geometric and topological aspects.

This invaluable book provides a broad and comprehensive introduction to the fascinating and beautiful subject of timeless approaches in physics, focusing the attention in particular on significant models developed recently by the author. It presents relevant and novel perspectives in 21st century theoretical physics as regards the arena of physical processes and its geometry (both in special relativity, quantum mechanics, the quantum gravity domain and about the quantum vacuum). The timeless approach may be used as a source of reference by researchers in theoretical physics and at the same time it is also suitable for graduate students in physics who wish to have an extend view of some of the classic and fundamental models in the subject.

The Wei-Liang Chow and Kuo-Tsai Chen Memorial Conference was proposed and held by Prof S S Chern in Nankai Institute of Mathematics. It was devoted to memorializing those two outstanding and original Chinese mathematicians who had made significant contributions to algebraic geometry and algebraic topology, respectively. It also provided a forum for leading mathematicians to expound and discuss their views on new ideas in these fields, as well as trends in 21st Century mathematics. About 100 mathematicians participated in the conference, including Sir Michael Atiyah, Jacob Palis, Phillip Griffiths, David Eisenbud, Philippe Tondeur, Yujiro Kawamata, Tian Gang, etc.This invaluable volume contains the selected papers presented at the conference. The topics include canonical maps of Gorenstein 3-folds, fundamental groups of algebraic curves, Chen's interated integrals, algebraic fiber spaces, and others.

This book documents the process of transformation from natural philosophy, which was considered the most important of the sciences until the early modern era, into modern disciplines such as mathematics, physics, natural history, chemistry, medicine and engineering. It focuses on the 18th century, which has often been considered uninteresting for the history of science, representing the transition from the age of genius and the birth of modern science (the 17th century) to the age of prodigious development in the 19th century. Yet the 18th century, the century of Enlightenment, as will be demonstrated here, was in fact characterized by substantial ferment and novelty. To make the text more accessible, little emphasis has been placed on the precise genesis of the various concepts and methods developed in scientific enterprises, except when doing so was necessary to make them clear. For the sake of simplicity, in several situations reference is made to the authors who are famous today, such as Newton, the Bernoullis, Euler, d’Alembert, Lagrange, Lambert, Volta et al. – not necessarily because they were the most creative and original minds, but mainly because their writings represent a synthesis of contemporary and past studies. The above names should, therefore, be considered more labels of a period than references to real historical characters.

This volume is a collection of original papers and reviews in honour of James McGuire, one of the pioneers of integrable models in statistical physics. The broad range of articles offers a timely perspective on the current status of statistical mechanics, identifying both recent results as well as future challenges. The work contains a number of overviews of standard topics such as exactly solved lattice models and their various applications in statistical physics, from models of strongly correlated electrons to the conformational properties of polymer chains. It is equally wide ranging in its coverage of new directions and developing fields including quantum computers, financial markets, chaotic systems, Feigenbaum scaling, proteins, brain behaviour, immunology, Markov superposition, Bose-Einstein condensation, random matrices, exclusion statistics, vertex operator algebras and D-unsolvability.The level of coverage is appropriate for graduate students. It will be equally of interest to professional physicists who want to learn about progress in statistical physics in recent years. Experts will find this work useful because of its broad sweep of topics and its discussion of remaining unsolved problems.

Ten years after a 1989 meeting of number theorists and physicists at the Centre de Physique des Houches, a second event focused on the broader interface of number theory, geometry, and physics. This book is the first of two volumes resulting from that meeting. Broken into three parts, it covers Conformal Field Theories, Discrete Groups, and Renormalization, offering extended versions of the lecture courses and shorter texts on special topics.

Class, culture, and race have influenced the educational experiences of children for centuries. As a new wave of Latin American and Asian peoples enters the United States, public schools are faced with the challenge of educating children from a culture of poverty, and who have varying racial and cultural backgrounds. This reference work employs historical, anthropological, sociological, and theoretical perspectives to overview current information on class, culture, and race in U.S. schools. The volume is organized systematically, with broad sections on class, culture, race, and prospects for the future. Each section begins with an introductory chapter that defines the theme of the section and places it within a larger context. The chapters that follow then examine the impact of class, culture, or race on schooling, with special regard to particular groups. The volume focuses primarily on Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians, as they struggle to survive and prosper in the United States. Because of its approach, the book is also a guide to the effects of poverty, language, and race on the educational experiences of children.

This book explores the rich and deep interplay between mathematics and physics one century after David Hilbert’s works from 1891 to 1933, published by Springer in six volumes. The most prominent scientists in various domains of these disciplines contribute to this volume providing insight to their works, and analyzing the impact of the breakthrough and the perspectives of their own contributions. The result is a broad journey through the most recent developments in mathematical physics, such as string theory, quantum gravity, noncommutative geometry, twistor theory, Gauge and Quantum fields theories, just to mention a few. The reader, accompanied on this journey by some of the fathers of these theories, explores some far reaching interfaces where mathematics and theoretical physics interact profoundly and gets a broad and deep understanding of subjects which are at the core of recent developments in mathematical physics. The journey is not confined to the present state of the art, but sheds light on future developments of the field, highlighting a list of open problems. Graduate students and researchers working in physics, mathematics and mathematical physics will find this journey extremely fascinating. All those who want to benefit from a comprehensive description of all the latest advances in mathematics and mathematical physics, will find this book very useful too.