An extended tour through a selection of the most important trends in modern geometric group theory.

This book is intended for students interested in learning the use of cohomology and homology theory in solving problems in group theory. Although cohomology groups of a groups were formally defined in the early 1940s, these groups in low dimensions had been studied earlier as part of the general body of theory of groups. In the last three decades cohomology of groups has played a central role in various branches of mathematics. This book provides readers with the basic tools in cohomology of groups and to illustrate their use in obtaining group theoretic results.

This is an account of the theory of certain types of compact transformation groups, namely those that are susceptible to study using ordinary cohomology theory and rational homotopy theory, which in practice means the torus groups and elementary abelian p-groups. The efforts of many mathematicians have combined to bring a depth of understanding to this area. However to make it reasonably accessible to a wide audience, the authors have streamlined the presentation, referring the reader to the literature for purely technical results and working in a simplified setting where possible. In this way the reader with a relatively modest background in algebraic topology and homology theory can penetrate rather deeply into the subject, whilst the book at the same time makes a useful reference for the more specialised reader.

This volume reflects the fruitful connections between group theory and topology. It contains articles on cohomology, representation theory, geometric and combinatorial group theory. Some of the world's best known figures in this very active area of mathematics have made contributions, including substantial articles from Ol'shanskii, Mikhajlovskii, Carlson, Benson, Linnell, Wilson and Grigorchuk, which will be valuable reference works for some years to come. Pure mathematicians working in the fields of algebra, topology, and their interactions, will find this book of great interest.

Surveys the state of the art in geometric and cohomological group theory. Ideal entry point for young researchers.

Details some of the most recent developments at the interface of topology and geometric group theory. Ideal for graduate students.

This book contains a collection of articles summarizing the state of knowledge in a large portion of modern homotopy theory. A call for articles was made on the occasion of an emphasis semester organized by the Centre de Recerca Matemtica in Bellaterra (Barcelona) in 1998. The main topics treated in the book include abstract features of stable and unstable homotopy, homotopical localizations, p-compact groups, H-spaces, classifying spaces for proper actions, cohomology of discrete groups, K-theory and other generalized cohomology theories, configuration spaces, and Lusternik-Schnirelmann category. The book is addressed to all mathematicians interested in homotopy theory and in geometric aspects of group theory. New research directions in topology are highlighted. Moreover, this informative and educational book serves as a welcome reference for many new results and recent methods.

Covering important aspects of the theory of unitary representations of nuclear Lie groups, this self-contained reference presents the general theory of energy representations and addresses various extensions of path groups and algebras.;Requiring only a general knowledge of the theory of unitary representations, topological groups and elementary st

Introduction to modern methods for classical and quantum fields in general relativity / Thierry Daudé, Dietrich Häfner, and Jean-Philippe Nicolas -- Geometry of black hole spacetimes / Lars Andersson, Thomas B. Ackdahl, and Pieter Blue -- An introduction to Quantum Field Theory on curved space-times / Christian Gerard -- A minicourse on microlocal analysis for wave propagation / Andras Vasy -- An introduction to conformal geometry and tractor calculus, with a view to applications in general relativity / Sean N. Curry and A. Rod Gover

The field of geometric variational problems is fast-moving and influential. These problems interact with many other areas of mathematics and have strong relevance to the study of integrable systems, mathematical physics and PDEs. The workshop 'Variational Problems in Differential Geometry' held in 2009 at the University of Leeds brought together internationally respected researchers from many different areas of the field. Topics discussed included recent developments in harmonic maps and morphisms, minimal and CMC surfaces, extremal Kähler metrics, the Yamabe functional, Hamiltonian variational problems and topics related to gauge theory and to the Ricci flow. These articles reflect the whole spectrum of the subject and cover not only current results, but also the varied methods and techniques used in attacking variational problems. With a mix of original and expository papers, this volume forms a valuable reference for more experienced researchers and an ideal introduction for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.