This volume contains cutting-edge research from leading experts in ergodic theory, dynamical systems and group actions. A large part of the volume addresses various aspects of ergodic theory of general group actions including local entropy theory, universal minimal spaces, minimal models and rank one transformations. Other papers deal with interval exchange transformations, hyperbolic dynamics, transfer operators, amenable actions and group actions on graphs.

The theory of dynamical systems can be described as the study of the global properties of groups of transformations. The historical roots of the subject lie in celestial and statistical mechanics, for which the group is the time parameter. The more general modern theory treats the dynamical properties of the semisimple Lie groups. Some of the most fundamental discoveries in this area are due to the work of G.A. Margulis and R. Zimmer. This book comprises a systematic, self-contained introduction to the Margulis-Zimmer theory, and provides an entry into current research. Assuming only a basic knowledge of manifolds, algebra, and measure theory, this book should appeal to anyone interested in Lie theory, differential geometry and dynamical systems.

This book, first published in 2000, focuses on developments in the study of geodesic flows on homogenous spaces.

Volumes 1A and 1B.These volumes give a comprehensive survey of dynamics written by specialists in the various subfields of dynamical systems. The presentation attains coherence through a major introductory survey by the editors that organizes the entire subject, and by ample cross-references between individual surveys.The volumes are a valuable resource for dynamicists seeking to acquaint themselves with other specialties in the field, and to mathematicians active in other branches of mathematics who wish to learn about contemporary ideas and results dynamics. Assuming only general mathematical knowledge the surveys lead the reader towards the current state of research in dynamics.Volume 1B will appear 2005.

Robert J. Zimmer is best known in mathematics for the highly influential conjectures and program that bear his name. Group Actions in Ergodic Theory, Geometry, and Topology: Selected Papers brings together some of the most significant writings by Zimmer, which lay out his program and contextualize his work over the course of his career. Zimmer’s body of work is remarkable in that it involves methods from a variety of mathematical disciplines, such as Lie theory, differential geometry, ergodic theory and dynamical systems, arithmetic groups, and topology, and at the same time offers a unifying perspective. After arriving at the University of Chicago in 1977, Zimmer extended his earlier research on ergodic group actions to prove his cocycle superrigidity theorem which proved to be a pivotal point in articulating and developing his program. Zimmer’s ideas opened the door to many others, and they continue to be actively employed in many domains related to group actions in ergodic theory, geometry, and topology. In addition to the selected papers themselves, this volume opens with a foreword by David Fisher, Alexander Lubotzky, and Gregory Margulis, as well as a substantial introductory essay by Zimmer recounting the course of his career in mathematics. The volume closes with an afterword by Fisher on the most recent developments around the Zimmer program.

This second half of Volume 1 of this Handbook follows Volume 1A, which was published in 2002. The contents of these two tightly integrated parts taken together come close to a realization of the program formulated in the introductory survey "Principal Structures of Volume 1A.The present volume contains surveys on subjects in four areas of dynamical systems: Hyperbolic dynamics, parabolic dynamics, ergodic theory and infinite-dimensional dynamical systems (partial differential equations).. Written by experts in the field.. The coverage of ergodic theory in these two parts of Volume 1 is considerably more broad and thorough than that provided in other existing sources. . The final cluster of chapters discusses partial differential equations from the point of view of dynamical systems.

This volume contains the proceedings of the Workshop on Topology held at the Pontificia Universidade Catolica in Rio de Janeiro in January 1992. Bringing together about one hundred mathematicians from Brazil and around the world, the workshop covered a variety of topics in differential and algebraic topology, including group actions, foliations, low-dimensional topology, and connections to differential geometry. The main concentration was on foliation theory, but there was a lively exchange on other current topics in topology. The volume contains an excellent list of open problems in foliation research, prepared with the participation of some of the top world experts in this area. Also presented here are two surveys on group actions---finite group actions and rigidity theory for Anosov actions---as well as an elementary survey of Thurston's geometric topology in dimensions 2 and 3 that would be accessible to advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

In this paper the authors extend the notion of a continuous bundle random dynamical system to the setting where the action of R or N is replaced by the action of an infinite countable discrete amenable group. Given such a system, and a monotone sub-additive invariant family of random continuous functions, they introduce the concept of local fiber topological pressure and establish an associated variational principle, relating it to measure-theoretic entropy. They also discuss some variants of this variational principle. The authors introduce both topological and measure-theoretic entropy tuples for continuous bundle random dynamical systems, and apply variational principles to obtain a relationship between these of entropy tuples. Finally, they give applications of these results to general topological dynamical systems, recovering and extending many recent results in local entropy theory.

Mathematics of Complexity and Dynamical Systems is an authoritative reference to the basic tools and concepts of complexity, systems theory, and dynamical systems from the perspective of pure and applied mathematics. Complex systems are systems that comprise many interacting parts with the ability to generate a new quality of collective behavior through self-organization, e.g. the spontaneous formation of temporal, spatial or functional structures. These systems are often characterized by extreme sensitivity to initial conditions as well as emergent behavior that are not readily predictable or even completely deterministic. The more than 100 entries in this wide-ranging, single source work provide a comprehensive explication of the theory and applications of mathematical complexity, covering ergodic theory, fractals and multifractals, dynamical systems, perturbation theory, solitons, systems and control theory, and related topics. Mathematics of Complexity and Dynamical Systems is an essential reference for all those interested in mathematical complexity, from undergraduate and graduate students up through professional researchers.

This book starts with an overview of the research of Gröbner bases which have many applications in various areas of mathematics since they are a general tool for the investigation of polynomial systems. The next chapter describes algorithms in invariant theory including many examples and time tables. These techniques are applied in the chapters on symmetric bifurcation theory and equivariant dynamics. This combination of different areas of mathematics will be interesting to researchers in computational algebra and/or dynamics.