The first part of this introduction to ergodic theory addresses measure-preserving transformations of probability spaces and covers such topics as recurrence properties and the Birkhoff ergodic theorem. The second part focuses on the ergodic theory of continuous transformations of compact metrizable spaces. Several examples are detailed, and the final chapter outlines results and applications of ergodic theory to other branches of mathematics.

The study of dynamical systems forms a vast and rapidly developing field even when one considers only activity whose methods derive mainly from measure theory and functional analysis. Karl Petersen has written a book which presents the fundamentals of the ergodic theory of point transformations and then several advanced topics which are currently undergoing intense research. By selecting one or more of these topics to focus on, the reader can quickly approach the specialized literature and indeed the frontier of the area of interest. Each of the four basic aspects of ergodic theory - examples, convergence theorems, recurrence properties, and entropy - receives first a basic and then a more advanced, particularized treatment. At the introductory level, the book provides clear and complete discussions of the standard examples, the mean and pointwise ergodic theorems, recurrence, ergodicity, weak mixing, strong mixing, and the fundamentals of entropy. Among the advanced topics are a thorough treatment of maximal functions and their usefulness in ergodic theory, analysis, and probability, an introduction to almost-periodic functions and topological dynamics, a proof of the Jewett-Krieger Theorem, an introduction to multiple recurrence and the Szemeredi-Furstenberg Theorem, and the Keane-Smorodinsky proof of Ornstein's Isomorphism Theorem for Bernoulli shifts. The author's easily-readable style combined with the profusion of exercises and references, summaries, historical remarks, and heuristic discussions make this book useful either as a text for graduate students or self-study, or as a reference work for the initiated.

Intended as an introductory guide, this work takes for its subject complex, analytic, automorphic forms and functions on (a domain equivalent to) a bounded domain in a finite-dimensional, complex, vector space, usually denoted Cn). Part I, essentially elementary, deals with complex analytic automorphic forms on a bounded domain; it presents H. Cartan's proof of the existence of the projective imbedding of the compact quotient of such a domain by a discrete group. Part II treats the construction and properties of automorphic forms with respect to an arithmetic group acting on a bounded symmetric domain; this part is highly technical, and based largely on relevant results in functional analysis due to Godement and Harish-Chandra. In Part III, Professor Baily extends the discussion to include some special topics, specifically, the arithmetic propertics of Eisenstein series and their connection with the arithmetic theory of quadratic forms. Unlike classical works on the subject, this book deals with more than one variable, and it differs notably in its treatment of analysis on the group of automorphisms of the domain. It is concerned with the case of complex analytic automorphic forms because of their connection with algebraic geometry, and so is distinct from other modern treatises that deal with automorphic forms on a semi-simple Lie group. Having had its inception as graduate- level lectures, the book assumes some knowledge of complex function theory and algebra, for the serious reader is expected to supply certain details for himself, especially in such related areas as functional analysis and algebraic groups. Originally published in 1973. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This is an introductory book on Ergodic Theory. The presentation has a slow pace and the book can be read by any person with a background in basic measure theory and metric topology. A new feature of the book is that the basic topics of Ergodic Theory such as the Poincare recurrence lemma, induced automorphisms and Kakutani towers, compressibility and E. Hopf's theorem, the theorem of Ambrose on representation of flows are treated at the descriptive set-theoretic level before their measure-theoretic or topological versions are presented. In addition, topics around the Glimm-Effros theorem are discussed. In the third edition a chapter entitled 'Additional Topics' has been added. It gives Liouville's Theorem on the existence of invariant measure, entropy theory leading up to Kolmogorov-Sinai Theorem, and the topological dynamics proof of van der Waerden's theorem on arithmetical progressions.

An introduction to topics and examples of ergodic theory, a central area of pure mathematics.

A first-year graduate text or reference for advanced undergraduates on noncommutative aspects of rings and modules.

Ergodic theory is one of the few branches of mathematics which has changed radically during the last two decades. Before this period, with a small number of exceptions, ergodic theory dealt primarily with averaging problems and general qualitative questions, while now it is a powerful amalgam of methods used for the analysis of statistical properties of dyna mical systems. For this reason, the problems of ergodic theory now interest not only the mathematician, but also the research worker in physics, biology, chemistry, etc. The outline of this book became clear to us nearly ten years ago but, for various reasons, its writing demanded a long period of time. The main principle, which we adhered to from the beginning, was to develop the approaches and methods or ergodic theory in the study of numerous concrete examples. Because of this, Part I of the book contains the description of various classes of dynamical systems, and their elementary analysis on the basis of the fundamental notions of ergodicity, mixing, and spectra of dynamical systems. Here, as in many other cases, the adjective" elementary" i~ not synonymous with "simple. " Part II is devoted to "abstract ergodic theory. " It includes the construc tion of direct and skew products of dynamical systems, the Rohlin-Halmos lemma, and the theory of special representations of dynamical systems with continuous time. A considerable part deals with entropy.