In this book the authors develop a theory of free noncommutative functions, in both algebraic and analytic settings. Such functions are defined as mappings from square matrices of all sizes over a module (in particular, a vector space) to square matrices over another module, which respect the size, direct sums, and similarities of matrices. Examples include, but are not limited to, noncommutative polynomials, power series, and rational expressions. Motivation and inspiration for using the theory of free noncommutative functions often comes from free probability. An important application area is "dimensionless" matrix inequalities; these arise, e.g., in various optimization problems of system engineering. Among other related areas are those of polynomial identities in rings, formal languages and finite automata, quasideterminants, noncommutative symmetric functions, operator spaces and operator algebras, and quantum control.

Over the course of his distinguished career, Jörg Eschmeier made a number of fundamental contributions to the development of operator theory and related topics. The chapters in this volume, compiled in his memory, are written by distinguished mathematicians and pay tribute to his many significant and lasting achievements.

This volume is devoted to Joseph A. (Joe) Ball’s contributions to operator theory and its applications and in celebration of his seventieth birthday. Joe Ball’s career spans over four and a half decades, starting with his work on model theory and related topics for non-contractions and operators on multiply connected domains. Later on, more applied operator theory themes appeared in his work, involving factorization and interpolation for operator-valued functions, with extensive applications in system and control theory. He has worked on nonlinear control, time-varying systems and, more recently, on multidimensional systems and noncommutative H∞-theory on the unit ball and polydisk, and more general domains, and these are only the main themes in his vast oeuvre. Fourteen research papers constitute the core of this volume, written by mathematicians who have collaborated with Joe or have been influenced by his vast mathematical work. A curriculum vitae, a publications list and a list of Joe Ball’s PhD students are included in this volume, as well as personal reminiscences by colleagues and friends. Contributions by Yu. M. Arlinskii, S. Hassi, M. Augat, J. W. Helton, I. Klep, S. McCullough, S. Balasubramanian, U. Wijesooriya, N. Cohen, Q. Fang, S. Gorai, J. Sarkar, G. J. Groenewald, S. ter Horst, J. Jaftha, A. C. M. Ran, M.A. Kaashoek, F. van Schagen, A. Kheifets, Z. A. Lykova, N. J. Young, A. E. Ajibo, R. T. W. Martin, A. Ramanantoanina, M.-J. Y. Ou, H. J. Woerdeman, A. van der Schaft, A. Tannenbaum, T. T. Georgiou, J. O. Deasy and L. Norton.

This book celebrates Professor Thanos Antoulas's 70th birthday, marking his fundamental contributions to systems and control theory, especially model reduction and, more recently, data-driven modeling and system identification. Model reduction is a prominent research topic with wide ranging scientific and engineering applications.

Random matrix theory has many roots and many branches in mathematics, statistics, physics, computer science, data science, numerical analysis, biology, ecology, engineering, and operations research. This book provides a snippet of this vast domain of study, with a particular focus on the notations of universality and integrability. Universality shows that many systems behave the same way in their large scale limit, while integrability provides a route to describe the nature of those universal limits. Many of the ten contributed chapters address these themes, while others touch on applications of tools and results from random matrix theory. This book is appropriate for graduate students and researchers interested in learning techniques and results in random matrix theory from different perspectives and viewpoints. It also captures a moment in the evolution of the theory, when the previous decade brought major break-throughs, prompting exciting new directions of research.

The Abel Symposia volume at hand contains a collection of high-quality articles written by the world’s leading experts, and addressing all mathematicians interested in advances in deterministic and stochastic dynamical systems, numerical analysis, and control theory. In recent years we have witnessed a remarkable convergence between individual mathematical disciplines that approach deterministic and stochastic dynamical systems from mathematical analysis, computational mathematics and control theoretical perspectives. Breakthrough developments in these fields now provide a common mathematical framework for attacking many different problems related to differential geometry, analysis and algorithms for stochastic and deterministic dynamics. In the Abel Symposium 2016, which took place from August 16-19 in Rosendal near Bergen, leading researchers in the fields of deterministic and stochastic differential equations, control theory, numerical analysis, algebra and random processes presented and discussed the current state of the art in these diverse fields. The current Abel Symposia volume may serve as a point of departure for exploring these related but diverse fields of research, as well as an indicator of important current and future developments in modern mathematics.

This monograph, aimed at graduate students and researchers, explores the use of Hilbert space methods in function theory. Explaining how operator theory interacts with function theory in one and several variables, the authors journey from an accessible explanation of the techniques to their uses in cutting edge research.

This book presents recent results on positivity and optimization of polynomials in non-commuting variables. Researchers in non-commutative algebraic geometry, control theory, system engineering, optimization, quantum physics and information science will find the unified notation and mixture of algebraic geometry and mathematical programming useful. Theoretical results are matched with algorithmic considerations; several examples and information on how to use NCSOStools open source package to obtain the results provided. Results are presented on detecting the eigenvalue and trace positivity of polynomials in non-commuting variables using Newton chip method and Newton cyclic chip method, relaxations for constrained and unconstrained optimization problems, semidefinite programming formulations of the relaxations and finite convergence of the hierarchies of these relaxations, and the practical efficiency of algorithms.

Persistence theory emerged in the early 2000s as a new theory in the area of applied and computational topology. This book provides a broad and modern view of the subject, including its algebraic, topological, and algorithmic aspects. It also elaborates on applications in data analysis. The level of detail of the exposition has been set so as to keep a survey style, while providing sufficient insights into the proofs so the reader can understand the mechanisms at work. The book is organized into three parts. The first part is dedicated to the foundations of persistence and emphasizes its connection to quiver representation theory. The second part focuses on its connection to applications through a few selected topics. The third part provides perspectives for both the theory and its applications. The book can be used as a text for a course on applied topology or data analysis.

The aim of this book is to introduce and develop an arithmetic analogue of classical differential geometry. In this new geometry the ring of integers plays the role of a ring of functions on an infinite dimensional manifold. The role of coordinate functions on this manifold is played by the prime numbers. The role of partial derivatives of functions with respect to the coordinates is played by the Fermat quotients of integers with respect to the primes. The role of metrics is played by symmetric matrices with integer coefficients. The role of connections (respectively curvature) attached to metrics is played by certain adelic (respectively global) objects attached to the corresponding matrices. One of the main conclusions of the theory is that the spectrum of the integers is “intrinsically curved”; the study of this curvature is then the main task of the theory. The book follows, and builds upon, a series of recent research papers. A significant part of the material has never been published before.