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.

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

Authoritative collection of surveys and papers that will be indispensable to all research workers in the area.

The series is aimed specifically at publishing peer reviewed reviews and contributions presented at workshops and conferences. Each volume is associated with a particular conference, symposium or workshop. These events cover various topics within pure and applied mathematics and provide up-to-date coverage of new developments, methods and applications.

This volume presents articles by speakers and participants in two AMS special sessions, Geometric Group Theory and Geometric Methods in Group Theory, held respectively at Northeastern University (Boston, MA) and at Universidad de Sevilla (Spain). The expository and survey articles in the book cover a wide range of topics, making it suitable for researchers and graduate students interested in group theory.

For anyone whose interest lies in the interplay between groups and geometry, these books should be of interest.

Geometric Topology is a foundational component of modern mathematics, involving the study of spacial properties and invariants of familiar objects such as manifolds and complexes. This volume, which is intended both as an introduction to the subject and as a wide ranging resouce for those already grounded in it, consists of 21 expository surveys written by leading experts and covering active areas of current research. They provide the reader with an up-to-date overview of this flourishing branch of mathematics.

In algebraic topology some classical invariants - such as Betti numbers and Reidemeister torsion - are defined for compact spaces and finite group actions. They can be generalized using von Neumann algebras and their traces, and applied also to non-compact spaces and infinite groups. These new L2-invariants contain very interesting and novel information and can be applied to problems arising in topology, K-Theory, differential geometry, non-commutative geometry and spectral theory. The book, written in an accessible manner, presents a comprehensive introduction to this area of research, as well as its most recent results and developments.

This introduction to topology stresses geometric aspects, focusing on historical background and visual interpretation of results. The 2nd edition offers 300 illustrations, numerous exercises, challenging open problems and a new chapter on unsolvable problems.

The symposium held in honour of the 60th birthday of Graeme Segal brought together leading physicists and mathematicians. Its topics were centred around string theory, M-theory, and quantum gravity on the one hand, and K-theory, elliptic cohomology, quantum cohomology and string topology on the other. Geometry and quantum physics developed in parallel since the recognition of the central role of non-abelian gauge theory in elementary particle physics in the late seventies and the emerging study of super-symmetry and string theory. With its selection of survey and research articles these proceedings fulfil the dual role of reporting on developments in the field and defining directions for future research. For the first time Graeme Segal's manuscript 'The definition of Conformal Field Theory' is published, which has been greatly influential over more than ten years. An introduction by the author puts it into the present context.