This two-volume book contains selected papers from the international conference "Groups St. Andrews 1997 in Bath". The articles are arranged in roughly alphabetical order and cover a wide spectrum of modern group theory. There are articles based on lecture courses given by five main speakers together with refereed survey and research articles contributed by other conference participants. Proceedings of earlier "Groups St. Andrews" conferences have had a major impact on the development of group theory and these volumes should be equally important.

This second volume of a two-volume book contains selected papers from the international conference Groups St Andrews 2009. Leading researchers in their respective areas, including Eammon O'Brien, Mark Sapir and Dan Segal, survey the latest developments in algebra.

Selected papers from 'Groups St Andrews 2005' cover a wide spectrum of modern group theory.

This first volume of the two-volume book contains selected papers from the international conference 'Groups St Andrews 2001 in Oxford' which was held at the University of Oxford in August 2001. Five main lecture courses were given at the conference, and articles based on their lectures form a substantial part of the Proceedings. This volume contains the contributions from Marston Conder (Auckland), Persi Diaconis (Stanford) and Marcus Du Sautoy (Cambridge). The series of Proceedings of Groups St Andrews conferences have provided snapshots of the state of research in group theory throughout the past twenty years. As with earlier volumes, these refereed volumes also contain accessible surveys of contemporary research fronts, as well as a diverse collection of short research articles. They form a valuable reference for researchers, especially graduate students, working in group theory.

An Invitation to Computational Homotopy is an introduction to elementary algebraic topology for those with an interest in computers and computer programming. It expertly illustrates how the basics of the subject can be implemented on a computer through its focus on fully-worked examples designed to develop problem solving techniques. The transition from basic theory to practical computation raises a range of non-trivial algorithmic issues which will appeal to readers already familiar with basic theory and who are interested in developing computational aspects. The book covers a subset of standard introductory material on fundamental groups, covering spaces, homology, cohomology and classifying spaces as well as some less standard material on crossed modules. These topics are covered in a way that hints at potential applications of topology in areas of computer science and engineering outside the usual territory of pure mathematics, and also in a way that demonstrates how computers can be used to perform explicit calculations within the domain of pure algebraic topology itself. The initial chapters include in-depth examples from data mining, biology and digital image analysis, while the later chapters cover a range of computational examples on the cohomology of classifying spaces that are likely beyond the reach of a purely paper-and-pen approach to the subject. An Invitation to Computational Homotopy serves as a self-contained and informal introduction to these topics and their implementation in the sphere of computer science. Written in a dynamic and engaging style, it skilfully showcases a range of useful machine computations, and will serve as an invaluable aid to graduate students working with algebraic topology.

An accessible introduction to Poisson geometry suitable for graduate students.

In recent times, group theory has found wider applications in various fields of algebra and mathematics in general. But in order to apply this or that result, you need to know about it, and such results are often diffuse and difficult to locate, necessitating that readers construct an extended search through multiple monographs, articles, and papers. Such readers must wade through the morass of concepts and auxiliary statements that are needed to understand the desired results, while it is initially unclear which of them are really needed and which ones can be dispensed with. A further difficulty that one may encounter might be concerned with the form or language in which a given result is presented. For example, if someone knows the basics of group theory, but does not know the theory of representations, and a group theoretical result is formulated in the language of representation theory, then that person is faced with the problem of translating this result into the language with which they are familiar, etc. Infinite Groups: A Roadmap to Some Classical Areas seeks to overcome this challenge. The book covers a broad swath of the theory of infinite groups, without giving proofs, but with all the concepts and auxiliary results necessary for understanding such results. In other words, this book is an extended directory, or a guide, to some of the more established areas of infinite groups. Features An excellent resource for a subject formerly lacking an accessible and in-depth reference Suitable for graduate students, PhD students, and researchers working in group theory Introduces the reader to the most important methods, ideas, approaches, and constructions in infinite group theory.

Table of contents

The subject of Kleinian groups and hyperbolic 3-manifolds is currently undergoing explosively fast development. This volume contains important expositions on topics such as topology and geometry of 3-manifolds, curve complexes, classical Ahlfors-Bers theory and computer explorations. Researchers in these and related areas will find much of interest here.

Noncommutative localization is a powerful algebraic technique for constructing new rings by inverting elements, matrices and more generally morphisms of modules. Originally conceived by algebraists (notably P. M. Cohn), it is now an important tool not only in pure algebra but also in the topology of non-simply-connected spaces, algebraic geometry and noncommutative geometry. This volume consists of 9 articles on noncommutative localization in algebra and topology by J. A. Beachy, P. M. Cohn, W. G. Dwyer, P. A. Linnell, A. Neeman, A. A. Ranicki, H. Reich, D. Sheiham and Z. Skoda. The articles include basic definitions, surveys, historical background and applications, as well as presenting new results. The book is an introduction to the subject, an account of the state of the art, and also provides many references for further material. It is suitable for graduate students and more advanced researchers in both algebra and topology.