Ideas and techniques from the theory of integrable systems are playing an increasingly important role in geometry. Thanks to the development of tools from Lie theory, algebraic geometry, symplectic geometry, and topology, classical problems are investigated more systematically. New problems are also arising in mathematical physics. A major international conference was held at the University of Tokyo in July 2000. It brought together scientists in all of the areas influenced by integrable systems. This book is the second of three collections of expository and research articles. This volume focuses on topology and physics. The role of zero curvature equations outside of the traditional context of differential geometry has been recognized relatively recently, but it has been an extraordinarily productive one, and most of the articles in this volume make some reference to it. Symplectic geometry, Floer homology, twistor theory, quantum cohomology, and the structure of special equations of mathematical physics, such as the Toda field equations--all of these areas have gained from the integrable systems point of view and contributed to it. Many of the articles in this volume are written by prominent researchers and will serve as introductions to the topics. It is intended for graduate students and researchers interested in integrable systems and their relations to differential geometry, topology, algebraic geometry, and physics. The first volume from this conference also available from the AMS is Differential Geometry and Integrable Systems, Volume 308 CONM/308 in the Contemporary Mathematics series. The forthcoming third volume will be published by the Mathematical Society of Japan and will be available outside of Japan from the AMS in the Advanced Studies in Pure Mathematics series.

Articles in this collection are devoted to modern problems of topology, geometry, mathematical physics, and integrable systems, and they are based on talks given at the famous Novikov's seminar at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics in Moscow in 2012-2014. The articles cover many aspects of seemingly unrelated areas of modern mathematics and mathematical physics; they reflect the main scientific interests of the organizer of the seminar, Sergey Petrovich Novikov. The volume is suitable for graduate students and researchers interested in the corresponding areas of mathematics and physics.

Soviet citizens can buy Monastyrsky's biography of Riemann for eleven kopeks. This translated edition will cost considerably more, but it is still good value for the money. And we get Monastyrsky's monograph on topological methods in the bargain. It was a good idea of Birkhiiuser Boston to publish the two translations in one volume. The economics of publishing in a capitalist country make it impossible for us to produce the small cheap paperback booklets, low in quality of paper and high in quality of scholarship, at which the Soviet publishing industry excels. Monastyrsky's two booklets are out standing examples of the genre. By putting them together, Birkhiiuser has enabled them to fit into the Western book-marketing system. The two booklets were written separately and each is complete in itself, but they complement each other beautifully. The Riemann biography is short and terse, like Riemann's own writings. It describes in few words and fewer equations the revolutionary ideas which Riemann brought into mathematics and physics a hundred and twenty years ago. The topological methods booklet describes how some of these same ideas, after lying dormant for a century, found new and fruitful applications in the physics of our own time.

In the 25 years since their introduction, Higgs bundles have seen a surprising number of interactions within different areas of mathematics and physics. There is a recent surge of interest following Ngô Bau Châu's proof of the Fundamental Lemma and the work of Kapustin and Witten on the Geometric Langlands program. The program on The Geometry, Topology and Physics of Moduli Spaces of Higgs Bundles, was held at the Institute for Mathematical Sciences at the National University of Singapore during 2014. It hosted a number of lectures on recent topics of importance related to Higgs bundles, and it is the purpose of this volume to collect these lectures in a form accessible to graduate students and young researchers interested in learning more about this field.

The significantly expanded second edition of this book combines a fascinating account of the life and work of Bernhard Riemann with a lucid discussion of current interaction between topology and physics. The author, a distinguished mathematical physicist, takes into account his own research at the Riemann archives of Göttingen University and developments over the last decade that connect Riemann with numerous significant ideas and methods reflected throughout contemporary mathematics and physics. Special attention is paid in part one to results on the Riemann–Hilbert problem and, in part two, to discoveries in field theory and condensed matter.

The Fourth International Conference on Topological Algebras and Their Applications was held in Oaxaca, Mexico. This meeting brought together international specialists and Mexican specialists in topological algebras, locally convex and Banach spaces, spectral theory, and operator theory and related topics. This volume contains talks presented at the conference as well as articles received in response to a call for papers; some are expository and provide new insights, while others contain new research. The book is suitable for graduate students and research mathematicians working in topological vector spaces, topological algebras, and their applications.

This book publishes papers originally presented at a conference on the Mathematical Aspects of Orbifold String Theory, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It contains a great deal of information not fully covered in the published literature and showcases the current state of the art in orbital string theory. The subject of orbifolds has a long prehistory, going back to the work of Thurston and Haefliger, with roots in the theory of manifolds, group actions, and foliations. The recent explosion of activity on the topic has been powered by applications of orbifolds to moduli problems and quantum field theory. The present volume presents an interdisciplinary look at orbifold problems. Topics such as stacks, vertex operator algebras, branes, groupoids, K-theory and quantum cohomology are discussed. The book reflects the thinking of distinguished investigators working in the areas of mathematical physics, algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, symplectic geometry and representation theory. By presenting the work of a broad range of mathematicians and physicists who use and study orbifolds, it familiarizes readers with the various points of view and types of results the researchers bring to the subject.

This volume presents the proceedings of a workshop on Inverse Problems and Applications and a special session on Inverse Boundary Problems and Applications. Inverse problems arise in practical situations, such as medical imaging, exploration geophysics, and non-destructive evaluation where measurements made in the exterior of a body are used to deduce properties of the hidden interior. A large class of inverse problems arise from a physical situation modeled by partial differential equations. The inverse problem is to determine some coefficients of the equation given some information about solutions. Analysis of such problems is a fertile area for interaction between pure and applied mathematics. This interplay is well represented in this volume where several theoretical and applied aspects of inverse problems are considered. The book includes articles on a broad range of inverse problems including the inverse conductivity problem, inverse problems for Maxwell's equations, time reversal mirrors, ultrasound using elastic pressure waves, inverse problems arising in the environment, inverse scattering for the three-body problem, and optical tomography. Also included are several articles on unique continuation and on the study of propagation of singularities for hyperbolic equations in anisotropic media. This volume is suitable for graduate students and research mathematicians interested in inverse problems and applications.

The second half of the 20th century and its conclusion : crisis in the physics and mathematics community in Russia and in the West -- Interview with Sergey P. Novikov -- The w-function of the KdV hierarchy -- On the zeta functions of a meromorphic germ in two variables -- On almost duality for Frobenius manifolds -- Finitely presented semigroups in knot theory. Oriented case -- Topological robotics : subspace arrangements and collision free motion planning -- The initial-boundary value problem on the interval for the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The algebro-geometric approach. I -- On odd Laplace operators. II -- From 2D Toda hierarchy to conformal maps for domains of the Riemann sphere --Integrable chains on algebraic curves -- Fifteen years of KAM for PDE -- Graded filiform Lie algebras and symplectic nilmanifolds --Adiabatic limit in the Seiberg-Witten equations -- Affine Krichever-Novikov algebras, their representations and applications -- Tame integrals of motion and o-minimal structures.