his volume contains the proceedings of the AMS Special Session Operator Algebras and Their Applications: A Tribute to Richard V. Kadison, held from January 10–11, 2015, in San Antonio, Texas. Richard V. Kadison has been a towering figure in the study of operator algebras for more than 65 years. His research and leadership in the field have been fundamental in the development of the subject, and his influence continues to be felt though his work and the work of his many students, collaborators, and mentees. Among the topics addressed in this volume are the Kadison-Kaplanksy conjecture, classification of C∗-algebras, connections between operator spaces and parabolic induction, spectral flow, C∗-algebra actions, von Neumann algebras, and applications to mathematical physics.

The study of operator algebras, which grew out of von Neumann's work in the 1920s and the 1930s on modelling quantum mechanics, has in recent years experienced tremendous growth and vitality. This growth has resulted in significant applications in other areas - both within and outside mathematics. The field was a natural candidate for a 1994-1995 program year in Operator Algebras and Applications held at The Fields Institute for Research in the Mathematical Sciences. This volume contains a selection of papers that arose from the seminars and workshops of the program. Topics covered include the classification of amenable C*-algebras, the Baum-Connes conjecture, E[subscript 0] semigroups, subfactors, E-theory, quasicrystals, and the solution to a long-standing problem in operator theory: Can almost commuting self-adjoint matrices be approximated by commuting self-adjoint matrices?

These volumes are companions to the treatise; "Fundamentals of the Theory of Operator Algebras," which appeared as Volume 100 - I and II in the series, Pure and Applied Mathematics, published by Academic Press in 1983 and 1986, respectively. As stated in the preface to those volumes, "Their primary goal is to teach the sub ject and lead the reader to the point where the vast recent research literature, both in the subject proper and in its many applications, becomes accessible." No attempt was made to be encyclopCEdic; the choice of material was made from among the fundamentals of what may be called the "classical" theory of operator algebras. By way of supplementing the topics selected for presentation in "Fundamentals," a substantial list of exercises comprises the last section of each chapter. An equally important purpose of those exer cises is to develop "hand-on" skills in use of the techniques appearing in the text. As a consequence, each exercise was carefully designed to depend only on the material that precedes it, and separated into segments each of which is realistically capable of solution by an at tentive, diligent, well-motivated reader.

From the reviews: "These three bulky volumes [EMS 124, 125, 127] [...] provide an introduction to this rapidly developing theory. [...] These books can be warmly recommended to every graduate student who wants to become acquainted with this exciting branch of mathematics. Furthermore, they should be on the bookshelf of every researcher of the area." Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum

The theory of vertex operator algebras and their representations has been showing its power in the solution of concrete mathematical problems and in the understanding of conceptual but subtle mathematical and physical struc­ tures of conformal field theories. Much of the recent progress has deep connec­ tions with complex analysis and conformal geometry. Future developments, especially constructions and studies of higher-genus theories, will need a solid geometric theory of vertex operator algebras. Back in 1986, Manin already observed in [Man) that the quantum theory of (super )strings existed (in some sense) in two entirely different mathematical fields. Under canonical quantization this theory appeared to a mathematician as the representation theories of the Heisenberg, Vir as oro and affine Kac­ Moody algebras and their superextensions. Quantization with the help of the Polyakov path integral led on the other hand to the analytic theory of algebraic (super ) curves and their moduli spaces, to invariants of the type of the analytic curvature, and so on. He pointed out further that establishing direct mathematical connections between these two forms of a single theory was a "big and important problem. " On the one hand, the theory of vertex operator algebras and their repre­ sentations unifies (and considerably extends) the representation theories of the Heisenberg, Virasoro and Kac-Moody algebras and their superextensions.

This volume consists of articles contributed by participants at the fourth Ja pan-U.S. Joint Seminar on Operator Algebras. The seminar took place at the University of Pennsylvania from May 23 through May 27, 1988 under the auspices of the Mathematics Department. It was sponsored and supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the National Science Foundation (USA). This sponsorship and support is acknowledged with gratitude. The seminar was devoted to discussions and lectures on results and prob lems concerning mappings of operator algebras (C*-and von Neumann alge bras). Among the articles contained in these proceedings, there are papers dealing with actions of groups on C* algebras, completely bounded mappings, index and subfactor theory, and derivations of operator algebras. The seminar was held in honor of the sixtieth birthday of Sh6ichir6 Sakai, one of the great leaders of Functional Analysis for many decades. This vol ume is dedicated to Professor Sakai, on the occasion of that birthday, with the respect and admiration of all the contributors and the participants at the seminar. H. Araki Kyoto, Japan R. Kadison Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Contents Preface.... ..... ....... ........... ...... ......... ................ ...... ............... ... vii On Convex Combinations of Unitary Operators in C*-Algebras UFFE HAAGERUP ......................................................................... .

The first edition of this book appeared in 1981 as a direct continuation of Lectures of von Neumann Algebras (by Ş.V. Strătilă and L. Zsid ) and, until 2003, was the only comprehensive monograph on the subject. Addressing the students of mathematics and physics and researchers interested in operator algebras, noncommutative geometry and free probability, this revised edition covers the fundamentals and latest developments in the field of operator algebras. It discusses the group-measure space construction, Krieger factors, infinite tensor products of factors of type I (ITPFI factors) and construction of the type III_1 hyperfinite factor. It also studies the techniques necessary for continuous and discrete decomposition, duality theory for noncommutative groups, discrete decomposition of Connes, and Ocneanu's result on the actions of amenable groups. It contains a detailed consideration of groups of automorphisms and their spectral theory, and the theory of crossed products.

Continuous model theory is an extension of classical first order logic which is best suited for classes of structures which are endowed with a metric. Applications have grown considerably in the past decade. This book is dedicated to showing how the techniques of continuous model theory are used to study C*-algebras and von Neumann algebras. This book geared to researchers in both logic and functional analysis provides the first self-contained collection of articles surveying the many applications of continuous logic to operator algebras that have been obtained in the last 15 years.

This volume contains the proceedings of the conference on Lie Algebras, Vertex Operator Algebras, and Related Topics, celebrating the 70th birthday of James Lepowsky and Robert Wilson, held from August 14–18, 2015, at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana. Since their seminal work in the 1970s, Lepowsky and Wilson, their collaborators, their students, and those inspired by their work, have developed an amazing body of work intertwining the fields of Lie algebras, vertex algebras, number theory, theoretical physics, quantum groups, the representation theory of finite simple groups, and more. The papers presented here include recent results and descriptions of ongoing research initiatives representing the broad influence and deep connections brought about by the work of Lepowsky and Wilson and include a contribution by Yi-Zhi Huang summarizing some major open problems in these areas, in particular as they pertain to two-dimensional conformal field theory.

The authors study crossed products of arbitrary operator algebras by locally compact groups of completely isometric automorphisms. They develop an abstract theory that allows for generalizations of many of the fundamental results from the selfadjoint theory to our context. They complement their generic results with the detailed study of many important special cases. In particular they study crossed products of tensor algebras, triangular AF algebras and various associated C -algebras. They make contributions to the study of C -envelopes, semisimplicity, the semi-Dirichlet property, Takai duality and the Hao-Ng isomorphism problem. They also answer questions from the pertinent literature.