The book lays algebraic foundations for real geometry through a systematic investigation of partially ordered rings of semi-algebraic functions. Real spectra serve as primary geometric objects, the maps between them are determined by rings of functions associated with the spectra. The many different possible choices for these rings of functions are studied via reflections of partially ordered rings. Readers should feel comfortable using basic algebraic and categorical concepts. As motivational background some familiarity with real geometry will be helpful. The book aims at researchers and graduate students with an interest in real algebra and geometry, ordered algebraic structures, topology and rings of continuous functions.

In this monograph the authors extend the classical algebraic theory of quadratic forms over fields to diagonal quadratic forms with invertible entries over broad classes of commutative, unitary rings where is not a sum of squares and is invertible. They accomplish this by: (1) Extending the classical notion of matrix isometry of forms to a suitable notion of -isometry, where is a preorder of the given ring, , or . (2) Introducing in this context three axioms expressing simple properties of (value) representation of elements of the ring by quadratic forms, well-known to hold in the field case.

From the 28th of February through the 3rd of March, 2001, the Department of Math ematics of the University of Florida hosted a conference on the many aspects of the field of Ordered Algebraic Structures. Officially, the title was "Conference on Lattice Ordered Groups and I-Rings", but its subject matter evolved beyond the limitations one might associate with such a label. This volume is officially the proceedings of that conference, although, likewise, it is more accurate to view it as a complement to that event. The conference was the fourth in wh at has turned into aseries of similar conferences, on Ordered Algebraic Structures, held in consecutive years. The first, held at the University of Florida in Spring, 1998, was a modest and informal affair. The fifth is in the final planning stages at this writing, for March 7-9, 2002, at Vanderbilt University. And although these events remain modest and reasonably informal, their scope has broadened, as they have succeeded in attracting mathematicians from other, related fields, as weIl as from more distant lands.

This book is the first of two proceedings volumes stemming from the International Conference and Workshop on Valuation Theory held at the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, SK, Canada). Valuation theory arose in the early part of the twentieth century in connection with number theory and has many important applications to geometry and analysis: the classical application to the study of algebraic curves and to Dedekind and Prufer domains; the close connection to the famousresolution of the singularities problem; the study of the absolute Galois group of a field; the connection between ordering, valuations, and quadratic forms over a formally real field; the application to real algebraic geometry; the study of noncommutative rings; etc. The special feature of this book isits focus on current applications of valuation theory to this broad range of topics. Also included is a paper on the history of valuation theory. The book is suitable for graduate students and research mathematicians working in algebra, algebraic geometry, number theory, and mathematical logic.

The territory of preserver problems has grown continuously within linear analysis. This book presents a cross-section of the modern theory of preservers on infinite dimensional spaces (operator spaces and function spaces) through the author's corresponding results. Special emphasis is placed on preserver problems concerning some structures of Hilbert space operators which appear in quantum mechanics. In addition, local automorphisms and local isometries of operator algebras and function algebras are discussed in detail.

This book demonstrates that while elliptic and hyperbolic tori determine the distribution of maximal invariant tori, they themselves form n-parameter families. Therefore, torus bifurcations of high co-dimension may be found in a single given Hamiltonian system, absent untypical conditions or external parameters. The text moves logically from the integrable case, in which symmetries allow for reduction to bifurcating equilibria, to non-integrability, where smooth parametrisations must be replaced by Cantor sets.

Transseries are formal objects constructed from an infinitely large variable x and the reals using infinite summation, exponentiation and logarithm. They are suitable for modeling "strongly monotonic" or "tame" asymptotic solutions to differential equations and find their origin in at least three different areas of mathematics: analysis, model theory and computer algebra. They play a crucial role in Écalle's proof of Dulac's conjecture, which is closely related to Hilbert's 16th problem. The aim of the present book is to give a detailed and self-contained exposition of the theory of transseries, in the hope of making it more accessible to non-specialists.

The basin of attraction of an equilibrium of an ordinary differential equation can be determined using a Lyapunov function. A new method to construct such a Lyapunov function using radial basis functions is presented in this volume intended for researchers and advanced students from both dynamical systems and radial basis functions. Besides an introduction to both areas and a detailed description of the method, it contains error estimates and many examples.

These notes present recent results in the value-distribution theory of L-functions with emphasis on the phenomenon of universality. Universality has a strong impact on the zero-distribution: Riemann’s hypothesis is true only if the Riemann zeta-function can approximate itself uniformly. The text proves universality for polynomial Euler products. The authors’ approach follows mainly Bagchi's probabilistic method. Discussion touches on related topics: almost periodicity, density estimates, Nevanlinna theory, and functional independence.

This volume is a synopsis of recent works aiming at a mathematically rigorous justification of the phase coexistence phenomenon, starting from a microscopic model. It is intended to be self-contained. Those proofs that can be found only in research papers have been included, whereas results for which the proofs can be found in classical textbooks are only quoted.