This volume contains papers by invited speakers of the symposium "Zeta Functions, Topology and Quantum Physics" held at Kinki U- versity in Osaka, Japan, during the period of March 3-6, 2003. The aims of this symposium were to establish mutual understanding and to exchange ideas among researchers working in various fields which have relation to zeta functions and zeta values. We are very happy to add this volume to the series Developments in Mathematics from Springer. In this respect, Professor Krishnaswami Alladi helped us a lot by showing his keen and enthusiastic interest in publishing this volume and by contributing his paper with Alexander Berkovich. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from Kinki University. We would like to thank Professor Megumu Munakata, Vice-Rector of Kinki University, and Professor Nobuki Kawashima, Director of School of Interdisciplinary Studies of Science and Engineering, Kinki Univ- sity, for their interest and support. We also thank John Martindale of Springer for his excellent editorial work.

This is an autobiography and an exposition on the contributions and personalities of many of the leading researchers in mathematics and physics with whom Dr Krishna Alladi, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Florida, has had personal interaction with for over six decades. Discussions of various aspects of the physics and mathematics academic professions are included.Part I begins with the author's unusual and frequent introductions as a young boy to scientific luminaries like Nobel Laureates Niels Bohr, Murray Gell-Mann, and Richard Feynman, in the company of his father, the scientist Alladi Ramakrishnan. Also in Part I is an exciting account of how the author started his research investigations in number theory as an undergraduate, and how contact and collaboration with the great Paul Erdős as a student influenced him in his career.In-depth views of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and several major American Universities are given, and fascinating descriptions of the work and personalities of some Field Medalists and eminent mathematicians are provided.Part II deals with the author's tenure at the University of Florida where he initiated several programs as Mathematics Chair for a decade, and how he has served the profession in various capacities, most notably as Chair of the SASTRA Ramanujan Prize Committee and Editor-in-Chief of The Ramanujan Journal.The book would appeal to academicians and the general public, since the author has blended academic and scientific discussions at a non-technical level with descriptions of destinations in his international travels for work and pleasure. The reader is invited to dig as deep as desired and is guaranteed to be treated to whimsical stories and personal peeks at some of the great luminaries of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

In this text, the famous zeros of the Riemann zeta function and its generalizations (L-functions, Dedekind and Selberg zeta functions)are analyzed through several zeta functions built over those zeros.

This book gives a lively development of the mathematics needed to answer the question, “How many times should a deck of cards be shuffled to mix it up?” The shuffles studied are the usual ones that real people use: riffle, overhand, and smooshing cards around on the table. The mathematics ranges from probability (Markov chains) to combinatorics (symmetric function theory) to algebra (Hopf algebras). There are applications to magic tricks and gambling along with a careful comparison of the mathematics to the results of real people shuffling real cards. The book explores links between shuffling and higher mathematics—Lie theory, algebraic topology, the geometry of hyperplane arrangements, stochastic calculus, number theory, and more. It offers a useful springboard for seeing how probability theory is applied and leads to many corners of advanced mathematics. The book can serve as a text for an upper division course in mathematics, statistics, or computer science departments and will be appreciated by graduate students and researchers in mathematics, statistics, and computer science, as well as magicians and people with a strong background in mathematics who are interested in games that use playing cards.

The contents of this book was created by the authors as a simultaneous generalization of Witten zeta-functions, Mordell–Tornheim multiple zeta-functions, and Euler–Zagier multiple zeta-functions. Zeta-functions of root systems are defined by certain multiple series, given in terms of root systems. Therefore, they intrinsically have the action of associated Weyl groups. The exposition begins with a brief introduction to the theory of Lie algebras and root systems and then provides the definition of zeta-functions of root systems, explicit examples associated with various simple Lie algebras, meromorphic continuation and recursive analytic structure described by Dynkin diagrams, special values at integer points, functional relations, and the background given by the action of Weyl groups. In particular, an explicit form of Witten’s volume formula is provided. It is shown that various relations among special values of Euler–Zagier multiple zeta-functions—which usually are called multiple zeta values (MZVs) and are quite important in connection with Zagier’s conjecture—are just special cases of various functional relations among zeta-functions of root systems. The authors further provide other applications to the theory of MZVs and also introduce generalizations with Dirichlet characters, and with certain congruence conditions. The book concludes with a brief description of other relevant topics.

This text (together with a forthcoming second volume) presents most of the courses and seminars delivered at the meeting entitled "Frontiers in number theory, physics and geometry" which took place at the Centre de Physique des Houches in the French Alps, March 9-12, 2003.

This volume provides a systematic survey of almost all the equivalent assertions to the functional equations - zeta symmetry - which zeta-functions satisfy, thus streamlining previously published results on zeta-functions. The equivalent relations are given in the form of modular relations in Fox H-function series, which at present include all that have been considered as candidates for ingredients of a series. The results are presented in a clear and simple manner for readers to readily apply without much knowledge of zeta-functions. This volume aims to keep a record of the 150-year-old heritage starting from Riemann on zeta-functions, which are ubiquitous in all mathematical sciences, wherever there is a notion of the norm. It provides almost all possible equivalent relations to the zeta-functions without requiring a reader's deep knowledge on their definitions. This can be an ideal reference book for those studying zeta-functions.

The motivations, goals and general culture of theoretical physics and mathematics are different. Most practitioners of either discipline have no necessity for most of the time to keep abreast of the latest developments in the other. However on occasion newly developed mathematical concepts become relevant in theoretical physics and the less rigorous theoretical physics framework may prove valuable in understanding and suggesting new theorems and approaches in pure mathematics. Such interdis ciplinary successes invariably cause much rejoicing, as over a prodigal son returned. In recent years the framework provided by quantum field theory and functional in tegrals, developed over half a century in theoretical physics, have proved a fertile soil for developments in low dimensional topology and especially knot theory. Given this background it was particularly pleasing that NATO was able to generously sup port an Advanced Research Workshop to be held in Cambridge, England from 6th to 12th September 1992 with the title Low Dimensional Topology and Quantum Field Theory. Although independently organised this overlapped as far as some speak ers were concerned with a longer term programme with the same title organised by Professor M Green, Professor E Corrigan and Dr R Lickorish. The contents of this proceedings of the workshop demonstrate the breadth of topics now of interest on the interface between theoretical physics and mathematics as well as the sophistication of the mathematical tools required in current theoretical physics.

Dynamical zeta functions are associated to dynamical systems with a countable set of periodic orbits. The dynamical zeta functions of the geodesic flow of lo cally symmetric spaces of rank one are known also as the generalized Selberg zeta functions. The present book is concerned with these zeta functions from a cohomological point of view. Originally, the Selberg zeta function appeared in the spectral theory of automorphic forms and were suggested by an analogy between Weil's explicit formula for the Riemann zeta function and Selberg's trace formula ([261]). The purpose of the cohomological theory is to understand the analytical properties of the zeta functions on the basis of suitable analogs of the Lefschetz fixed point formula in which periodic orbits of the geodesic flow take the place of fixed points. This approach is parallel to Weil's idea to analyze the zeta functions of pro jective algebraic varieties over finite fields on the basis of suitable versions of the Lefschetz fixed point formula. The Lefschetz formula formalism shows that the divisors of the rational Hassc-Wcil zeta functions are determined by the spectra of Frobenius operators on l-adic cohomology.