The MAA is pleased to re-issue the early Carus Mathematical Monographs in ebook and print-on-demand formats. Readers with an interest in the history of the undergraduate curriculum or the history of a particular field will be rewarded by study of these very clear and approachable little volumes. This monograph presents the central ideas of the arithmetic theory of quadratic forms in self-contained form, assuming only knowledge of the fundamentals of matric theory and the theory of numbers. Pertinent concepts of p-adic numbers and quadratic ideals are introduced. It would have been possible to avoid these concepts but the theory gains elegance as well as breadth by the introduction of such relationships. Some results and many of the methods are here presented for the first time. The development begins with the classical theory in the field of reals from the point of view of representation theory, for in these terms many of the later objectives and methods may be revealed. The successive chapters gradually narrow the fields and rings until one has the tools at hand to deal with the classical problems in the ring of rational integers. The analytic theory of quadratic forms is not dealt with because of the delicate analysis involved. However, some of the more important results are stated and references given.

The MAA is pleased to re-issue the early Carus Mathematical Monographs in ebook and print-on-demand formats. Readers with an interest in the history of the undergraduate curriculum or the history of a particular field will be rewarded by study of these very clear and approachable little volumes. The theory of functions of a complex variable has been developed by the efforts of thousands of workers through the last hundred years. To give even the briefest account of the present state of that theory in all its branches would be impossible within the limits of this book. What is attempted here is a presentation of fundamental principles with sufficient details of proof and discussion to avoid the style of a mere summary or synopsis. In various places there are indications of directions in which special portions of the subject branch off from the main stem. The reader is assumed to have an acquaintance with elementary differential and integral calculus. Without such knowledge one may, however, obtain some idea of the scope and purposes of the theory of functions from this monograph. Those should profit most who are familiar with more than the elements of the calculus.

Probability theory, like much of mathematics, is indebted to physics as a source of problems and intuition for solving these problems. Unfortunately, the level of abstraction of current mathematics often makes it difficult for anyone but an expert to appreciate this fact. Random Walks and Electric Networks looks at the interplay of physics and mathematics in terms of an example — the relation between elementary electric network theory and random walks —where the mathematics involved is at the college level.

Knot Theory, a lively exposition of the mathematics of knotting, will appeal to a diverse audience from the undergraduate seeking experience outside the traditional range of studies to mathematicians wanting a leisurely introduction to the subject. Graduate students beginning a program of advanced study will find a worthwhile overview, and the reader will need no training beyond linear algebra to understand the mathematics presented. The interplay between topology and algebra, known as algebraic topology, arises early in the book, when tools from linear algebra and from basic group theory are introduced to study the properties of knots. Livingston guides you through a general survey of the topic showing how to use the techniques of linear algebra to address some sophisticated problems, including one of mathematics' most beautiful topics, symmetry. The book closes with a discussion of high-dimensional knot theory and a presentation of some of the recent advances in the subject—the Conway, Jones, and Kauffman polynomials. A supplementary section presents the fundamental group, which is a centerpiece of algebraic topology.

This is a revised, updated and significantly augmented edition of a classic Carus Monograph (a bestseller for over 25 years) on the theory of functions of a real variable. Earlier editions of this classic Carus Monograph covered sets, metric spaces, continuous functions, and differentiable functions. The fourth edition adds sections on measurable sets and functions, the Lebesgue and Stieltjes integrals, and applications. The book retains the informal chatty style of the previous editions, remaining accessible to readers with some mathematical sophistication and a background in calculus. The book is thus suitable either for self-study or for supplemental reading in a course on advanced calculus or real analysis. Not intended as a systematic treatise, this book has more the character of a sequence of lectures on a variety of interesting topics connected with real functions. Many of these topics are not commonly encountered in undergraduate textbooks: for example, the existence of continuous everywhere-oscillating functions (via the Baire category theorem); the universal chord theorem; two functions having equal derivatives, yet not differing by a constant; and application of Stieltjes integration to the speed of convergence of infinite series.

In this second edition of a Carus Monograph Classic, Steven Krantz develops material on classical non-Euclidean geometry. He shows how it can be developed in a natural way from the invariant geometry of the complex disc. He also introduces the Bergman kernal and metric and provides profound applications, some of them never having appeared before in print. In general, the new edition represents a considerable polishing and re-thinking of the original successful volume. This is the first and only book to describe the context, the background, the details, and the applications of Ahlfors's celebrated ideas about curvature, the Schwarz lemma, and applications in complex analysis. Beginning from scratch, and requiring only a minimal background in complex variable theory, this book takes the reader up to ideas that are currently active areas of study. Such areas include a) the Caratheodory and Kobayashi metrics, b) the Bergman kernel and metric, c) boundary continuation of conformal maps. There is also an introduction to the theory of several complex variables. Poincaré's celebrated theorem about the biholomorphic inequivalence of the ball and polydisc is discussed and proved.

Inequalities from Complex Analysis is a careful, friendly exposition of inequalities and positivity conditions for various mathematical objects arising in complex analysis. The author begins by defining the complex number field, and then discusses enough mathematical analysis to reach recently published research on positivity conditions for functions of several complex variables. The development culminates in complete proofs of a stabilization theorem relating two natural positivity conditions for real-valued polynomials of several complex variables. The reader will also encounter the Bergman kernel function, Fourier series, Hermitian linear algebra, the spectral theorem for compact Hermitian operators, plurisubharmonic functions, and some delightful inequalities. Numerous examples, exercises, and discussions of geometric reasoning appear along the way. Undergraduate mathematics majors who have seen elementary real analysis can easily read the first five chapters of this book, and second year graduate students in mathematics can read the entire text. Some physicists and engineers may also find the topics and discussions useful. The inequalities and positivity conditions herein form the foundation for a small but beautiful part of complex analysis. John P. D'Angelo was the 1999 winner of the Bergman Prize; he was cited for several important contributions to complex analysis, including his work on degenerate Levi forms and points of finite type, as well as work, some joint with David Catlin, on positivity conditions in complex analysis

Randomness and Recurrence in Dynamical Systems aims to bridge a gap between undergraduate teaching and the research level in mathematical analysis. It makes ideas on averaging, randomness, and recurrence, which traditionally require measure theory, accessible at the undergraduate and lower graduate level. The author develops new techniques of proof and adapts known proofs to make the material accessible to students with only a background in elementary real analysis. Over 60 figures are used to explain proofs, provide alternative viewpoints and elaborate on the main text. The book explains further developments in terms of measure theory. The results are presented in the context of dynamical systems, and the quantitative results are related to the underlying qualitative phenomena—chaos, randomness, recurrence and order. The final part of the book introduces and motivates measure theory and the notion of a measurable set, and describes the relationship of Birkhoff's Individual Ergodic Theorem to the preceding ideas. Developments in other dynamical systems are indicated, in particular Lévy's result on the frequency of occurence of a given digit in the partial fractions expansion of a number. Historical notes and comments suggest possible avenues for self-study.