This book, the first volume of a subseries on "Invariant Theory and Algebraic Transformation Groups", provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the algorithmic aspects of invariant theory. Numerous illustrative examples and a careful selection of proofs make the book accessible to non-specialists.

Knots are familiar objects. Yet the mathematical theory of knots quickly leads to deep results in topology and geometry. This work offers an introduction to this theory, starting with our understanding of knots. It presents the applications of knot theory to modern chemistry, biology and physics.

The primary goal of this 2003 book is to give a brief introduction to the main ideas of algebraic and geometric invariant theory. It assumes only a minimal background in algebraic geometry, algebra and representation theory. Topics covered include the symbolic method for computation of invariants on the space of homogeneous forms, the problem of finite-generatedness of the algebra of invariants, the theory of covariants and constructions of categorical and geometric quotients. Throughout, the emphasis is on concrete examples which originate in classical algebraic geometry. Based on lectures given at University of Michigan, Harvard University and Seoul National University, the book is written in an accessible style and contains many examples and exercises. A novel feature of the book is a discussion of possible linearizations of actions and the variation of quotients under the change of linearization. Also includes the construction of toric varieties as torus quotients of affine spaces.

This book is both an easy-to-read textbook for invariant theory and a challenging research monograph that introduces a new approach to the algorithmic side of invariant theory. Students will find the book an easy introduction to this "classical and new" area of mathematics. Researchers in mathematics, symbolic computation, and computer science will get access to research ideas, hints for applications, outlines and details of algorithms, examples and problems.