Noncommutative geometry, inspired by quantum physics, describes singular spaces by their noncommutative coordinate algebras and metric structures by Dirac-like operators. Such metric geometries are described mathematically by Connes' theory of spectral triples. These lectures, delivered at an EMS Summer School on noncommutative geometry and its applications, provide an overview of spectral triples based on examples. This introduction is aimed at graduate students of both mathematics and theoretical physics. It deals with Dirac operators on spin manifolds, noncommutative tori, Moyal quantization and tangent groupoids, action functionals, and isospectral deformations. The structural framework is the concept of a noncommutative spin geometry; the conditions on spectral triples which determine this concept are developed in detail. The emphasis throughout is on gaining understanding by computing the details of specific examples. The book provides a middle ground between a comprehensive text and a narrowly focused research monograph. It is intended for self-study, enabling the reader to gain access to the essentials of noncommutative geometry. New features since the original course are an expanded bibliography and a survey of more recent examples and applications of spectral triples.

The description of the structure of group C*-algebras is a difficult problem, but relevant to important new developments in mathematics, such as non-commutative geometry and quantum groups. Although a significant number of new methods and results have been obtained, until now they have not been available in book form. This volume provides an introduction to and presents research on the study of group C*-algebras, suitable for all levels of readers - from graduate students to professional researchers. The introduction provides the essential features of the methods used. In Part I, the author offers an elementary overview - using concrete examples-of using K-homology, BFD functors, and KK-functors to describe group C*-algebras. In Part II, he uses advanced ideas and methods from representation theory, differential geometry, and KK-theory, to explain two primary tools used to study group C*-algebras: multidimensional quantization and construction of the index of group C*-algebras through orbit methods. The structure of group C*-algebras is an important issue both from a theoretical viewpoint and in its applications in physics and mathematics. Armed with the background, tools, and research provided in Methods of Noncommutative Geometry for Group C*-Algebras, readers can continue this work and make significant contributions to perfecting the theory and solving this problem.

Noncommutative Geometry is one of the most deep and vital research subjects of present-day Mathematics. Its development, mainly due to Alain Connes, is providing an increasing number of applications and deeper insights for instance in Foliations, K-Theory, Index Theory, Number Theory but also in Quantum Physics of elementary particles. The purpose of the Summer School in Martina Franca was to offer a fresh invitation to the subject and closely related topics; the contributions in this volume include the four main lectures, cover advanced developments and are delivered by prominent specialists.

"This book is an introduction to the language and techniques of noncommutative geometry at a level suitable for graduate students, and also provides sufficient detail to be useful to physicists and mathematicians wishing to enter this rapidly growing field. It may also serve as a reference text on several topics that are relevant to noncommutative geometry."--BOOK JACKET.

"Basic Noncommutative Geometry provides an introduction to noncommutative geometry and some of its applications. The book can be used either as a textbook for a graduate course on the subject or for self-study. It will be useful for graduate students and researchers in mathematics and theoretical physics and all those who are interested in gaining an understanding of the subject. One feature of this book is the wealth of examples and exercises that help the reader to navigate through the subject. While background material is provided in the text and in several appendices, some familiarity with basic notions of functional analysis, algebraic topology, differential geometry and homological algebra at a first year graduate level is helpful. Developed by Alain Connes since the late 1970s, noncommutative geometry has found many applications to long-standing conjectures in topology and geometry and has recently made headways in theoretical physics and number theory. The book starts with a detailed description of some of the most pertinent algebra-geometry correspondences by casting geometric notions in algebraic terms, then proceeds in the second chapter to the idea of a noncommutative space and how it is constructed. The last two chapters deal with homological tools: cyclic cohomology and Connes-Chern characters in K-theory and K-homology, culminating in one commutative diagram expressing the equality of topological and analytic index in a noncommutative setting. Applications to integrality of noncommutative topological invariants are given as well."--Publisher's description.

This English version of the path-breaking French book on this subject gives the definitive treatment of the revolutionary approach to measure theory, geometry, and mathematical physics developed by Alain Connes. Profusely illustrated and invitingly written, this book is ideal for anyone who wants to know what noncommutative geometry is, what it can do, or how it can be used in various areas of mathematics, quantization, and elementary particles and fields. First full treatment of the subject and its applications Written by the pioneer of this field Broad applications in mathematics Of interest across most fields Ideal as an introduction and survey Examples treated include: the space of Penrose tilings the space of leaves of a foliation the space of irreducible unitary representations of a discrete group the phase space in quantum mechanics the Brillouin zone in the quantum Hall effect A model of space time