Within the general framework of the dynamics of ?large? groups on geometric spaces, the focus is on the types of groups that can act in complicated ways on Lorentz manifolds, and on the structure of the resulting manifolds and actions. This particular area of dynamics is an active one, and not all the results are in their final form. However, at this point, a great deal can be said about the particular Lie groups that come up in this context. It is impressive that, even assuming very weak recurrence of the action, the list of possible groups is quite restricted. For the most complicated of these groups, one can also describe reasonably well the local structure of the actions that arise.This advanced text is also appropriate to a course for mathematics graduate students who have completed their first year of study.

Differential geometry began as the study of curves and surfaces using the methods of calculus. This book offers a graduate-level introduction to the tools and structures of modern differential geometry. It includes the topics usually found in a course on differentiable manifolds, such as vector bundles, tensors, and de Rham cohomology.

George Mackey was an extraordinary mathematician of great power and vision. His profound contributions to representation theory, harmonic analysis, ergodic theory, and mathematical physics left a rich legacy for researchers that continues today. This book is based on lectures presented at an AMS special session held in January 2007 in New Orleans dedicated to his memory. The papers, written especially for this volume by internationally-known mathematicians and mathematical physicists, range from expository and historical surveys to original high-level research articles. The influence of Mackey's fundamental ideas is apparent throughout. The introductory article contains recollections from former students, friends, colleagues, and family as well as a biography describing his distinguished career as a mathematician at Harvard, where he held the Landon D. Clay Professorship of Mathematics.

Purpose and Emphasis. Mechanics not only is the oldest branch of physics but was and still is the basis for all of theoretical physics. Quantum mechanics can hardly be understood, perhaps cannot even be formulated, without a good kno- edge of general mechanics. Field theories such as electrodynamics borrow their formal framework and many of their building principles from mechanics. In short, throughout the many modern developments of physics where one frequently turns back to the principles of classical mechanics its model character is felt. For this reason it is not surprising that the presentation of mechanics re?ects to some - tent the development of modern physics and that today this classical branch of theoretical physics is taught rather differently than at the time of Arnold S- merfeld, in the 1920s, or even in the 1950s, when more emphasis was put on the theoryandtheapplicationsofpartial-differentialequations. Today, symmetriesand invariance principles, the structure of the space–time continuum, and the geom- rical structure of mechanics play an important role. The beginner should realize that mechanics is not primarily the art of describing block-and-tackles, collisions of billiard balls, constrained motions of the cylinder in a washing machine, or - cycle riding.

A course in mechanics is of primary importance in any physics teaching program. Scheck's book integrates the various aspects of classical mechanics, relativistic mechanics, and modern topics such as deterministic chaos. Both the physical approach to mechanics and its mathematical foundations are emphasised. With elementary Newtonian mechanics as a starting point, the principles of canonical mechanics in Hamiltonian and Lagrangian formulations are outlined. Rigid bodies are treated in detail, and the basic concepts of special relativity are given. Particular emphasis is put on the geometrical aspects of mechanics, such as geometrical objects on manifolds. A chapter on stability and chaos concludes the book, introducing topics such as the long-time behavior of dynamical flows, deterministic chaos, and chaotic motion in celestial mechanics.

Jerry Marsden, one of the world’s pre-eminent mechanicians and applied mathematicians, celebrated his 60th birthday in August 2002. The event was marked by a workshop on “Geometry, Mechanics, and Dynamics”at the Fields Institute for Research in the Mathematical Sciences, of which he wasthefoundingDirector. Ratherthanmerelyproduceaconventionalp- ceedings, with relatively brief accounts of research and technical advances presented at the meeting, we wished to acknowledge Jerry’s in?uence as a teacher, a propagator of new ideas, and a mentor of young talent. Con- quently, starting in 1999, we sought to collect articles that might be used as entry points by students interested in ?elds that have been shaped by Jerry’s work. At the same time we hoped to give experts engrossed in their own technical niches an indication of the wonderful breadth and depth of their subjects as a whole. This book is an outcome of the e?orts of those who accepted our in- tations to contribute. It presents both survey and research articles in the several ?elds that represent the main themes of Jerry’s work, including elasticity and analysis, ?uid mechanics, dynamical systems theory, g- metric mechanics, geometric control theory, and relativity and quantum mechanics. The common thread running through this broad tapestry is the use of geometric methods that serve to unify diverse disciplines and bring a widevarietyofscientistsandmathematicianstogether,speakingalanguage which enhances dialogue and encourages cross-fertilization.

This is a self-contained exposition of general relativity with emphasis given to tetrad and spinor structures and physical measurement on curved manifolds.