Ten years after publication of the popular first edition of this volume, the index theorem continues to stand as a central result of modern mathematics-one of the most important foci for the interaction of topology, geometry, and analysis. Retaining its concise presentation but offering streamlined analyses and expanded coverage of important exampl

Ten years after publication of the popular first edition of this volume, the index theorem continues to stand as a central result of modern mathematics-one of the most important foci for the interaction of topology, geometry, and analysis. Retaining its concise presentation but offering streamlined analyses and expanded coverage of important examples and applications, Elliptic Operators, Topology, and Asymptotic Methods, Second Edition introduces the ideas surrounding the heat equation proof of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem. The author builds towards proof of the Lefschetz formula and the full index theorem with four chapters of geometry, five chapters of analysis, and four chapters of topology. The topics addressed include Hodge theory, Weyl's theorem on the distribution of the eigenvalues of the Laplacian, the asymptotic expansion for the heat kernel, and the index theorem for Dirac-type operators using Getzler's direct method. As a "dessert," the final two chapters offer discussion of Witten's analytic approach to the Morse inequalities and the L2-index theorem of Atiyah for Galois coverings. The text assumes some background in differential geometry and functional analysis. With the partial differential equation theory developed within the text and the exercises in each chapter, Elliptic Operators, Topology, and Asymptotic Methods becomes the ideal vehicle for self-study or coursework. Mathematicians, researchers, and physicists working with index theory or supersymmetry will find it a concise but wide-ranging introduction to this important and intriguing field.

​This book presents a selection of papers based on the XXXIII Białowieża Workshop on Geometric Methods in Physics, 2014. The Białowieża Workshops are among the most important meetings in the field and attract researchers from both mathematics and physics. The articles gathered here are mathematically rigorous and have important physical implications, addressing the application of geometry in classical and quantum physics. Despite their long tradition, the workshops remain at the cutting edge of ongoing research. For the last several years, each Białowieża Workshop has been followed by a School on Geometry and Physics, where advanced lectures for graduate students and young researchers are presented; some of the lectures are reproduced here. The unique atmosphere of the workshop and school is enhanced by its venue, framed by the natural beauty of the Białowieża forest in eastern Poland. The volume will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in mathematical physics, theoretical physics and mathematmtics.

This book is an introduction to several active research topics in Foliation Theory and its connections with other areas. It contains expository lectures showing the diversity of ideas and methods converging in the study of foliations. The lectures by Aziz El Kacimi Alaoui provide an introduction to Foliation Theory with emphasis on examples and transverse structures. Steven Hurder's lectures apply ideas from smooth dynamical systems to develop useful concepts in the study of foliations: limit sets and cycles for leaves, leafwise geodesic flow, transverse exponents, Pesin Theory and hyperbolic, parabolic and elliptic types of foliations. The lectures by Masayuki Asaoka compute the leafwise cohomology of foliations given by actions of Lie groups, and apply it to describe deformation of those actions. In his lectures, Ken Richardson studies the properties of transverse Dirac operators for Riemannian foliations and compact Lie group actions, and explains a recently proved index formula. Besides students and researchers of Foliation Theory, this book will be interesting for mathematicians interested in the applications to foliations of subjects like Topology of Manifolds, Differential Geometry, Dynamics, Cohomology or Global Analysis.

This book consists of a collection of original, refereed research and expository articles on elliptic aspects of geometric analysis on manifolds, including singular, foliated and non-commutative spaces. The topics covered include the index of operators, torsion invariants, K-theory of operator algebras and L2-invariants. There are contributions from leading specialists, and the book maintains a reasonable balance between research, expository and mixed papers.