Table of Contents: D. Duffie: Martingales, Arbitrage, and Portfolio Choice • J. Fröhlich: Mathematical Aspects of the Quantum Hall Effect • M. Giaquinta: Analytic and Geometric Aspects of Variational Problems for Vector Valued Mappings • U. Hamenstädt: Harmonic Measures for Leafwise Elliptic Operators Along Foliations • M. Kontsevich: Feynman Diagrams and Low-Dimensional Topology • S.B. Kuksin: KAM-Theory for Partial Differential Equations • M. Laczkovich: Paradoxical Decompositions: A Survey of Recent Results • J.-F. Le Gall: A Path-Valued Markov Process and its Connections with Partial Differential Equations • I. Madsen: The Cyclotomic Trace in Algebraic K-Theory • A.S. Merkurjev: Algebraic K-Theory and Galois Cohomology • J. Nekovár: Values of L-Functions and p-Adic Cohomology • Y.A. Neretin: Mantles, Trains and Representations of Infinite Dimensional Groups • M.A. Nowak: The Evolutionary Dynamics of HIV Infections • R. Piene: On the Enumeration of Algebraic Curves - from Circles to Instantons • A. Quarteroni: Mathematical Aspects of Domain Decomposition Methods • A. Schrijver: Paths in Graphs and Curves on Surfaces • B. Silverman: Function Estimation and Functional Data Analysis • V. Strassen: Algebra and Complexity • P. Tukia: Generalizations of Fuchsian and Kleinian Groups • C. Viterbo: Properties of Embedded Lagrange Manifolds • D. Voiculescu: Alternative Entropies in Operator Algebras • M. Wodzicki : Algebraic K-Theory and Functional Analysis • D. Zagier: Values of Zeta Functions and Their Applications

Interest in commutative algebra has surged over the past decades. In order to survey and highlight recent developments in this rapidly expanding field, the Centre de Recerca Matematica in Bellaterra organized a ten-days Summer School on Commutative Algebra in 1996. Lectures were presented by six high-level specialists, L. Avramov (Purdue), M.K. Green (UCLA), C. Huneke (Purdue), P. Schenzel (Halle), G. Valla (Genova) and W.V. Vasconcelos (Rutgers), providing a fresh and extensive account of the results, techniques and problems of some of the most active areas of research. The present volume is a synthesis of the lectures given by these authors. Research workers as well as graduate students in commutative algebra and nearby areas will find a useful overview of the field and recent developments in it. Reviews "All six articles are at a very high level; they provide a thorough survey of results and methods in their subject areas, illustrated with algebraic or geometric examples." - Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum Avramov lecture: "... it contains all the major results [on infinite free resolutions], it explains carefully all the different techniques that apply, it provides complete proofs (...). This will be extremely helpful for the novice as well as the experienced." - Mathematical reviews Huneke lecture: "The topic is tight closure, a theory developed by M. Hochster and the author which has in a short time proved to be a useful and powerful tool. (...) The paper is extremely well organized, written, and motivated." - Zentralblatt MATH Schenzel lecture: "... this paper is an excellent introduction to applications of local cohomology." - Zentralblatt MATH Valla lecture: "... since he is an acknowledged expert on Hilbert functions and since his interest has been so broad, he has done a superb job in giving the readers a lively picture of the theory." - Mathematical reviews Vasconcelos lecture: "This is a very useful survey on invariants of modules over noetherian rings, relations between them, and how to compute them." - Zentralblatt MATH

In July 1996, a conference was organized by the editors of this volume at the Mathematische Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach to honour Egbert Brieskorn on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Most of the mathematicians invited to the conference have been influenced in one way or another by Brieskorn's work in singularity theory. It was the first time that so many people from the Russian school could be present at a conference in singularity theory outside Russia. This volume contains papers on singularity theory and its applications, written by participants of the conference. In many cases, they are extended versions of the talks presented there. The diversity of subjects of the contributions reflects singularity theory's relevance to topology, analysis and geometry, combining ideas and techniques from all of these fields, as well as demonstrating the breadth of Brieskorn's own interests. This volume contains papers on singularity theory and its applications, written by participants of the conference. In many cases, they are extended versions of the talks presented there. The diversity of subjects of the contributions reflects singularity theory's relevance to topology, analysis and geometry, combining ideas and techniques from all of these fields, as well as demonstrates the breadth of Brieskorn's own interests.

The Jacobi group is a semidirect product of a symplectic group with a Heisenberg group. It is an important example for a non-reductive group and sets the frame within which to treat theta functions as well as elliptic functions - in particular, the universal elliptic curve. This text gathers for the first time material from the representation theory of this group in both local (archimedean and non-archimedean) cases and in the global number field case. Via a bridge to Waldspurger's theory for the metaplectic group, complete classification theorems for irreducible representations are obtained. Further topics include differential operators, Whittaker models, Hecke operators, spherical representations and theta functions. The global theory is aimed at the correspondence between automorphic representations and Jacobi forms. This volume is thus a complement to the seminal book on Jacobi forms by M. Eichler and D. Zagier. Incorporating results of the authors' original research, this exposition is meant for researchers and graduate students interested in algebraic groups and number theory, in particular, modular and automorphic forms.

On September 1-7, 1996 a conference on Groups and Geometries took place in lovely Siena, Italy. It brought together experts and interested mathematicians from numerous countries. The scientific program centered around invited exposi tory lectures; there also were shorter research announcements, including talks by younger researchers. The conference concerned a broad range of topics in group theory and geometry, with emphasis on recent results and open problems. Special attention was drawn to the interplay between group-theoretic methods and geometric and combinatorial ones. Expanded versions of many of the talks appear in these Proceedings. This volume is intended to provide a stimulating collection of themes for a broad range of algebraists and geometers. Among those themes, represented within the conference or these Proceedings, are aspects of the following: 1. the classification of finite simple groups, 2. the structure and properties of groups of Lie type over finite and algebraically closed fields of finite characteristic, 3. buildings, and the geometry of projective and polar spaces, and 4. geometries of sporadic simple groups. We are grateful to the authors for their efforts in providing us with manuscripts in LaTeX. Barbara Priwitzer and Thomas Hintermann, Mathematics Editors of Birkhauser, have been very helpful and supportive throughout the preparation of this volume.

Central to this collection of papers are new developments in the general theory of localization of spaces. This field has undergone tremendous change of late and is yielding new insight into the mysteries of classical homotopy theory. The present volume comprises the refereed articles submitted at the Conference on Algebraic Topology held in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Spain, in June 1994. Several comprehensive articles on general localization clarify the basic tools and give a report on the state of the art in the subject matter. The text is therefore accessible not only to the professional mathematician but also to the advanced student.