Approach your problems from the right end It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is and begin with the answers. Then one day, that they can't see the problem. perhaps you will find the final question. G. K. Chesterton. The Scandal of Father 'The Hermit Oad in Crane Feathers' in R. Brown 'The point of a Pin'. van Gulik's The Chinese Maze Murders. Growing specialization and diversification have brought a host of monographs and textbooks on increasingly specialized topics. However, the "tree" of knowledge of mathematics and related fields does not grow only by putting forth new branches. It also happens, quite often in fact, that branches which were thought to be completely disparate are suddenly seen to be related. Further, the kind and level of sophistication of mathematics applied in various sciences has changed drastically in recent years: measure theory is used (non-trivially) in regional and theoretical economics; algebraic geometry interacts with physics; the Minkowsky lemma, coding theory and the structure of water meet one another in packing and covering theory; quantum fields, crystal defects and mathematical programming profit from homotopy theory; Lie algebras are relevant to filtering; and prediction and electrical engineering can use Stein spaces. And in addition to this there are such new emerging subdisciplines as "experimental mathematics", "CFD", "completely integrable systems", "chaos, synergetics and large-scale order", which are almost impossible to fit into the existing classification schemes. They draw upon widely different sections of mathematics.

This text for a second course in linear algebra, aimed at math majors and graduates, adopts a novel approach by banishing determinants to the end of the book and focusing on understanding the structure of linear operators on vector spaces. The author has taken unusual care to motivate concepts and to simplify proofs. For example, the book presents - without having defined determinants - a clean proof that every linear operator on a finite-dimensional complex vector space has an eigenvalue. The book starts by discussing vector spaces, linear independence, span, basics, and dimension. Students are introduced to inner-product spaces in the first half of the book and shortly thereafter to the finite- dimensional spectral theorem. A variety of interesting exercises in each chapter helps students understand and manipulate the objects of linear algebra. This second edition features new chapters on diagonal matrices, on linear functionals and adjoints, and on the spectral theorem; some sections, such as those on self-adjoint and normal operators, have been entirely rewritten; and hundreds of minor improvements have been made throughout the text.

The purpose of this book is to give systematic and comprehensive presentation of theory of n-metric spaces, linear n-normed spaces and n-inner product spaces (and so 2-metric spaces, linear 2-normed spaces and 2-linner product spaces n=2). Since 1963 and 1965, S. Gahler published two papers entitled "2-metrische Raume und ihr topologische Strukhur" and "Lineare 2-normierte Raume", a number of authors have done considerable works on geometric structures of 2-metric spaces and linear 2-normed spaces, and have applied these spaces to several fields of mathematics in many ways. In 1969, S. Gahler introduced also the concept of n metric spaces in a series of his papers entitled "Untersuchungen uber verallemeinerte n-metriscke Raume 1, II, III", which extend the concept of 2-metric spaces to the general case, and provided many properties of topological and geometrical structures. Recently, A. Misiak introduced the concept of n-inner product spaces and extended many results in 2 inner product spaces,which in turn were introduced and studied by C. Diminnie, S. Gahler and A. White, to n-inner product spaces in his doctoral dissertation. This book contains, in short, the latest results on 2-metric spaces and linear 2-normed spaces, 2-inner product spaces, G-inner product spaces, strict convexity and uniform convexity, orthogonal relations, quadratic sets on modules and n-inner product spaces. It is hoped that this book will be devoted to a stimulation of interest in further exploration and to the possible applications in various other branches of mathematics.

This textbook serves as an introduction to groups, rings, fields, vector and tensor spaces, algebras, topological spaces, differentiable manifolds and Lie groups --- mathematical structures which are foundational to modern theoretical physics. It is aimed primarily at undergraduate students in physics and mathematics with no previous background in these topics. Applications to physics --- such as the metric tensor of special relativity, the symplectic structures associated with Hamilton's equations and the Generalized Stokes's Theorem --- appear at appropriate places in the text. Worked examples, end-of-chapter problems (many with hints and some with answers) and guides to further reading make this an excellent book for self-study. Upon completing this book the reader will be well prepared to delve more deeply into advanced texts and specialized monographs in theoretical physics or mathematics.

The unifying approach of functional analysis is to view functions as points in abstract vector space and the differential and integral operators as linear transformations on these spaces. The author's goal is to present the basics of functional analysis in a way that makes them comprehensible to a student who has completed courses in linear algebra and real analysis, and to develop the topics in their historical contexts.

The book presents an introduction to the geometry of Hilbert spaces and operator theory, targeting graduate and senior undergraduate students of mathematics. Major topics discussed in the book are inner product spaces, linear operators, spectral theory and special classes of operators, and Banach spaces. On vector spaces, the structure of inner product is imposed. After discussing geometry of Hilbert spaces, its applications to diverse branches of mathematics have been studied. Along the way are introduced orthogonal polynomials and their use in Fourier series and approximations. Spectrum of an operator is the key to the understanding of the operator. Properties of the spectrum of different classes of operators, such as normal operators, self-adjoint operators, unitaries, isometries and compact operators have been discussed. A large number of examples of operators, along with their spectrum and its splitting into point spectrum, continuous spectrum, residual spectrum, approximate point spectrum and compression spectrum, have been worked out. Spectral theorems for self-adjoint operators, and normal operators, follow the spectral theorem for compact normal operators. The book also discusses invariant subspaces with special attention to the Volterra operator and unbounded operators. In order to make the text as accessible as possible, motivation for the topics is introduced and a greater amount of explanation than is usually found in standard texts on the subject is provided. The abstract theory in the book is supplemented with concrete examples. It is expected that these features will help the reader get a good grasp of the topics discussed. Hints and solutions to all the problems are collected at the end of the book. Additional features are introduced in the book when it becomes imperative. This spirit is kept alive throughout the book.

An invaluable summary of research work done in the period from 1978 to the present