In this volume, the authors study asymptotics of the geometry and spectral theory of degenerating sequences of finite volume hyperbolic manifolds of three dimensions. Thurston's hyperbolic surgery theorem assets the existence of non-trivial sequences of finite volume hyperbolic three manifolds which converge to a three manifold with additional cusps. In the geometric aspect of their study, the authors use the convergence of hyperbolic metrics on the thick parts of the manifolds under consideration to investigate convergentce of tubes in the manifolds of the sequence to cusps of the limiting manifold. In the specral theory aspect of the work, they prove convergence of heat kernels. They then define a regualrized heat race associated to any finite volume, complete, hyperbolic three manifold, and study its asymptotic behaviour through degeneration. As an application of the analysis of the regularized heat trace, they study asymptotic behaviours of the spectral zeta function, determinant of the Laplacian, Selberg zeta function, and spectral counting functions through degeneration. The authors' methods are an adaptation to three dimensions of the earlier work of Jorgenson and Lundelius who investigated the asymptotic behaviour of spectral functions on degenerating families of finite area hyperbolic Riemann surfaces.

Other papers deal with maximizing or minimizing functions defined by the spectrum such as the heat kernel, the zeta function, and the determinant of the Laplacian, some from the point of view of identifying an extremal metric.

The original zeta function was studied by Riemann as part of his investigation of the distribution of prime numbers. Other sorts of zeta functions were defined for number-theoretic purposes, such as the study of primes in arithmetic progressions. This led to the development of $L$-functions, which now have several guises. It eventually became clear that the basic construction used for number-theoretic zeta functions can also be used in other settings, such as dynamics, geometry, and spectral theory, with remarkable results. This volume grew out of the special session on dynamical, spectral, and arithmetic zeta functions held at the annual meeting of the American Mathematical Society in San Antonio, but also includes four articles that were invited to be part of the collection. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together leading researchers, to find links and analogies between their fields, and to explore new methods. The papers discuss dynamical systems, spectral geometry on hyperbolic manifolds, trace formulas in geometry and in arithmetic, as well as computational work on the Riemann zeta function. Each article employs techniques of zeta functions. The book unifies the application of these techniques in spectral geometry, fractal geometry, and number theory. It is a comprehensive volume, offering up-to-date research. It should be useful to both graduate students and confirmed researchers.

Asymptotics are built for the solutions $y_j(x, \lambda)$, $y_j DEGREES{(k)}(0, \lambda)=\delta_{j\, n-k}$, $0\le j, k+1\le n$ of the equation $L(y)=\lambda p(x)y, \quad x\in [0,1], $ where $L(y)$ is a linear differential operator of whatever order $n\ge 2$ and $p(x)$ is assumed to possess a finite number of turning points. The established asymptotics are afterwards applied to the study of: 1) the existence of infinite eigenvalue sequences for various multipoint boundary problems posed on $L(y)=\lambda p(x)y, \quad x\in [0,1], $, especially as $n=2$ and $n=3$ (let us be aware that the same method can be successfully applied on many occasions in case $n>3$ too) and 2) asymptotical distribution of the corresponding eigenvalue sequences on the

This book is intended for graduate students and research mathematicians interested in operator algebras

This is a book guaranteed to delight the reader. It not only depicts the state of mathematics at the end of the century, but is also full of remarkable insights into its future de- velopment as we enter a new millennium. True to its title, the book extends beyond the spectrum of mathematics to in- clude contributions from other related sciences. You will enjoy reading the many stimulating contributions and gain insights into the astounding progress of mathematics and the perspectives for its future. One of the editors, Björn Eng- quist, is a world-renowned researcher in computational sci- ence and engineering. The second editor, Wilfried Schmid, is a distinguished mathematician at Harvard University. Likewi- se the authors are all foremost mathematicians and scien- tists, and their biographies and photographs appear at the end of the book. Unique in both form and content, this is a "must-read" for every mathematician and scientist and, in particular, for graduates still choosing their specialty. Limited collector's edition - an exclusive and timeless work. This special, numbered edition will be available until June 1, 2000. Firm orders only.

These are the proceedings of the NSF-CBMS Conference on "Spectral Problems in Geometry and Arithmetic" held at the University of Iowa. The principal speaker was Peter Sarnak, who has been a central contributor to developments in this field. The volume approaches the topic from the geometric, physical, and number theoretic points of view. The remarkable new connections among seemingly disparate mathematical and scientific disciplines have surprised even veterans of the physical mathematics renaissance forged by gauge theory in the 1970s. Numerical experiments show that the local spacing between zeros of the Riemann zeta function is modelled by spectral phenomena: the eigenvalue distributions of random matrix theory, in particular the Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE). Related phenomena are from the point of view of differential geometry and global harmonic analysis. Elliptic operators on manifolds have (through zeta function regularization) functional determinants, which are related to functional integrals in quantum theory. The search for critical points of this determinant brings about extremely subtle and delicate sharp inequalities of exponential type. This indicates that zeta functions are spectral objects-and even physical objects. This volume demonstrates that zeta functions are also dynamic, chaotic, and more.