The book contains the round table reports of the first European Congress of Mathematics, a new feature of this Congress devoted to furthering the contribution of mathematics to society and reporting on its interaction with the exact and social sciences. Topics: • Mathematics and the general public • Women and mathematics • Mathematics and educational policy • Let's cultivate mathematics! • Mathematical Europe: Myth or historical reality? • Philosophie des mathématiques : pourquoi ? comment ? • Mathématiques et sciences sociales • Mathe- matics and industry • Degree harmonization and student exchange programmes • The Pythagoras programme • Collaboration with devel- oping countries • Mathematical libraries in Europe • Mathematics and economics • Mathématiques et Chimie • Mathematics in medicine and biology. This book is also available in hardcover as Volume 121 of the series Progress in Mathematics, where it forms part of the three-volume set First European Congress of Mathematics. Volumes I (Invited Lectures Part 1) and II (Invited Lectures Part 2) of this set are also available separately as Volumes 119 and 120, respectively, of Progress in Mathematics.

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

This is the first volume of the procedings of the second European Congress of Mathematics. Volume I presents the speeches delivered at the Congress, the list of lectures, and short summaries of the achievements of the prize winners. Together with volume II it contains a collection of contributions by the invited lecturers. Finally, volume II also presents reports on some of the Round Table discussions. This two-volume set thus gives an overview of the state of the art in many fields of mathematics and is therefore of interest to every professional mathematician. Contributors: Vol. I: N. Alon, L. Ambrosio, K. Astala, R. Benedetti, Ch. Bessenrodt, F. Bethuel, P. Bjørstad, E. Bolthausen, J. Bricmont, A. Kupiainen, D. Burago, L. Caporaso, U. Dierkes, I. Dynnikov, L.H. Eliasson, W.T. Gowers, H. Hedenmalm, A. Huber, J. Kaczorowski, J. Kollár, D.O. Kramkov, A.N. Shiryaev, C. Lescop, R. März. Vol. II: J. Matousek, D. McDuff, A.S. Merkurjev, V. Milman, St. Müller, T. Nowicki, E. Olivieri, E. Scoppola, V.P. Platonov, J. Pöschel, L. Polterovich , L. Pyber, N. Simányi, J.P. Solovej, A. Stipsicz, G. Tardos, J.-P. Tignol, A.P. Veselov, E. Zuazua

The relevance of commutator methods in spectral and scattering theory has been known for a long time, and numerous interesting results have been ob tained by such methods. The reader may find a description and references in the books by Putnam [Pu], Reed-Simon [RS] and Baumgartel-Wollenberg [BW] for example. A new point of view emerged around 1979 with the work of E. Mourre in which the method of locally conjugate operators was introduced. His idea proved to be remarkably fruitful in establishing detailed spectral properties of N-body Hamiltonians. A problem that was considered extremely difficult be fore that time, the proof of the absence of a singularly continuous spectrum for such operators, was then solved in a rather straightforward manner (by E. Mourre himself for N = 3 and by P. Perry, 1. Sigal and B. Simon for general N). The Mourre estimate, which is the main input of the method, also has consequences concerning the behaviour of N-body systems at large times. A deeper study of such propagation properties allowed 1. Sigal and A. Soffer in 1985 to prove existence and completeness of wave operators for N-body systems with short range interactions without implicit conditions on the potentials (for N = 3, similar results were obtained before by means of purely time-dependent methods by V. Enss and by K. Sinha, M. Krishna and P. Muthuramalingam). Our interest in commutator methods was raised by the major achievements mentioned above.

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.

This is the first volume of the proceedings of the third European Congress of Mathematics. Volume I presents the speeches delivered at the Congress, the list of lectures, and short summaries of the achievements of the prize winners as well as papers by plenary and parallel speakers. The second volume collects articles by prize winners and speakers of the mini-symposia. This two-volume set thus gives an overview of the state of the art in many fields of mathematics and is therefore of interest to every professional mathematician. Contributors: R. Ahlswede, V. Bach, V. Baladi, J. Bruna, N. Burq, X. Cabré, P.J. Cameron, Z. Chatzidakis, C. Ciliberto, G. Dal Maso, J. Denef, R. Dijkgraaf, B. Fantechi, H. Föllmer, A.B. Goncharov, A. Grigor'yan, M. Harris, R. Iturriaga, K. Johansson, K. Khanin, P. Koskela, H.W. Lenstra, Jr., F. Loeser, Y.I. Manin, N.S. Manton, Y. Meyer, I. Moerdijk, E.M. Opdam, T. Peternell, B.M.A.G. Piette, A. Reznikov, H. Schlichtkrull, B. Schmidt, K. Schmidt, C. Simó, B. Tóth, E. van den Ban, M.-F. Vignéras, O. Viro.