Israel M. Gel'fand

"This book revives and vastly expands the classical theory of resultants and discriminants. Most of the main new results of the book have been published earlier in more than a dozen joint papers of the authors. The book nicely complements these original papers with many examples illustrating both old and new results of the theory."—Mathematical Reviews "Collecting and extending the fundamental and highly original results of the authors, it presents a unique blend of classical mathematics and very recent developments in algebraic geometry, homological algebra, and combinatorial theory." —Zentralblatt Math "This book is highly recommended if you want to get into the thick of contemporary algebra, or if you wish to find some interesting problem to work on, whose solution will benefit mankind." —Gian-Carlo Rota, Advanced Book Reviews "…the book is almost perfectly written, and thus I warmly recommend it not only to scholars but especially to students. The latter do need a text with broader views, which shows that mathematics is not just a sequence of apparently unrelated expositions of new theories, … but instead a very huge and intricate building whose edification may sometimes experience difficulties … but eventually progresses steadily." —Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society

Introduction. Prerequisites and Preliminaries; 1. Groups; 2. The Structure of Groups; 3. Rings; 4. Modules; 5. Fields and Galois Theory; 6. The Structure of Fields; 7. Linear Algebra; 8. Commutative Rings and Modules; 9. The Structure of Rings; 10. Categories; List of Symbols; Bibliography; Index.

Dedicated to the memory of Chih-Han Sah, this volume continues a long tradition of one of the most influential mathematical seminars of this century. A number of topics are covered, including combinatorial geometry, connections between logic and geometry, Lie groups, algebras and their representations. An additional area of importance is noncommutative algebra and geometry, and its relations to modern physics. Distinguished mathematicians contributing to this work: T.V. Alekseevskaya V. Kac A.V. Borovik A. Kazarnovsky-Krol C.-H. Sah M. Kontsevich G. Cherlin A. Radul J.L. Dupont A.L. Rosenberg I.M. Gelfand N. White The Gelfand Mathematical Seminar volumes stimulate the birth of significant ideas in contemporary mathematics and remain invaluable reference material. indicates deceased contributor (Production: please ensure that appropriate symbol be incorporated onto the final back cover design).

"A tribute to the vision and legacy of Israel Moiseevich Gelfand, the invited papers in this volume reflect the unity of mathematics as a whole, with particular emphasis on the many connections among the fields of geometry, physics, and representation theory. Written by leading mathematicians, the text is broadly divided into two sections: the first is devoted to developments at the intersection of geometry and physics, and the second to representation theory and algebraic geometry. Topics include conformal field theory, K-theory, noncommutative geometry, gauge theory, representations of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras, and various aspects of the Langlands program. Graduate students and researchers will benefit from and find inspiration in this broad and unique work, which brings together fundamental results in a number of disciplines and highlights the rewards of an interdisciplinary approach to mathematics and physics."--Publisher's website.

These two volumes contain eighteen invited papers by distinguished mathematicians in honor of the eightieth birthday of Israel M. Gelfand, one of the most remarkable mathematicians of our time. Gelfand has played a crucial role in the development of functional analysis during the last half-century. His work and his philosophy have in fact helped shape our understanding of the term 'functional analysis'. The papers in these volumes largely concern areas in which Gelfand has a very strong interest today, including geometric quantum field theory, representation theory, combinatorial structures underlying various 'continuous' constructions, quantum groups and geometry. The second of the two volumes contains the somewhat more 'geometric' papers, although such a designation is to a certain extent arbitrary, because of the breadth of the papers.