Higher Homotopy Structures In Topology And Mathematical Physics

Since the work of Stasheff and Sugawara in the 1960s on recognition of loop space structures on $H$-spaces, the notion of higher homotopies has grown to be a fundamental organizing principle in homotopy theory, differential graded homological algebra and even mathematical physics. This book presents the proceedings from a conference held on the occasion of Stasheff's 60th birthday at Vassar in June 1996. It offers a collection of very high quality papers and includes some fundamental essays on topics that open new areas.

Two top experts in topology, O.Ya. Viro and D.B. Fuchs, give an up-to-date account of research in central areas of topology and the theory of Lie groups. They cover homotopy, homology and cohomology as well as the theory of manifolds, Lie groups, Grassmanians and low-dimensional manifolds. Their book will be used by graduate students and researchers in mathematics and mathematical physics.

This book is centered around higher algebraic structures stemming from the work of Murray Gerstenhaber and Jim Stasheff that are now ubiquitous in various areas of mathematics— such as algebra, algebraic topology, differential geometry, algebraic geometry, mathematical physics— and in theoretical physics such as quantum field theory and string theory. These higher algebraic structures provide a common language essential in the study of deformation quantization, theory of algebroids and groupoids, symplectic field theory, and much more. Each contribution in this volume expands on the ideas of Gerstenhaber and Stasheff. The volume is intended for post-graduate students, mathematical and theoretical physicists, and mathematicians interested in higher structures.

The study of higher categories is attracting growing interest for its many applications in topology, algebraic geometry, mathematical physics and category theory. In this highly readable book, Carlos Simpson develops a full set of homotopical algebra techniques and proposes a working theory of higher categories. Starting with a cohesive overview of the many different approaches currently used by researchers, the author proceeds with a detailed exposition of one of the most widely used techniques: the construction of a Cartesian Quillen model structure for higher categories. The fully iterative construction applies to enrichment over any Cartesian model category, and yields model categories for weakly associative n-categories and Segal n-categories. A corollary is the construction of higher functor categories which fit together to form the (n+1)-category of n-categories. The approach uses Tamsamani's definition based on Segal's ideas, iterated as in Pelissier's thesis using modern techniques due to Barwick, Bergner, Lurie and others.

Two top experts in topology, O.Ya. Viro and D.B. Fuchs, give an up-to-date account of research in central areas of topology and the theory of Lie groups. They cover homotopy, homology and cohomology as well as the theory of manifolds, Lie groups, Grassmanians and low-dimensional manifolds. Their book will be used by graduate students and researchers in mathematics and mathematical physics.

Operads are mathematical devices which describe algebraic structures of many varieties and in various categories. From their beginnings in the 1960s, they have developed to encompass such areas as combinatorics, knot theory, moduli spaces, string field theory and deformation quantization.

The significantly expanded second edition of this book combines a fascinating account of the life and work of Bernhard Riemann with a lucid discussion of current interaction between topology and physics. The author, a distinguished mathematical physicist, takes into account his own research at the Riemann archives of Göttingen University and developments over the last decade that connect Riemann with numerous significant ideas and methods reflected throughout contemporary mathematics and physics. Special attention is paid in part one to results on the Riemann–Hilbert problem and, in part two, to discoveries in field theory and condensed matter.