Lectures On Random Lozenge Tilings

This is the first book dedicated to reviewing the mathematics of random tilings of large domains on the plane.

Tiling theory provides a wonderful opportunity to illustrate both the beauty and utility of mathematics. It has all the relevant ingredients: there are stunning pictures; open problems can be stated without having to spend months providing the necessary background; and there are both deep mathematics and applications. Furthermore, tiling theory happens to be an area where many of the sub-fields of mathematics overlap. Tools can be applied from linear algebra, algebra, analysis, geometry, topology, and combinatorics. As such, it makes for an ideal capstone course for undergraduates or an introductory course for graduate students. This material can also be used for a lower-level course by skipping the more technical sections. In addition, readers from a variety of disciplines can read the book on their own to find out more about this intriguing subject. This book covers the necessary background on tilings and then delves into a variety of fascinating topics in the field, including symmetry groups, random tilings, aperiodic tilings, and quasicrystals. Although primarily focused on tilings of the Euclidean plane, the book also covers tilings of the sphere, hyperbolic plane, and Euclidean 3-space, including knotted tilings. Throughout, the book includes open problems and possible projects for students. Readers will come away with the background necessary to pursue further work in the subject.

The finite generation theorem is a major achievement of modern algebraic geometry. Based on the minimal model theory, it states that the canonical ring of an algebraic variety defined over a field of characteristic zero is a finitely generated graded ring. This graduate-level text is the first to explain this proof. It covers the progress on the minimal model theory over the last 30 years, culminating in the landmark paper on finite generation by Birkar-Cascini-Hacon-McKernan. Building up to this proof, the author presents important results and techniques that are now part of the standard toolbox of birational geometry, including Mori's bend and break method, vanishing theorems, positivity theorems and Siu's analysis on multiplier ideal sheaves. Assuming only the basics in algebraic geometry, the text keeps prerequisites to a minimum with self-contained explanations of terminology and theorems.

The first full-length book on the theme of symmetry in graphs, a fast-growing topic in algebraic graph theory.

This book for advanced graduate students and researchers discusses representations of associative algebras and their homological theory.

This book develops the theory of infinite-dimensional categories by studying the universe, or ∞-cosmos, in which they live.

This is the first self-contained exposition of the connections between symbolic dynamical systems, dimension groups and Bratteli diagrams.