Nonstandard Analysis

Considered by many to be Abraham Robinson's magnum opus, this book offers an explanation of the development and applications of non-standard analysis by the mathematician who founded the subject. Non-standard analysis grew out of Robinson's attempt to resolve the contradictions posed by infinitesimals within calculus. He introduced this new subject in a seminar at Princeton in 1960, and it remains as controversial today as it was then. This paperback reprint of the 1974 revised edition is indispensable reading for anyone interested in non-standard analysis. It treats in rich detail many areas of application, including topology, functions of a real variable, functions of a complex variable, and normed linear spaces, together with problems of boundary layer flow of viscous fluids and rederivations of Saint-Venant's hypothesis concerning the distribution of stresses in an elastic body.

Starting with a simple formulation accessible to all mathematicians, this second edition is designed to provide a thorough introduction to nonstandard analysis. Nonstandard analysis is now a well-developed, powerful instrument for solving open problems in almost all disciplines of mathematics; it is often used as a ‘secret weapon’ by those who know the technique. This book illuminates the subject with some of the most striking applications in analysis, topology, functional analysis, probability and stochastic analysis, as well as applications in economics and combinatorial number theory. The first chapter is designed to facilitate the beginner in learning this technique by starting with calculus and basic real analysis. The second chapter provides the reader with the most important tools of nonstandard analysis: the transfer principle, Keisler’s internal definition principle, the spill-over principle, and saturation. The remaining chapters of the book study different fields for applications; each begins with a gentle introduction before then exploring solutions to open problems. All chapters within this second edition have been reworked and updated, with several completely new chapters on compactifications and number theory. Nonstandard Analysis for the Working Mathematician will be accessible to both experts and non-experts, and will ultimately provide many new and helpful insights into the enterprise of mathematics.

An introduction to nonstandard analysis based on a course given by the author. It is suitable for beginning graduates or upper undergraduates, or for self-study by anyone familiar with elementary real analysis. It presents nonstandard analysis not just as a theory about infinitely small and large numbers, but as a radically different way of viewing many standard mathematical concepts and constructions. It is a source of new ideas, objects and proofs, and a wealth of powerful new principles of reasoning. The book begins with the ultrapower construction of hyperreal number systems, and proceeds to develop one-variable calculus, analysis and topology from the nonstandard perspective. It then sets out the theory of enlargements of fragments of the mathematical universe, providing a foundation for the full-scale development of the nonstandard methodology. The final chapters apply this to a number of topics, including Loeb measure theory and its relation to Lebesgue measure on the real line. Highlights include an early introduction of the ideas of internal, external and hyperfinite sets, and a more axiomatic set-theoretic approach to enlargements than is usual.

This book introduces the graduate mathematician and researcher to the effective use of nonstandard analysis (NSA). It provides a tutorial introduction to this modern theory of infinitesimals, followed by nine examples of applications, including complex analysis, stochastic differential equations, differential geometry, topology, probability, integration, and asymptotics. It ends with remarks on teaching with infinitesimals.

This concise text is based on the axiomatic internal set theory approach. Theoretical topics include idealization, standardization, and transfer, real numbers and numerical functions, continuity, differentiability, and integration. Applications cover invariant means, approximation of functions, differential equations, more. Exercises, hints, and solutions. "Mathematics teaching at its best." — European Journal of Physics. 1988 edition.

1 More than thirty years after its discovery by Abraham Robinson , the ideas and techniques of Nonstandard Analysis (NSA) are being applied across the whole mathematical spectrum,as well as constituting an im portant field of research in their own right. The current methods of NSA now greatly extend Robinson's original work with infinitesimals. However, while the range of applications is broad, certain fundamental themes re cur. The nonstandard framework allows many informal ideas (that could loosely be described as idealisation) to be made precise and tractable. For example, the real line can (in this framework) be treated simultaneously as both a continuum and a discrete set of points; and a similar dual ap proach can be used to link the notions infinite and finite, rough and smooth. This has provided some powerful tools for the research mathematician - for example Loeb measure spaces in stochastic analysis and its applications, and nonstandard hulls in Banach spaces. The achievements of NSA can be summarised under the headings (i) explanation - giving fresh insight or new approaches to established theories; (ii) discovery - leading to new results in many fields; (iii) invention - providing new, rich structures that are useful in modelling and representation, as well as being of interest in their own right. The aim of the present volume is to make the power and range of appli cability of NSA more widely known and available to research mathemati cians.

This book introduces Robinson's nonstandard analysis, an application of model theory in analysis. Unlike some texts, it does not attempt to teach elementary calculus on the basis of nonstandard analysis, but points to some applications in more advanced analysis. The contents proceed from a discussion of the preliminaries to Nonstandard Models; Nonstandard Real Analysis; Enlargements and Saturated Models; Functionals, Generalized Limits, and Additive Measures; and finally Nonstandard Topology and Functional Analysis. No background in model theory is required, although some familiarity with analysis, topology, or functional analysis is useful. This self-contained book can be understood after a basic calculus course.

In the aftermath of the discoveries in foundations of mathematiC's there was surprisingly little effect on mathematics as a whole. If one looks at stan dard textbooks in different mathematical disciplines, especially those closer to what is referred to as applied mathematics, there is little trace of those developments outside of mathematical logic and model theory. But it seems fair to say that there is a widespread conviction that the principles embodied in the Zermelo - Fraenkel theory with Choice (ZFC) are a correct description of the set theoretic underpinnings of mathematics. In most textbooks of the kind referred to above, there is, of course, no discussion of these matters, and set theory is assumed informally, although more advanced principles like Choice or sometimes Replacement are often mentioned explicitly. This implicitly fixes a point of view of the mathemat ical universe which is at odds with the results in foundations. For example most mathematicians still take it for granted that the real number system is uniquely determined up to isomorphism, which is a correct point of view as long as one does not accept to look at "unnatural" interpretations of the membership relation.