Crossing the boundary between differential and algebraic geometry in order to study singular spaces, this book introduces 'C∞-schemes with corners'.

Schemes in algebraic geometry can have singular points, whereas differential geometers typically focus on manifolds which are nonsingular. However, there is a class of schemes, 'C∞-schemes', which allow differential geometers to study a huge range of singular spaces, including 'infinitesimals' and infinite-dimensional spaces. These are applied in synthetic differential geometry, and derived differential geometry, the study of 'derived manifolds'. Differential geometers also study manifolds with corners. The cube is a 3-dimensional manifold with corners, with boundary the six square faces. This book introduces 'C∞-schemes with corners', singular spaces in differential geometry with good notions of boundary and corners. They can be used to define 'derived manifolds with corners' and 'derived orbifolds with corners'. These have applications to major areas of symplectic geometry involving moduli spaces of J-holomorphic curves. This work will be a welcome source of information and inspiration for graduate students and researchers working in differential or algebraic geometry.

If X is a manifold then the R-algebra C∞(X) of smooth functions c:X→R is a C∞-ring. That is, for each smooth function f:Rn→R there is an n-fold operation Φf:C∞(X)n→C∞(X) acting by Φf:(c1,…,cn)↦f(c1,…,cn), and these operations Φf satisfy many natural identities. Thus, C∞(X) actually has a far richer structure than the obvious R-algebra structure. The author explains the foundations of a version of algebraic geometry in which rings or algebras are replaced by C∞-rings. As schemes are the basic objects in algebraic geometry, the new basic objects are C∞-schemes, a category of geometric objects which generalize manifolds and whose morphisms generalize smooth maps. The author also studies quasicoherent sheaves on C∞-schemes, and C∞-stacks, in particular Deligne-Mumford C∞-stacks, a 2-category of geometric objects generalizing orbifolds. Many of these ideas are not new: C∞-rings and C∞ -schemes have long been part of synthetic differential geometry. But the author develops them in new directions. In earlier publications, the author used these tools to define d-manifolds and d-orbifolds, “derived” versions of manifolds and orbifolds related to Spivak's “derived manifolds”.

The volume develops the foundations of differential geometry so as to include finite-dimensional spaces with singularities and nilpotent functions, at the same level as is standard in the elementary theory of schemes and analytic spaces. The theory of differentiable spaces is developed to the point of providing a handy tool including arbitrary base changes (hence fibred products, intersections and fibres of morphisms), infinitesimal neighbourhoods, sheaves of relative differentials, quotients by actions of compact Lie groups and a theory of sheaves of Fréchet modules paralleling the useful theory of quasi-coherent sheaves on schemes. These notes fit naturally in the theory of C^\infinity-rings and C^\infinity-schemes, as well as in the framework of Spallek’s C^\infinity-standard differentiable spaces, and they require a certain familiarity with commutative algebra, sheaf theory, rings of differentiable functions and Fréchet spaces.

The series is aimed specifically at publishing peer reviewed reviews and contributions presented at workshops and conferences. Each volume is associated with a particular conference, symposium or workshop. These events cover various topics within pure and applied mathematics and provide up-to-date coverage of new developments, methods and applications.

Noncommutative Geometry is one of the most deep and vital research subjects of present-day Mathematics. Its development, mainly due to Alain Connes, is providing an increasing number of applications and deeper insights for instance in Foliations, K-Theory, Index Theory, Number Theory but also in Quantum Physics of elementary particles. The purpose of the Summer School in Martina Franca was to offer a fresh invitation to the subject and closely related topics; the contributions in this volume include the four main lectures, cover advanced developments and are delivered by prominent specialists.

The description of the structure of group C*-algebras is a difficult problem, but relevant to important new developments in mathematics, such as non-commutative geometry and quantum groups. Although a significant number of new methods and results have been obtained, until now they have not been available in book form. This volume provides an introduction to and presents research on the study of group C*-algebras, suitable for all levels of readers - from graduate students to professional researchers. The introduction provides the essential features of the methods used. In Part I, the author offers an elementary overview - using concrete examples-of using K-homology, BFD functors, and KK-functors to describe group C*-algebras. In Part II, he uses advanced ideas and methods from representation theory, differential geometry, and KK-theory, to explain two primary tools used to study group C*-algebras: multidimensional quantization and construction of the index of group C*-algebras through orbit methods. The structure of group C*-algebras is an important issue both from a theoretical viewpoint and in its applications in physics and mathematics. Armed with the background, tools, and research provided in Methods of Noncommutative Geometry for Group C*-Algebras, readers can continue this work and make significant contributions to perfecting the theory and solving this problem.

This volume's papers present work at the cutting edge of current research in algebraic geometry, commutative algebra, numerical analysis, and other related fields, with an emphasis on the breadth of these areas and the beneficial results obtained by the interactions between these fields. This collection of two survey articles and sixteen refereed research papers, written by experts in these fields, gives the reader a greater sense of some of the directions in which this research is moving, as well as a better idea of how these fields interact with each other and with other applied areas. The topics include blowup algebras, linkage theory, Hilbert functions, divisors, vector bundles, determinantal varieties, (square-free) monomial ideals, multiplicities and cohomological degrees, and computer vision.