This marvelous book of pictures illustrates the fundamental concepts of geometric topology in a way that is very friendly to the reader. The first chapter discusses the meaning of surface and space and gives the classification of orientable surfaces. In the second chapter we are introduced to the Möbius band and surfaces that can be constructed from this non-orientable piece of fabric. In chapter 3, we see how curves can fit in surfaces and how surfaces can fit into spaces with these curves on their boundary. Basic applications to knot theory are discussed and four-dimensional space is introduced.In Chapter 4 we learn about some 3-dimensional spaces and surfaces that sit inside them. These surfaces help us imagine the structures of the larger space.Chapter 5 is completely new! It contains recent results of Cromwell, Izumiya and Marar. One of these results is a formula relating the rank of a surface to the number of triple points. The other major result is a collection of examples of surfaces in 3-space that have one triple point and 6 branch points. These are beautiful generalizations of the Steiner Roman surface.Chapter 6 reviews the movie technique for examining surfaces in 4-dimensional space. Various movies of the Klein bottle are presented, and the Carter-Saito movie move theorem is explained. The author shows us how to turn the 2-sphere inside out by means of these movie moves and this illustration alone is well worth the price of the book!In the last chapter higher dimensional spaces are examined from an elementary point of view.This is a guide book to a wide variety of topics. It will be of value to anyone who wants to understand the subject by way of examples. Undergraduates, beginning graduate students, and non-professionals will profit from reading the book and from just looking at the pictures.

Topology is a branch of mathematics packed with intriguing concepts, fascinating geometrical objects, and ingenious methods for studying them. The authors have written this textbook to make the material accessible to undergraduate students without requiring extensive prerequisites in upper-level mathematics. The approach is to cultivate the intuitive ideas of continuity, convergence, and connectedness so students can quickly delve into knot theory, the topology of surfaces and three-dimensional manifolds, fixed points and elementary homotopy theory. The fundamental concepts of point-set topology appear at the end of the book when students can see how this level of abstraction provides a sound logical basis for the geometrical ideas that have come before. This organization exposes students to the exciting world of topology now(!) rather than later. Students using this textbook should have some exposure to the geometry of objects in higher-dimensional Euclidean spaces together with an appreciation of precise mathematical definitions and proofs.

This book is about “diamond”, a logic of paradox. In diamond, a statement can be true yet false; an “imaginary” state, midway between being and non-being. Diamond's imaginary values solve many logical paradoxes unsolvable in two-valued Boolean logic. In this volume, paradoxes by Russell, Cantor, Berry and Zeno are all resolved. This book has three sections: Paradox Logic, which covers the classic paradoxes of mathematical logic, shows how they can be resolved in this new system; The Second Paradox, which relates diamond to Boolean logic and the Spencer-Brown “modulator”; and Metamathematical Dilemma, which relates diamond to Gödelian metamathematics and dilemma games.

This book serves as a reference on links and on the invariants derived via algebraic topology from covering spaces of link exteriors. It emphasizes the features of the multicomponent case not normally considered by knot-theorists, such as longitudes, the homological complexity of many-variable Laurent polynomial rings, the fact that links are not usually boundary links, free coverings of homology boundary links, the lower central series as a source of invariants, nilpotent completion and algebraic closure of the link group, and disc links. Invariants of the types considered here play an essential role in many applications of knot theory to other areas of topology.This second edition introduces two new chapters — twisted polynomial invariants and singularities of plane curves. Each replaces brief sketches in the first edition. Chapter 2 has been reorganized, and new material has been added to four other chapters.

In this book the authors develop the theory of knotted surfaces in analogy with the classical case of knotted curves in 3-dimensional space. In the first chapter knotted surface diagrams are defined and exemplified; these are generic surfaces in 3-space with crossing information given. The diagrams are further enhanced to give alternative descriptions. A knotted surface can be described as a movie, as a kind of labeled planar graph, or as a sequence of words in which successive words are related by grammatical changes. In the second chapter, the theory of Reidemeister moves is developed in the various contexts. The authors show how to unknot intricate examples using these moves. The third chapter reviews the braid theory of knotted surfaces. Examples of the Alexander isotopy are given, and the braid movie moves are presented. In the fourth chapter, properties of the projections of knotted surfaces are studied. Oriented surfaces in 4-space are shown to have planar projections without cusps and without branch points. Signs of triple points are studied. Applications of triple-point smoothing that include proofs of triple-point formulas and a proof of Whitney's congruence on normal Euler classes are presented. The fifth chapter indicates how to obtain presentations for the fundamental group and the Alexander modules. Key examples are worked in detail. The Seifert algorithm for knotted surfaces is presented and exemplified. The sixth chapter relates knotted surfaces and diagrammatic techniques to 2-categories. Solutions to the Zamolodchikov equations that are diagrammatically obtained are presented. The book contains over 200 illustrations that illuminate the text. Examples are worked out in detail, and readers have the opportunity to learn first-hand a series of remarkable geometric techniques.

This is the second of a three-volume set collecting the original and now-classic works in topology written during the 1950s-1960s. The original methods and constructions from these works are properly documented for the first time in this book. No existing book covers the beautiful ensemble of methods created in topology starting from approximately 1950, that is, from Serre's celebrated “singular homologies of fiber spaces.”

The final volume of the three-volume edition, this book features classical papers on algebraic and differential topology published in 1950-60s. The original methods and constructions from these works are properly documented for the first time in this book. No existing book covers the beautiful ensemble of methods created in topology starting from approximately 1950. That is, from Serre's celebrated "singular homologies of fiber spaces

1. On manifolds homeomorphic to the 7-sphere / J. Milnor -- 2. Groups of homotopy spheres. I / M. Kervaire and J. Milnor -- 3. Homotopically equivalent smooth manifolds / S.P. Novikov -- 4. Rational Pontrjagin classes. Homeomorphism and homotopy type of closed manifolds / S.P. Novikov -- 5. On manifolds with free abelian fundamental group and their applications (Pontrjagin classes, smooth structures, high-dimensional knots) / S.P. Novikov -- 6. Stable homeomorphisms and the annulus conjecture / R. Kirby

This is the first of three volumes collecting the original and now classic works in topology written in the 50s-60s. The original methods and constructions from these works are properly documented for the first time in this book. No existing book covers the beautiful ensemble of methods created in topology starting from approximately 1950, that is, from Serre's celebrated “Singular homologies of fibre spaces.”This is the translation of the Russian edition published in 2005 with one entry (Milnor's lectures on the h-cobordism) omitted.

More recently, Khovanov introduced link homology as a generalization of the Jones polynomial to homology of chain complexes and Ozsvath and Szabo developed Heegaard-Floer homology, that lifts the Alexander polynomial. These two significantly different theories are closely related and the dependencies are the object of intensive study. These ideas mark the beginning of a new era in knot theory that includes relationships with four-dimensional problems and the creation of new forms of algebraic topology relevant to knot theory. The theory of skein modules is an older development also having its roots in Jones discovery. Another significant and related development is the theory of virtual knots originated independently by Kauffman and by Goussarov Polyak and Viro in the '90s. All these topics and their relationships are the subject of the survey papers in this book.