This book recounts the connections between multidimensional hypergeometric functions and representation theory. In 1984, physicists Knizhnik and Zamolodchikov discovered a fundamental differential equation describing correlation functions in conformal field theory. The equation is defined in terms of a Lie algebra. Kohno and Drinfeld found that the monodromy of the differential equation is described in terms of the quantum group associated with the Lie algebra. It turns out that this phenomenon is the tip of the iceberg. The Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov differential equation is solved in multidimensional hypergeometric functions, and the hypergeometric functions yield the connection between the representation theories of Lie algebras and quantum groups. The topics presented in this book are not adequately covered in periodicals.

This book recounts the connections between multidimensional hypergeometric functions and representation theory. In 1984, physicists Knizhnik and Zamolodchikov discovered a fundamental differential equation describing correlation functions in conformal field theory. The equation is defined in terms of a Lie algebra. Kohno and Drinfeld found that the monodromy of the differential equation is described in terms of the quantum group associated with the Lie algebra. It turns out that this phenomenon is the tip of the iceberg. The Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov differential equation is solved in multidimensional hypergeometric functions, and the hypergeometric functions yield the connection between the representation theories of Lie algebras and quantum groups. The topics presented in this book are not adequately covered in periodicals.

The last twenty years have seen an active interaction between mathematics and physics. This book is devoted to one of the new areas which deals with mathematical structures related to conformal field theory and its sqs-deformations. In the book, the author discusses the interplay between Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov type equations, the Bethe ansatz method, representation theory, and geometry of multi-dimensional hypergeometric functions. This book aims to provide an introduction to the area and expose different facets of the subject. It contains constructions, discussions of notions, statements of main results, and illustrative examples. The exposition is restricted to the simplest case of the theory associated with the Lie algebra s\mathfrak{sl 2s. This book is intended for researchers and graduate students in mathematics and in mathematical physics, in particular to those interested in applications of special functions.

The book gathers the lectures given at the C.I.M.E. summer school "Quantum Cohomology" held in Cetraro (Italy) from June 30th to July 8th, 1997. The lectures and the subsequent updating cover a large spectrum of the subject on the field, from the algebro-geometric point of view, to the symplectic approach, including recent developments of string-branes theories and q-hypergeometric functions.

This volume presents contributions by leading experts in the field. The articles are dedicated to D.B. Fuchs on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Contributors to the book were directly influenced by Professor Fuchs, and include his students, friends, and professional colleagues. In addition to their research, they offer personal reminicences about Professor Fuchs, giving insight into the history of Russian mathematics.

This volume contains the proceedings of the AMS Special Session on Representations of Lie Algebras, Quantum Groups and Related Topics, held from November 12–13, 2016, at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina. The articles cover various aspects of representations of Kac–Moody Lie algebras and their applications, structure of Leibniz algebras and Krichever–Novikov algebras, representations of quantum groups, and related topics.

The second edition of this book incorporates, as its first part, the largely unchanged text of the first edition, while its second part is the collection of lectures on vertex algebras, delivered by Professor Kac at the TIFR in January 2003. The basic idea of these lectures was to demonstrate how the key notions of the theory of vertex algebras--such as quantum fields, their normal ordered product and lambda-bracket, energy-momentum field and conformal weight, untwisted and twisted representations--simplify and clarify the constructions of the first edition of the book. -- Cover.

The theory of vertex operator algebras and their representations has been showing its power in the solution of concrete mathematical problems and in the understanding of conceptual but subtle mathematical and physical struc- tures of conformal field theories. Much of the recent progress has deep connec- tions with complex analysis and conformal geometry. Future developments, especially constructions and studies of higher-genus theories, will need a solid geometric theory of vertex operator algebras. Back in 1986, Manin already observed in Man) that the quantum theory of (super )strings existed (in some sense) in two entirely different mathematical fields. Under canonical quantization this theory appeared to a mathematician as the representation theories of the Heisenberg, Vir as oro and affine Kac- Moody algebras and their superextensions. Quantization with the help of the Polyakov path integral led on the other hand to the analytic theory of algebraic (super ) curves and their moduli spaces, to invariants of the type of the analytic curvature, and so on.He pointed out further that establishing direct mathematical connections between these two forms of a single theory was a big and important problem. On the one hand, the theory of vertex operator algebras and their repre- sentations unifies (and considerably extends) the representation theories of the Heisenberg, Virasoro and Kac-Moody algebras and their superextensions.

This is the first Supplementary volume to Kluwer's highly acclaimed Encyclopaedia of Mathematics. This additional volume contains nearly 600 new entries written by experts and covers developments and topics not included in the already published 10-volume set. These entries have been arranged alphabetically throughout. A detailed index is included in the book. This Supplementary volume enhances the existing 10-volume set. Together, these eleven volumes represent the most authoritative, comprehensive up-to-date Encyclopaedia of Mathematics available.

This is the second of three volumes that form the Encyclopedia of Special Functions, an extensive update of the Bateman Manuscript Project. Volume 2 covers multivariable special functions. When the Bateman project appeared, study of these was in an early stage, but revolutionary developments began to be made in the 1980s and have continued ever since. World-renowned experts survey these over the course of 12 chapters, each containing an extensive bibliography. The reader encounters different perspectives on a wide range of topics, from Dunkl theory, to Macdonald theory, to the various deep generalizations of classical hypergeometric functions to the several variables case, including the elliptic level. Particular attention is paid to the close relation of the subject with Lie theory, geometry, mathematical physics and combinatorics.