Proceedings of the BB Fest 96, a conference held at the University of Cape Town, 15-20 July 1996, on Category Theory and its Applications to Topology, Order and Algebra

This third volume in Vladimir Tkachuk's series on Cp-theory problems applies all modern methods of Cp-theory to study compactness-like properties in function spaces and introduces the reader to the theory of compact spaces widely used in Functional Analysis. The text is designed to bring a dedicated reader from basic topological principles to the frontiers of modern research covering a wide variety of topics in Cp-theory and general topology at the professional level. The first volume, Topological and Function Spaces © 2011, provided an introduction from scratch to Cp-theory and general topology, preparing the reader for a professional understanding of Cp-theory in the last section of its main text. The second volume, Special Features of Function Spaces © 2014, continued from the first, giving reasonably complete coverage of Cp-theory, systematically introducing each of the major topics and providing 500 carefully selected problems and exercises with complete solutions. This third volume is self-contained and works in tandem with the other two, containing five hundred carefully selected problems and solutions. It can also be considered as an introduction to advanced set theory and descriptive set theory, presenting diverse topics of the theory of function spaces with the topology of point wise convergence, or Cp-theory which exists at the intersection of topological algebra, functional analysis and general topology.

The book presents surveys describing recent developments in most of the primary subfields of General Topology and its applications to Algebra and Analysis during the last decade. It follows freely the previous edition (North Holland, 1992), Open Problems in Topology (North Holland, 1990) and Handbook of Set-Theoretic Topology (North Holland, 1984). The book was prepared in connection with the Prague Topological Symposium, held in 2001. During the last 10 years the focus in General Topology changed and therefore the selection of topics differs slightly from those chosen in 1992. The following areas experienced significant developments: Topological Groups, Function Spaces, Dimension Theory, Hyperspaces, Selections, Geometric Topology (including Infinite-Dimensional Topology and the Geometry of Banach Spaces). Of course, not every important topic could be included in this book. Except surveys, the book contains several historical essays written by such eminent topologists as: R.D. Anderson, W.W. Comfort, M. Henriksen, S. Mardeŝić, J. Nagata, M.E. Rudin, J.M. Smirnov (several reminiscences of L. Vietoris are added). In addition to extensive author and subject indexes, a list of all problems and questions posed in this book are added. List of all authors of surveys: A. Arhangel'skii, J. Baker and K. Kunen, H. Bennett and D. Lutzer, J. Dijkstra and J. van Mill, A. Dow, E. Glasner, G. Godefroy, G. Gruenhage, N. Hindman and D. Strauss, L. Hola and J. Pelant, K. Kawamura, H.-P. Kuenzi, W. Marciszewski, K. Martin and M. Mislove and M. Reed, R. Pol and H. Torunczyk, D. Repovs and P. Semenov, D. Shakhmatov, S. Solecki, M. Tkachenko.

The purpose of this collection is to guide the non-specialist through the basic theory of various generalizations of topology, starting with clear motivations for their introduction. Structures considered include closure spaces, convergence spaces, proximity spaces, quasi-uniform spaces, merotopic spaces, nearness and filter spaces, semi-uniform convergence spaces, and approach spaces. Each chapter is self-contained and accessible to the graduate student, and focuses on motivations to introduce the generalization of topologies considered, presenting examples where desirable properties are not present in the realm of topologies and the problem is remedied in the more general context. Then, enough material will be covered to prepare the reader for more advanced papers on the topic. While category theory is not the focus of the book, it is a convenient language to study these structures and, while kept as a tool rather than an object of study, will be used throughout the book. For this reason, the book contains an introductory chapter on categorical topology.

The Handbook of Categorical Algebra is designed to give, in three volumes, a detailed account of what should be known by everybody working in, or using, category theory. As such it will be a unique reference. The volumes are written in sequence, with the first being essentially self-contained, and are accessible to graduate students with a good background in mathematics. In particular, Volume 1, which is devoted to general concepts, can be used for advanced undergraduate courses on category theory.