This volume brings together ideas from several areas of mathematics that have traditionally been rather disparate. The conference at the Fields Institute which gave rise to these proceedings was intended to enourage such connections. One of the key interactions occurs between dynamical systems and algorithms, one example being the by now classic observation that the QR algorithm for diagonalizing matrices may be viewed as the time-1 map of the Toda lattice flow. Another link occurs with interior point methods for linear programming, where certain smooth flows associated with such programming problems have proved valuable in the analysis of the corresponding discrete problems. More recently, other smooth flows have been introduced which carry out discrete computations (such as sorting sets of numbers) and which solve certain least squares problems. Another interesting facet of the flows described here is that they often have a dual Hamiltonian and gradient structure, both of which turn out to be useful in analysing and designing algorithms for solving optimization problems. This volume explores many of these interactions, as well as related work in optimal control and partial differential equations.

This book presents the lecture notes and articles from the workshop on hydrodynamic limits held at The Fields Institute (Toronto). The first part of the book contains the notes from the mini-course given by Professor S. R. S. Varadhan. The second part contains research articles reviewing the diverse progress in the study of hydrodynamic limits and related areas. This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the theory and its techniques, including entropy and relative entropy methods, large deviation estimates, and techniques in nongradient systems. This book, especially the lectures of Part I, could be used as a text for an advanced graduate course in hydrodynamic limits and interacting particle systems.

This volume presents articles originating from invited talks at an exciting international conference held at The Fields Institute in Toronto celebrating the sixtieth birthday of the renowned mathematician, Vladimir Arnold. Experts from the world over--including several from "Arnold's school"--gave illuminating talks and lively poster sessions. The presentations focused on Arnold's main areas of interest: singularity theory, the theory of curves, symmetry groups, dynamical systems, mechanics, and related areas of mathematics. The book begins with notes of three lectures by V. Arnold given in the framework of the Institute's Distinguished Lecturer program. The topics of the lectures are: (1) From Hilbert's Superposition Problem to Dynamical Systems (2) Symplectization, Complexification, and Mathematical Trinities (3) Topological Problems in Wave Propagation Theory and Topological Economy Principle in Algebraic Geometry. Arnold's three articles include insightful comments on Russian and Western mathematics and science. Complementing the first is Jurgen Moser's "Recollections", concerning some of the history of KAM theory.

Together with the papers on the abstract operator theory are many papers on the theory of differential operators, boundary value problems, inverse scattering and other inverse problems, and on applications to biology, chemistry, wave propagation, and many other areas."--BOOK JACKET.

This book presents the proceedings from the International Conference held in Halifax, NS in July 1997. Funded by The Fields Institute and Le Centre de Recherches Mathématiques, the conference was held in honor of the retirement of Professors Lynn Erbe and Herb I. Freedman (University of Alberta). Featured topics include ordinary, partial, functional, and stochastic differential equations and their applications to biology, epidemiology, neurobiology, physiology and other related areas. The 41 papers included in this volume represent the recent work of leading researchers over a wide range of subjects, including bifurcation theory, chaos, stability theory, boundary value problems, persistence theory, neural networks, disease transmission, population dynamics, pattern formation and more. The text would be suitable for a graduate or advanced undergraduate course study in mathematical biology. Features: An overview of current developments in differential equations and mathematical biology. Authoritative contributions from over 60 leading worldwide researchers. Original, refereed contributions.

This volume presents the proceedings of a workshop on geometry, topology, and markets held at The Fields Institute. The workshop was attended by eminent mathematicians and financial and economic theorists. Using a topological approach, the volume discusses new mathematics and its applications to social sciences and financial markets. Topics addressed at the workshop included new topological invariants for existence, characterization and computation of market equilibria and their relation to social choice and to other forms of resource allocation, competitive and co-operative systems, algebraic geometry and markets with increasing returns, computational complexity, and stochastic processes and financial markets.

This volume presents the proceedings of workshops on stable homotopy theory and on unstable homotopy theory held at The Field Institute as part of the homotopy program for the year 1996. The papers in the volume describe current research in the subject, and all included works were refereed. Rather than being a summary of work to be published elsewhere, each paper is the unique source for the new material it contains. The book contains current research from international experts in the subject area, and presents open problems with directions for future research.

The study of operator algebras, which grew out of von Neumann's work in the 1920s and the 1930s on modelling quantum mechanics, has in recent years experienced tremendous growth and vitality. This growth has resulted in significant applications in other areas - both within and outside mathematics. The field was a natural candidate for a 1994-1995 program year in Operator Algebras and Applications held at The Fields Institute for Research in the Mathematical Sciences. This volume contains a selection of papers that arose from the seminars and workshops of the program. Topics covered include the classification of amenable C*-algebras, the Baum-Connes conjecture, E[subscript 0] semigroups, subfactors, E-theory, quasicrystals, and the solution to a long-standing problem in operator theory: Can almost commuting self-adjoint matrices be approximated by commuting self-adjoint matrices?

Noncommutative geometry is a new field that is among the great challenges of present-day mathematics. Its methods allow one to treat noncommutative algebras - such as algebras of pseudodifferential operators, group algebras, or algebras arising from quantum field theory - on the same footing as commutative algebras, that is, as spaces. Applications range over many fields of mathematics and mathematical physics. This volume contains the proceedings of the workshop on "Cyclic Cohomology and Noncommutative Geometry" held at the Fields Institute in June 1995.

This book contains contributions from the proceedings at The Fields Institute workshop on Special Functions, q-Series and Related Topics that was held in June 1995. The articles cover areas from quantum groups and their representations, multivariate special functions, q-series, and symbolic algebra techniques as well as the traditional areas of single-variable special functions. The book contains both pure and applied topics and reflects recent trends of research in the various areas of special functions.