The purpose of this unique book is to establish purely algebraic foundations for the development of certain parts of topology. Some topologists seek to understand geometric properties of solutions to finite systems of equations or inequalities and configurations which in some sense actually occur in the real world. Others study spaces constructed more abstractly using infinite limit processes. Their goal is to determine just how similar or different these abstract spaces are from those which are finitely described. However, as topology is usually taught, even the first, more concrete type of problem is approached using the language and methods of the second type. Professor Brumfiel's thesis is that this is unnecessary and, in fact, misleading philosophically. He develops a type of algebra, partially ordered rings, in which it makes sense to talk about solutions of equations and inequalities and to compare geometrically the resulting spaces. The importance of this approach is primarily that it clarifies the sort of geometrical questions one wants to ask and answer about those spaces which might have physical significance.

The book lays algebraic foundations for real geometry through a systematic investigation of partially ordered rings of semi-algebraic functions. Real spectra serve as primary geometric objects, the maps between them are determined by rings of functions associated with the spectra. The many different possible choices for these rings of functions are studied via reflections of partially ordered rings. Readers should feel comfortable using basic algebraic and categorical concepts. As motivational background some familiarity with real geometry will be helpful. The book aims at researchers and graduate students with an interest in real algebra and geometry, ordered algebraic structures, topology and rings of continuous functions.

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.

Ten years after the first Rennes international meeting on real algebraic geometry, the second one looked at the developments in the subject during the intervening decade - see the 6 survey papers listed below. Further contributions from the participants on recent research covered real algebra and geometry, topology of real algebraic varieties and 16thHilbert problem, classical algebraic geometry, techniques in real algebraic geometry, algorithms in real algebraic geometry, semialgebraic geometry, real analytic geometry. CONTENTS: Survey papers: M. Knebusch: Semialgebraic topology in the last ten years.- R. Parimala: Algebraic and topological invariants of real algebraic varieties.- Polotovskii, G.M.: On the classification of decomposing plane algebraic curves.- Scheiderer, C.: Real algebra and its applications to geometry in the last ten years: some major developments and results.- Shustin, E.L.: Topology of real plane algebraic curves.- Silhol, R.: Moduli problems in real algebraic geometry. Further contributions by: S. Akbulut and H. King; C. Andradas and J. Ruiz; A. Borobia; L. Br|cker; G.W. Brumfield; A. Castilla; Z. Charzynski and P. Skibinski; M. Coste and M. Reguiat; A. Degtyarev; Z. Denkowska; J.-P. Francoise and F. Ronga; J.M. Gamboa and C. Ueno; D. Gondard- Cozette; I.V. Itenberg; P. Jaworski; A. Korchagin; T. Krasinksi and S. Spodzieja; K. Kurdyka; H. Lombardi; M. Marshall and L. Walter; V.F. Mazurovskii; G. Mikhalkin; T. Mostowski and E. Rannou; E.I. Shustin; N. Vorobjov.

Locally semialgebraic spaces serve as an appropriate framework for studying the topological properties of varieties and semialgebraic sets over a real closed field. This book contributes to the fundamental theory of semialgebraic topology and falls into two main parts. The first dealswith sheaves and their cohomology on spaces which locally look like a constructible subset of a real spectrum. Topics like families of support, homotopy, acyclic sheaves, base-change theorems and cohomological dimension are considered. In the second part a homology theory for locally complete locally semialgebraic spaces over a real closed field is developed, the semialgebraic analogue of classical Bore-Moore-homology. Topics include fundamental classes of manifolds and varieties, Poincare duality, extensions of the base field and a comparison with the classical theory. Applying semialgebraic Borel-Moore-homology, a semialgebraic ("topological") approach to intersection theory on varieties over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero is given. The book is addressed to researchers and advanced students in real algebraic geometry and related areas.

This ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF MA THEMA TICS aims to be a reference work for all parts of mathe matics. It is a translation with updates and editorial comments of the Soviet Mathematical Encyclopaedia published by 'Soviet Encyclopaedia Publishing House' in five volumes in 1977-1985. The annotated translation consists of ten volumes including a special index volume. There are three kinds of articles in this ENCYCLOPAEDIA. First of all there are survey-type articles dealing with the various main directions in mathematics (where a rather fine subdivi sion has been used). The main requirement for these articles has been that they should give a reasonably complete up-to-date account of the current state of affairs in these areas and that they should be maximally accessible. On the whole, these articles should be understandable to mathematics students in their first specialization years, to graduates from other mathematical areas and, depending on the specific subject, to specialists in other domains of science, en gineers and teachers of mathematics. These articles treat their material at a fairly general level and aim to give an idea of the kind of problems, techniques and concepts involved in the area in question. They also contain background and motivation rather than precise statements of precise theorems with detailed definitions and technical details on how to carry out proofs and constructions. The second kind of article, of medium length, contains more detailed concrete problems, results and techniques.

The papers collected here present an up-to-date record of the current research developments in the fields of real algebraic geometry and quadratic forms. Articles range from the technical to the expository and there are also indications to new research directions.

Dieses Buch will dem Leser eine Einführung in wichtige Techniken und Methoden der heutigen reellen Algebra und Geometrie vermitteln. An Voraussetzungen werden dabei nur Grundkenntnisse der Algebra erwartet, so daß das Buch für Studenten mittlerer Semester geeignet ist.Das erste Kapitel enthält zunächst grundlegende Fakten über angeordnete Körper und ihre reellen Abschlüsse und behandelt dann verschiedene Methoden zur Bestimmung der Anzahl reeller Nullstellen von Polynomen. Das zweite Kapitel befaßt sich mit reellen Stellen und gipfelt in Artins Lösung des 17. Hilbertschen Problems. Kapitel III schließlich ist dem noch jungen Begriff des reellen Spektrums und seinen Anwendungen gewidmet."Neben dem 1987 erschienenen "Géometrie algébrique réelle" von J. Bochnak-M. Coste- M. Roy stellt die vorliegende Monographie das erste Lehrbuch auf diesem Gebiet dar... Damit liegt eine sehr empfehlenswerte Einführung...vor..." (H. Mitsch, Monatshefte für Mathematik 3/111, 1991)