Reprinted as it originally appeared in the 1990s, this work is as an affordable text that will be of interest to a range of researchers in geometric analysis and mathematical physics. The book covers a variety of concepts fundamental to the study and applications of the spin-c Dirac operator, making use of the heat kernels theory of Berline, Getzlet, and Vergne. True to the precision and clarity for which J.J. Duistermaat was so well known, the exposition is elegant and concise.

When visiting M.I.T. for two weeks in October 1994, Victor Guillemin made me enthusiastic about a problem in symplectic geometry which involved the use of the so-called spin-c Dirac operator. Back in Berkeley, where I had l spent a sabbatical semester , I tried to understand the basic facts about this operator: its definition, the main theorems about it, and their proofs. This book is an outgrowth of the notes in which I worked this out. For me this was a great learning experience because of the many beautiful mathematical structures which are involved. I thank the Editorial Board of Birkhauser, especially Haim Brezis, for sug gesting the publication of these notes as a book. I am also very grateful for the suggestions by the referees, which have led to substantial improvements in the presentation. Finally I would like to express special thanks to Ann Kostant for her help and her prodding me, in her charming way, into the right direction. J.J. Duistermaat Utrecht, October 16, 1995.

This volume marks the twentieth anniversary of the Bialowieza series of meetings on Differential Geometric Methods in Physics; the anniversary meeting was held during July 1OCo7, 2001. The Bialowieza meetings, held every year during the first week of July, have now grown into an annual pilgrimage for an international group of physicists and mathematicians. The topics discussed at the meetings, while within the broad area of differential geometric methods in physics, have focused around quantization, coherent states, infinite dimensional systems, symplectic geometry, spectral theory and harmonic analysis. The present volume brings together a set of specially invited papers from leading experts in the various fields, who have contributed to these meetings and whose work represents a cross-section of the topics discussed. Consequently, rather than a proceedings volume, this book embodies the spirit of the Bialowieza workshops and reflects their scientific tenor, as a tribute to the completion of two decades of a shared scientific experience. This book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students working in the area of differential geometric methods in physics, as it gives interesting glimpses into the present state of the art from different points of view."

This book publishes papers originally presented at a conference on the Mathematical Aspects of Orbifold String Theory, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It contains a great deal of information not fully covered in the published literature and showcases the current state of the art in orbital string theory. The subject of orbifolds has a long prehistory, going back to the work of Thurston and Haefliger, with roots in the theory of manifolds, group actions, and foliations. The recent explosion of activity on the topic has been powered by applications of orbifolds to moduli problems and quantum field theory. The present volume presents an interdisciplinary look at orbifold problems. Topics such as stacks, vertex operator algebras, branes, groupoids, K-theory and quantum cohomology are discussed. The book reflects the thinking of distinguished investigators working in the areas of mathematical physics, algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, symplectic geometry and representation theory. By presenting the work of a broad range of mathematicians and physicists who use and study orbifolds, it familiarizes readers with the various points of view and types of results the researchers bring to the subject.

The 12 papers are from various meeting of the seminar, which has met regularly since 1989. They discuss the quantization of symplectic orbitfolds and group actions; Hamiltonian dynamical systems without period orbits; the stabilization of symplectic inequalities and applications; Engel deformations and contact structures; quantum products for mapping tori and the Atiya-Floer conjecture; the cohomology rings of Hamiltonian T-spaces; symmetric spaces, Kahler geometry, and Hamiltonian dynamics; the mirror formula for quintic threefolds; the virtual moduli cycle; Floer homology, Novikov rings, and complete intersections; surgery, quantum cohomology, and birational geometry; and group symplectic automorphisms. They are not indexed. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

The Białowieża workshops on Geometric Methods in Physics, taking place in the unique environment of the Białowieża natural forest in Poland, are among the important meetings in the field. Every year some 80 to 100 participants both from mathematics and physics join to discuss new developments and to interchange ideas. The current volume was produced on the occasion of the XXXI meeting in 2012. For the first time the workshop was followed by a School on Geometry and Physics, which consisted of advanced lectures for graduate students and young researchers. Selected speakers of the workshop were asked to contribute, and additional review articles were added. The selection shows that despite its now long tradition the workshop remains always at the cutting edge of ongoing research. The XXXI workshop had as a special topic the works of the late Boris Vasilievich Fedosov (1938–2011) who is best known for a simple and very natural construction of a deformation quantization for any symplectic manifold, and for his contributions to index theory.​

The Monge-Ampère equation has attracted considerable interest in recent years because of its important role in several areas of applied mathematics. Monge-Ampère type equations have applications in the areas of differential geometry, the calculus of variations, and several optimization problems, such as the Monge-Kantorovitch mass transfer problem. This book stresses the geometric aspects of this beautiful theory, using techniques from harmonic analysis – covering lemmas and set decompositions.

This volume offers an introduction to recent developments in several active topics of research at the interface between geometry, topology and quantum field theory. These include Hopf algebras underlying renormalization schemes in quantum field theory, noncommutative geometry with applications to index theory on one hand and the study of aperiodic solids on the other, geometry and topology of low dimensional manifolds with applications to topological field theory, Chern-Simons supergravity and the anti de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence. It comprises seven lectures organized around three main topics, noncommutative geometry, topological field theory, followed by supergravity and string theory, complemented by some short communications by young participants of the school.