Libros de Estudios generales, página 14 de 183

El sistema de los números complejos.- Funciones de variable compleja.- Derivaciones e integración de funciones de variable compleja.- Series complejas.- El teorema de los residuos.- Transformaciones conformes.- Ecuaciones derivadas parciales de segundo orden.- Transformada de Fourier.- Datos Biograficos.

Today complex numbers have such widespread practical use--from electrical engineering to aeronautics--that few people would expect the story behind their derivation to be filled with adventure and enigma. In An Imaginary Tale, Paul Nahin tells the 2000-year-old history of one of mathematics' most elusive numbers, the square root of minus one, also known as i. He recreates the baffling mathematical problems that conjured it up, and the colorful characters who tried to solve them. In 1878, when two brothers stole a mathematical papyrus from the ancient Egyptian burial site in the Valley of Kings, they led scholars to the earliest known occurrence of the square root of a negative number. The papyrus offered a specific numerical example of how to calculate the volume of a truncated square pyramid, which implied the need for i. In the first century, the mathematician-engineer Heron of Alexandria encountered I in a separate project, but fudged the arithmetic; medieval mathematicians stumbled upon the concept while grappling with the meaning of negative numbers, but dismissed their square roots as nonsense.By the time of Descartes, a theoretical use for these elusive square roots--now called "imaginary numbers"--was suspected, but efforts to solve them led to intense, bitter debates. The notorious i finally won acceptance and was put to use in complex analysis and theoretical physics in Napoleonic times. Addressing readers with both a general and scholarly interest in mathematics, Nahin weaves into this narrative entertaining historical facts and mathematical discussions, including the application of complex numbers and functions to important problems, such as Kepler's laws of planetary motion and ac electrical circuits. This book can be read as an engaging history, almost a biography, of one of the most evasive and pervasive "numbers" in all of mathematics.

Martin J OsborneAn exposition of modern game theory suitable for advanced undergraduates. The book emphasizes the ideas behind the theory rather than their mathematical expression, but defines all concepts precisely. It covers strategic, extensive and coalitional games and includes the topics of repeated games, bargaining theory and evolutionary equilibrium.

First published in 1968, An Introduction to Harmonic Analysis has firmly established itself as a classic text and a favorite for students and experts alike. Professor Katznelson starts the book with an exposition of classical Fourier series. The aim is to demonstrate the central ideas of harmonic analysis in a concrete setting, and to provide a stock of examples to foster a clear understanding of the theory. Once these ideas are established, the author goes on to show that the scope of harmonic analysis extends far beyond the setting of the circle group, and he opens the door to other contexts by considering Fourier transforms on the real line as well as a brief look at Fourier analysis on locally compact abelian groups. This new edition has been revised by the author, to include several new sections and a new appendix.