Recent advances in both the theory and implementation of computational algebraic geometry have led to new, striking applications to a variety of fields of research. The articles in this volume highlight a range of these applications and provide introductory material for topics covered in the IMA workshops on "Optimization and Control" and "Applications in Biology, Dynamics, and Statistics" held during the IMA year on Applications of Algebraic Geometry. The articles related to optimization and control focus on burgeoning use of semidefinite programming and moment matrix techniques in computational real algebraic geometry. The new direction towards a systematic study of non-commutative real algebraic geometry is well represented in the volume. Other articles provide an overview of the way computational algebra is useful for analysis of contingency tables, reconstruction of phylogenetic trees, and in systems biology. The contributions collected in this volume are accessible to non-experts, self-contained and informative; they quickly move towards cutting edge research in these areas, and provide a wealth of open problems for future research.

Combinatorics and Algebraic Geometry have enjoyed a fruitful interplay since the nineteenth century. Classical interactions include invariant theory, theta functions and enumerative geometry. The aim of this volume is to introduce recent developments in combinatorial algebraic geometry and to approach algebraic geometry with a view towards applications, such as tensor calculus and algebraic statistics. A common theme is the study of algebraic varieties endowed with a rich combinatorial structure. Relevant techniques include polyhedral geometry, free resolutions, multilinear algebra, projective duality and compactifications.

This is an volume and it containscontains several number theory contributions, most of which were written in connection to the workshop WIN6: Women in Numbers, held in March 2023, at the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The chapters comprise research outcomes from collaborations initiated during the workshop as well as other original research contributions. The volume also aims to introduce central research topics in number theory to advanced graduate students and recent PhDs. In this book, more background and details will be given than in standard journal papers.

How does an algebraic geometer studying secant varieties further the understanding of hypothesis tests in statistics? Why would a statistician working on factor analysis raise open problems about determinantal varieties? Connections of this type are at the heart of the new field of "algebraic statistics". In this field, mathematicians and statisticians come together to solve statistical inference problems using concepts from algebraic geometry as well as related computational and combinatorial techniques. The goal of these lectures is to introduce newcomers from the different camps to algebraic statistics. The introduction will be centered around the following three observations: many important statistical models correspond to algebraic or semi-algebraic sets of parameters; the geometry of these parameter spaces determines the behaviour of widely used statistical inference procedures; computational algebraic geometry can be used to study parameter spaces and other features of statistical models.

From the reviews:
"…, the book must be of great help for a researcher who already has some idea of Lie theory, wants to employ it in his everyday research and/or teaching, and needs a source for customary reference on the subject. From my viewpoint, the volume is perfectly fit to serve as such a source, … On the whole, it is quite a pleasure, after making yourself comfortable in that favourite office armchair of yours, just to keep the volume gently in your hands and browse it slowly and thoughtfully; and after all, what more on Earth can one expect of any book?"

This book, the first printing of which was published as volume 38 of the Encyclopaedia of Mathematical Sciences, presents a modern approach to homological algebra, based on the systematic use of the terminology and ideas of derived categories and derived functors. The book contains applications of homological algebra to the theory of sheaves on topological spaces, to Hodge theory, and to the theory of modules over rings of algebraic differential operators (algebraic D-modules). The authors Gelfand and Manin explain all the main ideas of the theory of derived categories. Both authors are well-known researchers and the second, Manin, is famous for his work in algebraic geometry and mathematical physics. The book is an excellent reference for graduate students and researchers in mathematics and also for physicists who use methods from algebraic geometry and algebraic topology.

Starting with the end of the seventeenth century, one of the most interesting directions in mathematics (attracting the attention as J. Bernoulli, Euler, Jacobi, Legendre, Abel, among others) has been the study of integrals of the form r dz l Aw(T) = -, TO W where w is an algebraic function of z. Such integrals are now called abelian. Let us examine the simplest instance of an abelian integral, one where w is defined by the polynomial equation (1) where the polynomial on the right hand side has no multiple roots. In this case the function Aw is called an elliptic integral. The value of Aw is determined up to mv + nv , where v and v are complex numbers, and m and n are 1 2 1 2 integers. The set of linear combinations mv+ nv forms a lattice H C C, and 1 2 so to each elliptic integral Aw we can associate the torus C/ H. 2 On the other hand, equation (1) defines a curve in the affine plane C = 2 2 {(z,w)}. Let us complete C2 to the projective plane lP' = lP' (C) by the addition of the "line at infinity", and let us also complete the curve defined 2 by equation (1). The result will be a nonsingular closed curve E C lP' (which can also be viewed as a Riemann surface). Such a curve is called an elliptic curve.

In the first volume of this survey (Arnol'd et al. (1988), hereafter cited as "EMS 6") we acquainted the reader with the basic concepts and methods of the theory of singularities of smooth mappings and functions. This theory has numerous applications in mathematics and physics; here we begin describing these applica­ tions. Nevertheless the present volume is essentially independent of the first one: all of the concepts of singularity theory that we use are introduced in the course of the presentation, and references to EMS 6 are confined to the citation of technical results. Although our main goal is the presentation of analready formulated theory, the readerwill also come upon some comparatively recent results, apparently unknown even to specialists. We pointout some of these results. 2 3 In the consideration of mappings from C into C in§ 3. 6 of Chapter 1, we define the bifurcation diagram of such a mapping, formulate a K(n, 1)-theorem for the complements to the bifurcation diagrams of simple singularities, give the definition of the Mond invariant N in the spirit of "hunting for invariants", and we draw the reader's attention to a method of constructing the image of a mapping from the corresponding function on a manifold with boundary. In§ 4. 6 of the same chapter we introduce the concept of a versal deformation of a function with a nonisolated singularity in the dass of functions whose critical sets are arbitrary complete intersections of fixed dimension.

Plurisubharmonic functions playa major role in the theory of functions of several complex variables. The extensiveness of plurisubharmonic functions, the simplicity of their definition together with the richness of their properties and. most importantly, their close connection with holomorphic functions have assured plurisubharmonic functions a lasting place in multidimensional complex analysis. (Pluri)subharmonic functions first made their appearance in the works of Hartogs at the beginning of the century. They figure in an essential way, for example, in the proof of the famous theorem of Hartogs (1906) on joint holomorphicity. Defined at first on the complex plane IC, the class of subharmonic functions became thereafter one of the most fundamental tools in the investigation of analytic functions of one or several variables. The theory of subharmonic functions was developed and generalized in various directions: subharmonic functions in Euclidean space IRn, plurisubharmonic functionsin complex space en and others. Subharmonic functions and the foundations ofthe associated classical poten­ tial theory are sufficiently well exposed in the literature, and so we introduce here only a few fundamental results which we require. More detailed expositions can be found in the monographs of Privalov (1937), Brelot (1961), and Landkof (1966). See also Brelot (1972), where a history of the development of the theory of subharmonic functions is given.

This is the second volume of the new subseries "Invariant Theory and Algebraic Transformation Groups". The aim of the survey by A. Bialynicki-Birula is to present the main trends and achievements of research in the theory of quotients by actions of algebraic groups. This theory contains geometric invariant theory with various applications to problems of moduli theory. The contribution by J. Carrell treats the subject of torus actions on algebraic varieties, giving a detailed exposition of many of the cohomological results one obtains from having a torus action with fixed points. Many examples, such as toric varieties and flag varieties, are discussed in detail. W.M. McGovern studies the actions of a semisimple Lie or algebraic group on its Lie algebra via the adjoint action and on itself via conjugation. His contribution focuses primarily on nilpotent orbits that have found the widest application to representation theory in the last thirty-five years.