Surfaces in 4-Space, written by leading specialists in the field, discusses knotted surfaces in 4-dimensional space and surveys many of the known results in the area. Results on knotted surface diagrams, constructions of knotted surfaces, classically defined invariants, and new invariants defined via quandle homology theory are presented. The last chapter comprises many recent results, and techniques for computation are presented. New tables of quandles with a few elements and the homology groups thereof are included. This book contains many new illustrations of knotted surface diagrams. The reader of the book will become intimately aware of the subtleties in going from the classical case of knotted circles in 3-space to this higher dimensional case. As a survey, the book is a guide book to the extensive literature on knotted surfaces and will become a useful reference for graduate students and researchers in mathematics and physics.

This marvelous book of pictures illustrates the fundamental concepts of geometric topology in a way that is very friendly to the reader. It will be of value to anyone who wants to understand the subject by way of examples. Undergraduates, beginning graduate students, and non-professionals will profit from reading the book and from just looking at the pictures.

The goal of the book is to present a tapestry of ideas from various areas of mathematics in a clear and rigorous yet informal and friendly way. Prerequisites include undergraduate courses in real analysis and in linear algebra, and some knowledge of complex analysis. --from publisher description.

In this book the authors develop the theory of knotted surfaces in analogy with the classical case of knotted curves in 3-dimensional space. In the first chapter knotted surface diagrams are defined and exemplified; these are generic surfaces in 3-space with crossing information given. The diagrams are further enhanced to give alternative descriptions. A knotted surface can be described as a movie, as a kind of labeled planar graph, or as a sequence of words in which successive words are related by grammatical changes. In the second chapter, the theory of Reidemeister moves is developed in the various contexts. The authors show how to unknot intricate examples using these moves. The third chapter reviews the braid theory of knotted surfaces. Examples of the Alexander isotopy are given, and the braid movie moves are presented. In the fourth chapter, properties of the projections of knotted surfaces are studied. Oriented surfaces in 4-space are shown to have planar projections without cusps and without branch points. Signs of triple points are studied. Applications of triple-point smoothing that include proofs of triple-point formulas and a proof of Whitney's congruence on normal Euler classes are presented. The fifth chapter indicates how to obtain presentations for the fundamental group and the Alexander modules. Key examples are worked in detail. The Seifert algorithm for knotted surfaces is presented and exemplified. The sixth chapter relates knotted surfaces and diagrammatic techniques to 2-categories. Solutions to the Zamolodchikov equations that are diagrammatically obtained are presented. The book contains over 200 illustrations that illuminate the text. Examples are worked out in detail, and readers have the opportunity to learn first-hand a series of remarkable geometric techniques.

Mapping class groups and moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces were the topics of the Graduate Summer School at the 2011 IAS/Park City Mathematics Institute. This book presents the nine different lecture series comprising the summer school, covering a selection of topics of current interest. The introductory courses treat mapping class groups and Teichmüller theory. The more advanced courses cover intersection theory on moduli spaces, the dynamics of polygonal billiards and moduli spaces, the stable cohomology of mapping class groups, the structure of Torelli groups, and arithmetic mapping class groups. The courses consist of a set of intensive short lectures offered by leaders in the field, designed to introduce students to exciting, current research in mathematics. These lectures do not duplicate standard courses available elsewhere. The book should be a valuable resource for graduate students and researchers interested in the topology, geometry and dynamics of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces and related topics. Titles in this series are co-published with the Institute for Advanced Study/Park City Mathematics Institute. Members of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) receive a 20% discount from list price.

Offers a focused point of view on the differential geometry of curves and surfaces. This monograph treats the Gauss - Bonnet theorem and discusses the Euler characteristic. It also covers Alexandrov's theorem on embedded compact surfaces in R3 with constant mean curvature.

In the second half of the twentieth century the global theory of minimal surface in flat space had an unexpected and rapid blossoming. Some of the classical problems were solved and new classes of minimal surfaces found. Minimal surfaces are now studied from several different viewpoints using methods and techniques from analysis (real and complex), topology and geometry. In this lecture course, Meeks, Ros and Rosenberg, three of the main architects of the modern edifice, present some of the more recent methods and developments of the theory. The topics include moduli, asymptotic geometry and surfaces of constant mean curvature in the hyperbolic space.