Mar 5—Jun 23, 2023

Courses

  • Rings. Ring of polynomials and its ideal structure. The prime factorization of a polynomial. Lagrange interpolation.
  • Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of linear operators.
  • Characteristic polynomial and Cayley-Hamilton theorem. The primary decomposition theorem. Diagonalization. Nilpotent operators. Jordan decomposition in small dimension Jordan decomposition in general dimension- time permitted
  • Linear forms. Dual basis. Bilinear forms.
  • Inner product spaces. Orthogonal bases. Projections. Adjoint linear transformation. Unitary and Hermitian operators.
  • Normal operators and the spectral decomposition theorem. Singular value decomposition theorem and applications.
  1. Partially ordered sets. Chains and antichains. Examples. Erdos–Szekeres’ theorem or a similar theorem. The construction of a poset over the quotient space of a quasi-ordered set.
  2. Comparison of sets. The definition of cardinality as as an equivalence class over equinumerousity. The Cantor-Bernstein theorem. Cantor’s theorem on the cardinality of the power-set.
  3. Countable sets. The square of the natural numbers. Finite sequences over a countable set. Construction of the ordered set of rational numbers. Uniqueness of the rational ordering.
  4. Ramsey’s theorem. Applications.
  5. The construction of the ordered real line as a quotient over Cauchy sequences of rationals.
  6. Konig’s lemma on countably infinite trees with finite levels. Applications. A countable graph is k-colorable iff every finite subgraph of it is k-colorable.
  7. Well ordering. Isomorphisms between well-ordered sets. The axiom of choice formulated as the well-ordering principle. Example. Applications. An arbitrary graph is k–colorable iff every finite subgraph is k-colorable.
  8. Zorn’s lemma. Applications. Existence of a basis in a vector space. Existence of a spanning tree in an arbitrary graph.
  9. Discussion of the axioms of set theory and the need for them. Russel’s paradox. Ordinals.
  10. Transfinite induction and recursion. Applications. Construction of a subset of the plane with exactly 2 point in every line.
  11. Infinite cardinals as initial ordinals. Basic cardinal arithmetic. Cardinalities of well known sets. Continuous real functions, all real runctions, the automorphisms of the real field (with and without order).

The derivative as a function: continuously differentiable functions, Darboux’s theorem. Convex functions: definition, one-sided differentiability, connection to the second derivative. Cauchy’s generalized Mean Value Theorem and its applications: L’Hospital’s rule, Taylor polynomials with Lagrange remainder. The Newton-Raphson method. Series: Cauchy’s criterion, absolutely convergent series, the comparison, quotient and root tests, the Dirichlet test, change of the order of summation, the product formula for series, Taylor series, Taylor series of elementary functions. The definition of an analytic function, the radius of convergence of a power series. The Riemann integral. Riemann sums. The fundamental theorem of calculus (the Newton-Leibniz formula). Methods for computing integrals (the indefinite integral): integration by parts, change of variable, partial fractions. Improper integrals. Numerical integration: the midpoint, trapezoid and Simpson’s rules. Stirling’s formula. Introduction to convergence of functions, problems with pointwise convergence. Introduction to ordinary differential equations: the differential equation y’=ky, solution of first order ODE’s by separation of variables, initial value conditions.

Ordinary differential equations of first order, existence and uniqueness theorems, linear equations of order n and the Wronskian, vector fields and autonomous equations, systems of linear differential equations, nonlinear systems of differential equations and stability near equilibrium

Graphs and sub-graphs, trees, connectivity, Euler tours, Hamilton cycles, matching, vertex and edge colorings, planar graphs, introduction to Ramsey theory, directed graphs, probabilistic methods and linear algebra tools in Graph Theory.

Topological spaces and continuous functions (product topology, quotient topology, metric topology). Connectedness and Compactness. Countabilty Axioms and Separation Axioms (the Urysohn lemma, the Urysohn metrization theorem, Partition of unity). The Tychonoff theorem and the Stone-Cech compactification. Metrization theorems and paracompactness.

  • Complex numbers. Analytic functions, Cauchy–Riemann equations.
  • Conformal mappings, Mobius transformations.
  • Integration. Cauchy Theorem. Cauchy integral formula. Zeroes, poles, Taylor series, Laurent series. Residue calculus.
  • The theorems of Weierstrass and of Mittag-Leffler. Entire functions. Normal families.
  • Riemann Mapping Theorem. Harmonic functions, Dirichlet problem.
  • Fields: basic properties and examples, the characteristic, prime fields
  • Polynomials: irreducibility, the Eisenstein criterion, Gauss’s lemma
  • Extensions of fields: the tower property, algebraic and transcendental extensions, adjoining an element to a field
  • Ruler and compass constructions
  • Algebraic closures: existence and uniqueness
  • Splitting fields
  • Galois extensions: automorphisms, normality, separability, fixed fields, Galois groups, the fundamental theorem of Galois theory.
  • Cyclic extensions
  • Solving polynomial equations by radicals: the Galois group of a polynomial, the discriminant, the Cardano-Tartaglia method, solvable groups, Galois theorem
  • Roots of unity: cyclotomic fields, the cyclotomic polynomials and their irreducibility
  • Finite fields: existence and uniqueness, Galois groups over finite fields, primitive elements

Embedded differentiable manifolds with boundary in Euclidean space. The tangent space, normal, vector fields. Orientable manifolds, the outer normal orientation. Smooth partitions of unity. Differential forms on embedded manifolds, the exterior derivative. Integration of differential forms and the generalized Stokes theorem. Classical formulations (gradient, curl and divergence and the theorems of Green, Stokes and Gauss). Closed and exact forms. Conservative vector fields and existence of potentials. Application to exact ordinary differential equations. Introduction to differential geometry: curvature of curves and surfaces in 3 dimensional space, the Gauss map, the Gauss-Bonnet theorem (time permitting).

Ordinary differential equations of first order, existence and uniqueness theorems, linear equations of order $n$ and the Wronskian, vector fields and autonomous equations, systems of linear differential equations, nonlinear systems of differential equations and stability near equilibrium

  1. Preliminaries: floating point arithmetic, round-off errors and stability. Matrix norms and the condition number of a matrix.
  2. Introduction to numerical solutions for ODE’s:initial value problems, Euler’s method, introduction to multistep methods. Boundary value problems.
  3. Numerical solution of linear equations: Gauss elimination with pivoting, LU decomposition. Iterative techniques: Jacobi, Gauss-Seidel, conjugate gradient. Least squares approximation.
  4. Numerical methods for finding eigenvalues: Gershgorin circles. The power method. Stability considerations in Gram-Schmidt: Hausholder reflections and Givens rotations. Hessenberg and tridiagonal forms. QR decomposition and the QR algorithm.
  • Finite Markov chains. Perron-Forbenious.
  • Infinite Markov Chains, Random walks on groups
  • Recurrence-Transience
  • Martingales, stopping times and hitting measures
  • Entropy (Shannon’s entropy, and asymptotic entropy)

The purpose of the course is to provide students with the ability to deal with mathematical problems in a variety of subjects by becoming familiar with common strategies for solving mathematical problems. The course requires active participation of the students during class and includes both group and individual work. The meetings will be conducted as a seminar where initially a classical problem and its solution will be presented. The strategy for solving problems arising from the solution will be discussed and then the participants will be challenged to use this strategy with specific examples. In addition, problems/riddles given as weekly homework will be discussed. We will cover a variety of techniques for solving problems: exploiting parity, pigeonhole principle, checking extreme cases, double counting, the method of geometric transformations in dealing with sophisticated geometric problems, methods of Dynamic programming, the principle of induction and Fermat’s descent method for treating Diophantine equations. The method of generating functions.. Probabilistic considerations and their uses.

  1. Basic Algebraic Structures: rings, modules, algebras, the center, idempotents, group rings

  2. Division Rings: the Hamiltonian quaternions, generalized quaternion algebras, division algebras over $\mathbb{F}_q$, $\mathbb{C}$, $\mathbb{R}$, $\mathbb{Q}$ (theorems of Frobenius and Wedderburn), cyclic algebras, the Brauer–Cartan–Hua theorem

  3. Simplicity and semi-simplicity: simplicity of algebraic structures, semi-simple modules, semi-simple rings, Maschke’s theorem

  4. The Wedderburn–Artin Theory: homomorphisms and direct sums, Schur’s lemma, the Wedderburn–Artin structure theorem, Artinian rings

  5. Introduction to Group Representations: representations and characters, applications of the Wedderburn–Artin theory, orthogonality relations, dimensions of irreducible representations, Burnside’s theorem

  6. Tensor Products: tensor products of modules and algebras, scalar extensions, the Schur index, simplicity and center of tensor products, the Brauer group, the Skolem–Noether theorem, the double centralizer theorem, maximal fields in algebras, reduced norm and trace, crossed products

  • Fundamental theorems and basic definitions: Convex sets, separation , Helly’s theorem, fractional Helly, Radon’s theorem, Caratheodory’s theorem, centerpoint theorem. Tverberg’s theorem. Planar graphs. Koebe’s Theorem.
  • Geometric graphs: the crossing lemma. Application of crossing lemma to Erdos problems: Geometric Incidences, Repeated distance problem, distinct distances problem. Selection lemmas. Counting $k$-sets. An application of incidences to additive number theory.
  • Coloring and hiting problems for geometric hypergraphs : $VC$-dimension, Transversals and Epsilon-nets. Weak eps-nets for convex sets. $(p,q)$-Theorem, Conflict-free colorings.
  • Arrangements : Davenport Schinzel sequences and sub structures in arrangements.
  • Geometric Ramsey and Turan type theorems: Application of Dilworth theorem, Erdos-Szekeres theorem for convex sets, quasi-planar graphs.

See course syllabus and administrative information on the course web page. These pdf files are also uploaded here.

My active web page is this (on Google Drive), not the one you see when you click my name above.

Please ignore the section “Course Topics” below, if it appears. (I don’t know how to make this text go away – but maybe it did anyhow.)

  1. Review of differentiable manifolds, definition of a Lie group. Quotients in the category of Lie groups, homogeneous manifolds, haar measure, connected components.
  2. Algebraic groups, matrix groups, the classical groups.
  3. Lie algebras and connection to Lie groups.
  4. Nilpotent, solvable and semisimple Lie algebras and Lie groups, Lie theorem, Engel theorem, Levi decomposition.
  5. Cartan-Killing form.
  6. Representation of a Lie algebra over the complex numbers.
  7. Root and weights, root systems, Dynkin diagrams, classication of complex semisimple Lie algebras.

The system of the real numbers (without Dedekind cuts). The supremum axiom. Convergent sequences, subsequences, monotonic sequences, upper and lower limits. Series: partial sums, convergent and divergent series, examples, nonnegative series, the root test, the quotient test, general series, Dirichlet, Leibnitz, absolute convergence implies convergence (without a proof). Limits of functions, continuity, the continuity of the elementary functions, extrema in compact intervals. The derivative of a function, Lagrange’s Mean Value Theorem, high order derivatives, L’hospital’s rules, Taylor’s Theorem, error estimates, lots of examples. The Riemann integral: only for piecewise continuous functions (finitely many points of discontinuity). Riemann sums and the definition of the integral, The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, the existence of primitive functions (anti-derivatives). Integration techniques: integration by parts, substitutions, partial fractions (without proofs), improper integrals, applications of integrals, estimation of series with the aid of integrals, Hardy’s symbols O, o and Omega, approximation of momenta and the Stirling formula.

  1. General background: sets and operations on them, Complex numbers: definition (via ordered pairs), addition and multiplication, inverses, adjoint, absolute value. Real and complex polynomials and their roots.
  2. Fields: Definition, properties, examples: Rationals, reals, complex numbers, integers mod p.
  3. Linear equations over fields, matrices and elementary row operations, rank of a matrix, solutions of homogeneous and non homogeneous systems of linear equations and the connections between them.
  4. Vector spaces over fields, subspaces, bases and dimensions, coordinates change of coordinate matrix, row rank as rank of a subspace, sums, direct sums of subspaces and the dimension theorem.
  5. Matrices multiplication, the algebra of square matrices, inverse determinants: properties, Cramer’s rule, adjoint and its use for finding the inverse.
  6. Linerar transformationsbasic propertieskernel and image of a linear trasformationrepresentaion of linear transformations by matrices and the effect of change of bases.linear functionals, dual bases
  • Rings. Ring of polynomials and its ideal structure. The prime factorization of a polynomial. Lagrange interpolation.
  • Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of linear operators. Characteristic polynomial and Cayley–Hamilton theorem. The primary decomposition theorem. Diagonalization. Nilpotent operators. Jordan decomposition in small dimension. Jordan decomposition in general dimension- time permitting.
  • Linear forms. Dual basis. Bilinear forms. Inner product spaces. Orthogonal bases. Projections. Adjoint linear transformation. Unitary and Hermitian operators. Normal operators and the spectral decomposition theorem. Singular value decomposition theorem and applications.

Optional topics:

  • Quadratic forms.
  • Sylvester theorem.
  • Classification of quadrics in two-dimensional spaces.
  1. Lines and planes. Cross product. Vector valued functions of a single variable, curves in the plane, tangents, motion on a curve.
  2. Functions of several variables: open and closed sets, limits, continuity, differentiability, directional derivatives, partial derivatives, the gradient, scalar and vector fields, the chain rule, the Jacobian. Implicit differentiation and the implicit function theorem. Extremum problems in the plane and in space: the Hessian and the second derivatives test, Lagrange multipliers.
  3. Line integrals in the plane and in space, definition and basic properties, work, independence from the path, connection to the gradient, conservative vector field, construction of potential functions. Applications to ODEs: exact equations and integrating factors. Line integral of second kind and arclength.
  4. Double and triple integrals: definition and basic properties, Fubini theorem. Change of variable and the Jacobian, polar coordinates in the plane and cylindrical and spherical coordinates in space. Green’s theorem in the plane.
  5. Parametric representation of surfaces in space, normals, the area of a parametrized surface, surface integrals including reparametrizations
  6. Curl and divergence of vector fields. The theorems of Gauss and Stokes.
  1. Real numbers. Supremum and Infimum of a set. 2. Convergent sequences, subsequences, Cauchy sequences. The Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem. Limit superior and limit inferior. 3. Series. Partial sums, convergent and divergent series, Cauchy criterion. Series of non-negative terms. The root and the ratio tests. Conditional and absolute convergence. The Leibnitz test for series with alternating signs. Rearrangements of series (without proof) 4. The limit of a function. Continuous functions. Continuity of the elementary functions. Properties of functions continuous on a closed interval: boundedness and attainment of extrema. Uniform continuity, Cantor?s theorem. 5. The derivative of a function. Mean value theorems. Derivatives of higher order. L’Hospital’s rule. Taylor’s theorem. Lagrange remainder formula.

The aim of the course is to study main principles of probability theory. Such themes as probability spaces, random variables, probability distributions are given in details.Some applications are also considered.1. Probability space: sample space, probability function, finite symmetric probability space, combinatorial methods, and geometrical probabilities.2. Conditional probability, independent events, total probability formula, Bayes formula. 3. Discrete random variable, special distributions: uniform, binomial, geometric, negative binomial, hypergeometric and Poisson distribution. Poisson process.4. Continuous random variable, density function, cummulative distribution function. Special distributions: uniform, exponential, gamma and normal. Transformations of random variables. Distribution of maximum and minimum. Random variable of mixed type.5. Moments of random variable. Expectation and variance. Chebyshev inequality.6. Random vector, joint probability function, joint density function, marginal distributions. Conditional density, covariance and correlation coefficient.7. Central Limit Theorem. Normal approximation. Law of Large Numbers.

  1. Complex numbers, open sets in the plane.
  2. Continuity of functions of a complex variable
  3. Derivative at a point and Cauchy–Riemann equations
  4. Analytic functions; example of power series and elementary functions
  5. Cauchy’s theorem and applications.
  6. Cauchy’s formula and power series expansions
  7. Morera’s theorem
  8. Existence of a logarithm and of a square root
  9. Liouville’s theorem and the fundamental theorem of algebra
  10. Laurent series and classification of isolated singular points. The residue theorem
  11. Harmonic functions
  12. Schwarz’ lemma and applications
  13. Some ideas on conformal mappings
  14. Computations of integrals
  1. Integral calculus in one variable and its application: the integral, Riemann sums, integrability of bounded functions with countably many discontinuity points (the proofs only for continuous functions and monotone functions), antiderivatives and the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, change of variables and integrations by parts, partial fractions (without proofs). Applications of integral calculus: computation of areas, volume of the solid of revolution, the length of a smooth curve. Improper integral, and convergence tests for positive functions, application to series.
  2. Functions of several variables: open, closed, and compact sets, level curves and surfaces, vector valued functions, paths and path-connectedness.
  3. Limits and continuity in several variables: arithmetic of limits, Weierstrass theorem, intermediate value theorem.
  4. Multivariable differential calculus: partial and directional derivatives, differentiability and the tangent plane, the chain rule, the orthogonality of the gradient to the level surfaces, implicit function theorem for a curve in the plane and a surface in the space (without a proof), the Hessian, Taylor approximation of order 2, critical points (classification only in dimension 2), Extremum problem, including Lagrange multipliers and gradient descent.
  5. Integration in dimension 2: Reimann integral in dimension 2, change of variables and Fubini theorem (without proofs), changing the order of integration, polar coordinates, computation of volumes. If time permits: integration in dimension 3.
  1. The Riemann integral: Riemann sums, the fundamental theorem of calculus and the indefinite integral. Methods for computing integrals: integration by parts, substitution, partial fractions. Improper integrals and application to series. 2. Uniform and pointwise convergence. Cauchy criterion and the Weierstrass M-test. Power series. Taylor series. 3. First order ODE’s: initial value problem, local uniqueness and existence theorem. Explicit solutions: linear, separable and homogeneous equations, Bernoulli equations. 4. Systems of ODE’s. Uniqueness and existence (without proof). Homogeneous systems of linear ODE’s with constant coefficients. 5. Higher order ODE’s: uniqueness and existence theorem (without proof), basic theory. The method of undetermined coefficients for inhomogeneous second order linear equations with constant coefficients. The harmonic oscillator and/or RLC circuits. If time permits: variation of parameters, Wronskian theory.
  1. Fields: the definition of a field, complex numbers.

  2. Linear equations: elementary operations, row reduction, homogeneous and non-homogeneous equations, parametrization of solutions.

  3. Vector spaces: examplex, subspaces, linear independence, bases, dimension.

  4. Matrix algebra: matrix addition and multiplication, elementary operations, the inverse matrix, the determinant and Cramer’s law. Linear transformations: examples, kernel and image, matrix representation.

  1. Fields: the definition of a field, complex numbers.

  2. Linear equations: elementary operations, row reduction, homogeneous and non-homogeneous equations, parametrization of solutions.

  3. Vector spaces: examplex, subspaces, linear independence, bases, dimension.

  4. Matrix algebra: matrix addition and multiplication, elementary operations, the inverse matrix, the determinant and Cramer’s law. Linear transformations: examples, kernel and image, matrix representation.

Metric spaces:

closed sets, open sets, Cauchy sequences, completeness, compactness, Theorem of Heine–Borel, continuity and uniform continuity of functions, uniform convergence of sequences of functions.

Measure theory:

algebras, measures and outer measures, measurable sets, discrete measure spaces, Lebesgue measure on the real line, measurable functions, Lebesgue integral, dominated convergence theorem, $L_p$-spaces as complete normed spaces. Time-permitting: signed measures and absolute continuity of measures and the Radon-Nykodim theorem.

Notes

  • Courses marked with (*) are required for admission to the M.Sc. program in Mathematics.
  • The M.Sc. degree requires the successful completion of at least 2 courses marked (#). See the graduate program for details
  • The graduate courses are open to strong undergraduate students who have a grade average of 85 or above and who have obtained permission from the instructors and the head of the teaching committee.
  • Please see the detailed undergraduate and graduate programs for the for details on the requirments and possibilities for complete the degree.