Visual Complex Analysis

This radical first course on complex analysis brings a beautiful and powerful subject to life by consistently using geometry (not calculation) as the means of explanation. Aimed at undergraduate students in mathematics, physics, and engineering, the book's intuitive explanations, lack of advanced prerequisites, and consciously user-friendly prose style will help students to master the subject more readily than was previously possible. The key to this is the book's use of new geometric arguments in place of the standard calculational ones. These geometric arguments are communicated with the aid of hundreds of diagrams of a standard seldom encountered in mathematical works. A new approach to a classical topic, this work will be of interest to students in mathematics, physics, and engineering, as well as to professionals in these fields.

This book provides a systematic introduction to functions of one complex variable. Its novel feature is the consistent use of special color representations – so-called phase portraits – which visualize functions as images on their domains. Reading Visual Complex Functions requires no prerequisites except some basic knowledge of real calculus and plane geometry. The text is self-contained and covers all the main topics usually treated in a first course on complex analysis. With separate chapters on various construction principles, conformal mappings and Riemann surfaces it goes somewhat beyond a standard programme and leads the reader to more advanced themes. In a second storyline, running parallel to the course outlined above, one learns how properties of complex functions are reflected in and can be read off from phase portraits. The book contains more than 200 of these pictorial representations which endow individual faces to analytic functions. Phase portraits enhance the intuitive understanding of concepts in complex analysis and are expected to be useful tools for anybody working with special functions – even experienced researchers may be inspired by the pictures to new and challenging questions. Visual Complex Functions may also serve as a companion to other texts or as a reference work for advanced readers who wish to know more about phase portraits.

An inviting, intuitive, and visual exploration of differential geometry and forms Visual Differential Geometry and Forms fulfills two principal goals. In the first four acts, Tristan Needham puts the geometry back into differential geometry. Using 235 hand-drawn diagrams, Needham deploys Newton’s geometrical methods to provide geometrical explanations of the classical results. In the fifth act, he offers the first undergraduate introduction to differential forms that treats advanced topics in an intuitive and geometrical manner. Unique features of the first four acts include: four distinct geometrical proofs of the fundamentally important Global Gauss-Bonnet theorem, providing a stunning link between local geometry and global topology; a simple, geometrical proof of Gauss’s famous Theorema Egregium; a complete geometrical treatment of the Riemann curvature tensor of an n-manifold; and a detailed geometrical treatment of Einstein’s field equation, describing gravity as curved spacetime (General Relativity), together with its implications for gravitational waves, black holes, and cosmology. The final act elucidates such topics as the unification of all the integral theorems of vector calculus; the elegant reformulation of Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism in terms of 2-forms; de Rham cohomology; differential geometry via Cartan’s method of moving frames; and the calculation of the Riemann tensor using curvature 2-forms. Six of the seven chapters of Act V can be read completely independently from the rest of the book. Requiring only basic calculus and geometry, Visual Differential Geometry and Forms provocatively rethinks the way this important area of mathematics should be considered and taught.

Presents the Dirichlet problem for harmonic functions twice: once using the Poisson integral for the unit disk and again in an informal section on Brownian motion, where the reader can understand intuitively how the Dirichlet problem works for general domains. This book is suitable for a first-year course in complex analysis

Recipient of the Mathematical Association of America's Beckenbach Book Prize in 2012! Group theory is the branch of mathematics that studies symmetry, found in crystals, art, architecture, music and many other contexts, but its beauty is lost on students when it is taught in a technical style that is difficult to understand. Visual Group Theory assumes only a high school mathematics background and covers a typical undergraduate course in group theory from a thoroughly visual perspective. The more than 300 illustrations in Visual Group Theory bring groups, subgroups, homomorphisms, products, and quotients into clear view. Every topic and theorem is accompanied with a visual demonstration of its meaning and import, from the basics of groups and subgroups through advanced structural concepts such as semidirect products and Sylow theory.

All needed notions are developed within the book: with the exception of fundamentals which are presented in introductory lectures, no other knowledge is assumed Provides a more in-depth introduction to the subject than other existing books in this area Over 400 exercises including hints for solutions are included

The present book is meant as a text for a course on complex analysis at the advanced undergraduate level, or first-year graduate level. Somewhat more material has been included than can be covered at leisure in one term, to give opportunities for the instructor to exercise his taste, and lead the course in whatever direction strikes his fancy at the time. A large number of routine exercises are included for the more standard portions, and a few harder exercises of striking theoretical interest are also included, but may be omitted in courses addressed to less advanced students. In some sense, I think the classical German prewar texts were the best (Hurwitz-Courant, Knopp, Bieberbach, etc. ) and I would recom mend to anyone to look through them. More recent texts have empha sized connections with real analysis, which is important, but at the cost of exhibiting succinctly and clearly what is peculiar about complex anal ysis: the power series expansion, the uniqueness of analytic continuation, and the calculus of residues. The systematic elementary development of formal and convergent power series was standard fare in the German texts, but only Cartan, in the more recent books, includes this material, which I think is quite essential, e. g. , for differential equations. I have written a short text, exhibiting these features, making it applicable to a wide variety of tastes. The book essentially decomposes into two parts.

Complex analysis is a classic and central area of mathematics, which is studied and exploited in a range of important fields, from number theory to engineering. Introduction to Complex Analysis was first published in 1985, and for this much awaited second edition the text has been considerably expanded, while retaining the style of the original. More detailed presentation is given of elementary topics, to reflect the knowledge base of current students. Exercise sets have been substantially revised and enlarged, with carefully graded exercises at the end of each chapter. This is the latest addition to the growing list of Oxford undergraduate textbooks in mathematics, which includes: Biggs: Discrete Mathematics 2nd Edition, Cameron: Introduction to Algebra, Needham: Visual Complex Analysis, Kaye and Wilson: Linear Algebra, Acheson: Elementary Fluid Dynamics, Jordan and Smith: Nonlinear Ordinary Differential Equations, Smith: Numerical Solution of Partial Differential Equations, Wilson: Graphs, Colourings and the Four-Colour Theorem, Bishop: Neural Networks for Pattern Recognition, Gelman and Nolan: Teaching Statistics.

"This textbook is intended for a year-long graduate course on complex analysis, a branch of mathematical analysis that has broad applications, particularly in physics, engineering, and applied mathematics. Based on nearly twenty years of classroom lectures, the book is accessible enough for independent study, while the rigorous approach will appeal to more experienced readers and scholars, propelling further research in this field. While other graduate-level complex analysis textbooks do exist, Zakeri takes a distinctive approach by highlighting the geometric properties and topological underpinnings of this area. Zakeri includes more than three hundred and fifty problems, with problem sets at the end of each chapter, along with additional solved examples. Background knowledge of undergraduate analysis and topology is needed, but the thoughtful examples are accessible to beginning graduate students and advanced undergraduates. At the same time, the book has sufficient depth for advanced readers to enhance their own research. The textbook is well-written, clearly illustrated, and peppered with historical information, making it approachable without sacrificing rigor. It is poised to be a valuable textbook for graduate students, filling a needed gap by way of its level and unique approach"--

This textbook provides a unified and concise exploration of undergraduate mathematics by approaching the subject through its history. Readers will discover the rich tapestry of ideas behind familiar topics from the undergraduate curriculum, such as calculus, algebra, topology, and more. Featuring historical episodes ranging from the Ancient Greeks to Fermat and Descartes, this volume offers a glimpse into the broader context in which these ideas developed, revealing unexpected connections that make this ideal for a senior capstone course. The presentation of previous versions has been refined by omitting the less mainstream topics and inserting new connecting material, allowing instructors to cover the book in a one-semester course. This condensed edition prioritizes succinctness and cohesiveness, and there is a greater emphasis on visual clarity, featuring full color images and high quality 3D models. As in previous editions, a wide array of mathematical topics are covered, from geometry to computation; however, biographical sketches have been omitted. Mathematics and Its History: A Concise Edition is an essential resource for courses or reading programs on the history of mathematics. Knowledge of basic calculus, algebra, geometry, topology, and set theory is assumed. From reviews of previous editions: “Mathematics and Its History is a joy to read. The writing is clear, concise and inviting. The style is very different from a traditional text. I found myself picking it up to read at the expense of my usual late evening thriller or detective novel.... The author has done a wonderful job of tying together the dominant themes of undergraduate mathematics.” Richard J. Wilders, MAA, on the Third Edition "The book...is presented in a lively style without unnecessary detail. It is very stimulating and will be appreciated not only by students. Much attention is paid to problems and to the development of mathematics before the end of the nineteenth century.... This book brings to the non-specialist interested in mathematics many interesting results. It can be recommended for seminars and will be enjoyed by the broad mathematical community." European Mathematical Society, on the Second Edition