The October issue of the Notices of the AMS is now available on-line. It has an interesting historical article about Henri Poincare, and a short expository article called WHAT IS… a Pseudoholomorphic Curve by Simon Donaldson. Counting these pseudo-holomorphic curves is what topological sigma models do, and they have turned out to have many different kinds of mathematical applications, including the new field of so-called Gromov-Witten theory, as well as several others.
There’s also an extensive interview with Fields medalist Heisuke Hironaka. I’ve heard that Hironaka is a celebrity in Japan, with one of my colleagues once telling me that during a trip to Japan he was surprised to see Hironaka on a billboard selling something or other.
Is there a good exposition about Hironaka’s singularity work for the non-specialist. It sounds very interesting and I’d like to learn more about it.
There was a good introduction in the Bulletin of the AMS, which is available online at http://www.ams.org/bull/2003-40-03/S0273-0979-03-00982-0/home.html.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PETER!
I was just thinking … if the publishers don’t like the title of your book, how about “Born on September 11” as an alternative?
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the birthday wishes!
I think I’ll stick with the current book title…..
Walt Pohl wrote:
“There was a good introduction in the Bulletin of the AMS, which is available online at http://www.ams.org/bull/2003-40-03/S0273-0979-03-00982-0/home.html.”
Great.
Thank you.