Prospects in Topology (AM-138), Volume 138: Proceedings of a Conference in Honor of William Browder. (AM-138) (Annals of Mathematics Studies)

This collection brings together influential papers by mathematicians exploring the research frontiers of topology, one of the most important developments of modern mathematics. The papers cover a wide range of topological specialties, including tools for the analysis of group actions on manifolds, calculations of algebraic K-theory, a result on analytic structures on Lie group actions, a presentation of the significance of Dirac operators in smoothing theory, a discussion of the stable topology of 4-manifolds, an answer to the famous question about symmetries of simply connected manifolds, and a fresh perspective on the topological classification of linear transformations. The contributors include A. Adem, A. H. Assadi, M. Bökstedt, S. E. Cappell, R. Charney, M. W. Davis, P. J. Eccles, M. H. Freedman, I. Hambleton, J. C. Hausmann, S. Illman, G. Katz, M. Kreck, W. Lück, I. Madsen, R. J. Milgram, J. Morava, E. K. Pedersen, V. Puppe, F. Quinn, A. Ranicki, J. L. Shaneson, D. Sullivan, P. Teichner, Z. Wang, and S. Weinberger. Contents Foreword Program of the Conference Mathematical descendants of William Browder The mod 2 cohomology rings of rank 3 simple groups are Cohen-Macaulay Algebraic geometric invariants for homotopy actions Algebraic K-theory of local number fields: the unramified case The mapping cone and cylinder of a stratified map Replacement of fixed sets and of their normal representations in transformation groups of manifolds Finite K(π, 1)s for Artin groups Double point manifolds of immersions of spheres in Euclidean space Controlled linear algebra Non-linear similarity revisited On the Vietoris-Rips complexes and a cohomology theory for metric spaces Every proper smooth action of a Lie group is equivalent to a real analytic action: a contribution to Hilbert’s fifth problem Formal deformations of equivariant genera, fixed point formula and universal symmetry blocks Stable prime decompositions of four-manifolds Smooth correspondences Simply connected 6-dimensional manifolds with little symmetry and algebras with small tangent space Speculations on Gromov convergence of stratified sets, and Riemannian volume collapse Bordism of automorphisms of manifolds from the algebraic L-theory point of view Exterior d, the local degree, and smoothability Contributors