Natural Fabrications

Natural Fabrications

The spectacular success of the scientific enterprise over the last four hundred years has led to the promise of an all encompassing vision of the natural world. In this elegant picture, everything we observe is based upon just a few fundamental processes and entities. The almost infinite variety and complexity of the world is thus the product of emergence. But the concept of emergence is fraught with controversy and confusion. This book ponders the question of how emergence should be understood within the scientific picture, and whether a complete vision of the world can be attained that includes consciousness.

Natural Fabrications

Lectures on Infinite-Dimensional Lie Algebra

Lectures on Infinite-Dimensional Lie Algebra

The representation theory of affine Lie algebras has been developed in close connection with various areas of mathematics and mathematical physics in the last two decades. There are three excellent books on it, written by Victor G Kac. This book begins with a survey and review of the material treated in Kac’s books. In particular, modular invariance and conformal invariance and are explained in more detail. The book then goes further, dealing with some of the recent topics involving the representation theory of affine Lie algebras. Since these topics are important not only in themselves but also in their application to some areas of mathematics and mathematical physics, the book expounds them with examples and detailed calculations.

Lectures on Infinite-Dimensional Lie Algebra

Higher Recursion Theory

Higher Recursion Theory

Hyperarithmetic theory is the first step beyond classical recursion theory. It is the primary source of ideas and examples in higher recursion theory. It is also a crossroad for several areas of mathematical logic: in set theory it is an initial segment of Godel’s L; in model theory, the least admissible set after ; in descriptive set theory, the setting for effective arguments. In this book, hyperarithmetic theory is developed at length and used to lift classical recursion theory from integers to recursive ordinals (metarecursion). Two further liftings are then made, first ordinals ( -recursion) and then to sets (E-recursion). Techniques such as finite and infinite injury, forcing and fine structure and extended and combined Dynamic and syntactical methods are contrasted. Several notions of reducibility and computation are compared. Post’s problem is answere affirmatively in all three settings. This long-awaited volume of the -series will be a ‘Must’ for all working in the field.

Higher Recursion Theory

Out of Eden

Out of Eden

In Out of Eden, Paul W. Kahn offers a philosophical meditation on the problem of evil. He uses the Genesis story of the Fall as the starting point for a profound articulation of the human condition. Kahn shows us that evil expresses the rage of a subject who knows both that he is an image of an infinite God and that he must die. Kahn’s interpretation of Genesis leads him to inquiries into a variety of modern forms of evil, including slavery, torture, and genocide.

Out of Eden

Electronic States in Crystals of Finite Size

Electronic States in Crystals of Finite Size

The theory of electronic states in the traditionally solid state physics is essentially a theory of electronic states in crystals of infinite size. However, any real crystal always has a finite size. This book presents an analytical theory on the electronic states in ideal low-dimensional systems and finite crystals recently developed by the author based on a differential equation theory approach. It gives some exact and general fundamental understandings on the electronic states in ideal low-dimensional systems and finite crystals and provides new insights on some fundamental problems in low-dimensional systems such as the surface states, quantum confinement effects etc, some of them are quite different from what are traditionally believed in the solid state physics community.

Electronic States in Crystals of Finite Size