The Geometry and Dynamics of Magnetic Monopoles (Princeton Legacy Library): 8 (Porter Lectures) - Softcover

Atiyah, Michael Francis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691604118 ISBN 13: 9780691604114

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2014

Synopsis

Systems governed by non-linear differential equations are of fundamental importance in all branches of science, but our understanding of them is still extremely limited. In this book a particular system, describing the interaction of magnetic monopoles, is investigated in detail. The use of new geometrical methods produces a reasonably clear picture of the dynamics for slowly moving monopoles. This picture clarifies the important notion of solitons, which has attracted much attention in recent years. The soliton idea bridges the gap between the concepts of "fields" and "particles", and is here explored in a fully three-dimensional context. While the background and motivation for the work comes from physics, the presentation is mathematical. This book is interdisciplinary and addresses concerns of theoretical physicists interested in elementary particles or general relativity and mathematicians working in analysis or geometry. The interaction between geometry and physics through non-linear partial differential equations is now at a very exciting stage, and the book is a contribution to this activity. Originally published in 1988. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

About this title

Review

"[This book] should be read by any mathematician who wants to see something of the exciting connections between geometry and the nonlinear systems of mathematical physics."--Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society

About the Author

Sir Michael Atiyah was awarded the Fields Medal in 1966. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1962 and received the Royal Medal of the Society in 1968 and its Copley Medal in 1988. He gave the Royal Society's Bakerian Lecture on Global geometry in 1975 and was President of the Royal Society from 1990 to 1995.

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691604118
• ISBN 13: 9780691604114
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 142