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This series covers all areas of mathematics whilst focusing on the needs of the Australian university curriculum. Books in the series are appropriate for undergraduate, honours and first-year graduate levels, with a particular emphasis on texts developed from areas in which Australian mathematicians are strong in either research or teaching.

  • Editor-in-Chiefs: Gary Froyland, University of New South Wales
  • General Editors: Andrew Eberhard, RMIT, Inge Koch, University of Western Australia, Cheryl E. Praeger, University of Western Australia

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18 results in Australian Mathematical Society Lecture Series

Many Variations of Mahler Measures
  • A Lasting Symphony
  • François Brunault, Wadim Zudilin
  • Published online:
    07 May 2020
    Print publication:
    14 May 2020
  • The Mahler measure is a fascinating notion and an exciting topic in contemporary mathematics, interconnecting with subjects as diverse as number theory, analysis, arithmetic geometry, special functions and random walks. This friendly and concise introduction to the Mahler measure is a valuable resource for both graduate courses and self-study. It provides the reader with the necessary background material, before presenting the recent achievements and the remaining challenges in the field. The first part introduces the univariate Mahler measure and addresses Lehmer's question, and then discusses techniques of reducing multivariate measures to hypergeometric functions. The second part touches on the novelties of the subject, especially the relation with elliptic curves, modular forms and special values of L-functions. Finally, the Appendix presents the modern definition of motivic cohomology and regulator maps, as well as Deligne–Beilinson cohomology. The text includes many exercises to test comprehension and challenge readers of all abilities.

Orthogonal Polynomials and Painlevé Equations
  • Walter Van Assche
  • Published online:
    08 December 2017
    Print publication:
    28 December 2017
  • There are a number of intriguing connections between Painlevé equations and orthogonal polynomials, and this book is one of the first to provide an introduction to these. Researchers in integrable systems and non-linear equations will find the many explicit examples where Painlevé equations appear in mathematical analysis very useful. Those interested in the asymptotic behavior of orthogonal polynomials will also find the description of Painlevé transcendants and their use for local analysis near certain critical points helpful to their work. Rational solutions and special function solutions of Painlevé equations are worked out in detail, with a survey of recent results and an outline of their close relationship with orthogonal polynomials. Exercises throughout the book help the reader to get to grips with the material. The author is a leading authority on orthogonal polynomials, giving this work a unique perspective on Painlevé equations.

Notes on Counting: An Introduction to Enumerative Combinatorics
  • Peter J. Cameron
  • Published online:
    28 June 2017
    Print publication:
    21 June 2017
  • Enumerative combinatorics, in its algebraic and analytic forms, is vital to many areas of mathematics, from model theory to statistical mechanics. This book, which stems from many years' experience of teaching, invites students into the subject and prepares them for more advanced texts. It is suitable as a class text or for individual study. The author provides proofs for many of the theorems to show the range of techniques available, and uses examples to link enumerative combinatorics to other areas of study. The main section of the book introduces the key tools of the subject (generating functions and recurrence relations), which are then used to study the most important combinatorial objects, namely subsets, partitions, and permutations of a set. Later chapters deal with more specialised topics, including permanents, SDRs, group actions and the Redfield–Pólya theory of cycle indices, Möbius inversion, the Tutte polynomial, and species.

Wavelets
  • A Student Guide
  • Peter Nickolas
  • Published online:
    23 February 2017
    Print publication:
    11 January 2017
  • This text offers an excellent introduction to the mathematical theory of wavelets for senior undergraduate students. Despite the fact that this theory is intrinsically advanced, the author's elementary approach makes it accessible at the undergraduate level. Beginning with thorough accounts of inner product spaces and Hilbert spaces, the book then shifts its focus to wavelets specifically, starting with the Haar wavelet, broadening to wavelets in general, and culminating in the construction of the Daubechies wavelets. All of this is done using only elementary methods, bypassing the use of the Fourier integral transform. Arguments using the Fourier transform are introduced in the final chapter, and this less elementary approach is used to outline a second and quite different construction of the Daubechies wavelets. The main text of the book is supplemented by more than 200 exercises ranging in difficulty and complexity.

Classical Groups, Derangements and Primes
  • Timothy C. Burness, Michael Giudici
  • Published online:
    18 December 2015
    Print publication:
    15 January 2016
  • A classical theorem of Jordan states that every finite transitive permutation group contains a derangement. This existence result has interesting and unexpected applications in many areas of mathematics, including graph theory, number theory and topology. Various generalisations have been studied in more recent years, with a particular focus on the existence of derangements with special properties. Written for academic researchers and postgraduate students working in related areas of algebra, this introduction to the finite classical groups features a comprehensive account of the conjugacy and geometry of elements of prime order. The development is tailored towards the study of derangements in finite primitive classical groups; the basic problem is to determine when such a group G contains a derangement of prime order r, for each prime divisor r of the degree of G. This involves a detailed analysis of the conjugacy classes and subgroup structure of the finite classical groups.

Neverending Fractions
  • An Introduction to Continued Fractions
  • Jonathan Borwein, Alf van der Poorten, Jeffrey Shallit, Wadim Zudilin
  • Published online:
    05 July 2014
    Print publication:
    03 July 2014
  • Despite their classical nature, continued fractions are a neverending research area, with a body of results accessible enough to suit a wide audience, from researchers to students and even amateur enthusiasts. Neverending Fractions brings these results together, offering fresh perspectives on a mature subject. Beginning with a standard introduction to continued fractions, the book covers a diverse range of topics, from elementary and metric properties, to quadratic irrationals, to more exotic topics such as folded continued fractions and Somos sequences. Along the way, the authors reveal some amazing applications of the theory to seemingly unrelated problems in number theory. Previously scattered throughout the literature, these applications are brought together in this volume for the first time. A wide variety of exercises guide readers through the material, which will be especially helpful to readers using the book for self-study, and the authors also provide many pointers to the literature.

Representations of Lie Algebras
  • An Introduction Through gln
  • Anthony Henderson
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    16 August 2012
  • This bold and refreshing approach to Lie algebras assumes only modest prerequisites (linear algebra up to the Jordan canonical form and a basic familiarity with groups and rings), yet it reaches a major result in representation theory: the highest-weight classification of irreducible modules of the general linear Lie algebra. The author's exposition is focused on this goal rather than aiming at the widest generality and emphasis is placed on explicit calculations with bases and matrices. The book begins with a motivating chapter explaining the context and relevance of Lie algebras and their representations and concludes with a guide to further reading. Numerous examples and exercises with full solutions are included. Based on the author's own introductory course on Lie algebras, this book has been thoroughly road-tested by advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students and it is also suited to individual readers wanting an introduction to this important area of mathematics.

Lectures on Real Analysis
  • Finnur Lárusson
  • Published online:
    05 August 2012
    Print publication:
    07 June 2012
  • This is a rigorous introduction to real analysis for undergraduate students, starting from the axioms for a complete ordered field and a little set theory. The book avoids any preconceptions about the real numbers and takes them to be nothing but the elements of a complete ordered field. All of the standard topics are included, as well as a proper treatment of the trigonometric functions, which many authors take for granted. The final chapters of the book provide a gentle, example-based introduction to metric spaces with an application to differential equations on the real line. The author's exposition is concise and to the point, helping students focus on the essentials. Over 200 exercises of varying difficulty are included, many of them adding to the theory in the text. The book is perfect for second-year undergraduates and for more advanced students who need a foundation in real analysis.

Quantum Groups
  • A Path to Current Algebra
  • Ross Street
  • Published online:
    15 December 2009
    Print publication:
    18 January 2007
  • Algebra has moved well beyond the topics discussed in standard undergraduate texts on 'modern algebra'. Those books typically dealt with algebraic structures such as groups, rings and fields: still very important concepts! However Quantum Groups: A Path to Current Algebra is written for the reader at ease with at least one such structure and keen to learn algebraic concepts and techniques. A key to understanding these new developments is categorical duality. A quantum group is a vector space with structure. Part of the structure is standard: a multiplication making it an 'algebra'. Another part is not in those standard books at all: a comultiplication, which is dual to multiplication in the precise sense of category theory, making it a 'coalgebra'. While coalgebras, bialgebras and Hopf algebras have been around for half a century, the term 'quantum group', along with revolutionary new examples, was launched by Drinfel'd in 1986.

A Course in Modern Analysis and its Applications
  • Graeme L. Cohen
  • Published online:
    06 July 2010
    Print publication:
    30 June 2003
  • Designed for one-semester courses at the senior undergraduate level, this 2003 book will appeal to mathematics undergraduates, to mathematics teachers, and to others who need to learn some mathematical analysis for use in other areas such as engineering, physics, biology or finance. Topics such as completeness and compactness are approached initially through convergence of sequences in metric space, and the emphasis remains on this approach. However, the alternative topological approach is described in a separate chapter. This gives the book more flexibility, making it especially useful as an introduction to more advanced areas such as functional analysis. Nominal divisions of pure and applied mathematics have been merged, leaving enough for students of either inclination to have a feeling for what further developments might look like. Applications have been included from such fields as differential and integral equations, systems of linear algebraic equations, approximation theory, numerical analysis and quantum mechanics.

Chaos: A Mathematical Introduction
  • John Banks, Valentina Dragan, Arthur Jones
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    08 May 2003
  • When new ideas like chaos first move into the mathematical limelight, the early textbooks tend to be very difficult. The concepts are new and it takes time to find ways to present them in a form digestible to the average student. This process may take a generation, but eventually, what originally seemed far too advanced for all but the most mathematically sophisticated becomes accessible to a much wider readership. This book takes some major steps along that path of generational change. It presents ideas about chaos in discrete time dynamics in a form where they should be accessible to anyone who has taken a first course in undergraduate calculus. More remarkably, it manages to do so without discarding a commitment to mathematical substance and rigour. The book evolved from a very popular one-semester middle level undergraduate course over a period of several years and has therefore been well class-tested.

Industrial Mathematics
  • Case Studies in the Diffusion of Heat and Matter
  • Glenn R. Fulford, Philip Broadbridge
  • Published online:
    14 January 2010
    Print publication:
    13 December 2001
  • The focus in this text is on mathematical modelling stimulated by contemporary industrial problems involving heat conduction and mass diffusion. These include continuous metal casting, laser drilling, spontaneous combustion of industrial waste, water filtration and crop irrigation. The industrial problems prove to be an excellent setting for the introduction and reinforcement of modelling skills, equation solving techniques, qualitative understanding of partial differential equations and their dynamical properties. Mathematical topics include setting up partial differential equations and boundary conditions, dimensional analysis, scaling, perturbation expansions, boundary value problems, Fourier series, symmetry reductions, Stefan problems and bifurcations. For students of mathematics, engineering, or any other related discipline, this will be a great introduction to modelling the real world.

Introduction to the Analysis of Normed Linear Spaces
  • J. R. Giles
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    13 March 2000
  • This text is a basic course in functional analysis for senior undergraduate and beginning postgraduate students. It aims at providing some insight into basic abstract analysis which is now the contextual language of much modern mathematics. Although it is assumed that the student will have familiarity with elementary real and complex analysis and linear algebra and have studied a course in the analysis of metric spaces, a knowledge of integration theory or general topology is not required. The theme of this text concerns structural properties of normed linear spaces in general, especially associated with dual spaces and continuous linear operators on normed linear spaces. But the implications of the general theory are illustrated with a great variety of example spaces.

Modelling with Differential and Difference Equations
  • Glenn Fulford, Peter Forrester, Arthur Jones
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    12 June 1997
  • The real world can be modelled using mathematics, and the construction of such models is the theme of this book. The authors concentrate on the techniques used to set up mathematical models and describe many systems in full detail, covering both differential and difference equations in depth. Amongst the broad spectrum of topics studied in this book are: mechanics, genetics, thermal physics, economics and population studies. Any student wishing to solve problems via mathematical modelling will find that this book provides an excellent introduction to the subject.

Low Rank Representations and Graphs for Sporadic Groups
  • Cheryl E. Praeger, Leonard H. Soicher
  • Published online:
    15 September 2009
    Print publication:
    05 December 1996
  • This book presents a complete classification of the transitive permutation representations of rank at most five of the sporadic simple groups and their automorphism groups, together with a comprehensive study of the vertex-transitive graphs associated with these representations. Included is a list of all vertex-transitive, distance-regular graphs on which a sporadic almost simple group acts with rank at most five. In this list are some new, interesting distance-regular graphs of diameter two, which are not distance-transitive. For most of the representations a presentation of the sporadic group is given, with words in the given generators which generate a point stabiliser: this gives readers sufficient information to reconstruct and study the representations and graphs. Practical computational techniques appropriate for analysing finite vertex-transitive graphs are described carefully, making the book an excellent starting point for learning about groups and the graphs on which they act.

The Petersen Graph
  • D. A. Holton, J. Sheehan
  • Published online:
    13 March 2010
    Print publication:
    22 April 1993
  • The Petersen graph occupies an important position in the development of several areas of modern graph theory because it often appears as a counter-example to important conjectures. In this account, the authors examine those areas, using the prominent role of the Petersen graph as a unifying feature. Topics covered include: vertex and edge colourability (including snarks), factors, flows, projective geometry, cages, hypohamiltonian graphs, and 'symmetry' properties such as distance transitivity. The final chapter contains a pot-pourri of other topics in which the Petersen graph has played its part. Undergraduate students will be able to profit from reading this book as the prerequisites are few; thus it could be used for a second course in graph theory. On the other hand, the authors have also included a number of unsolved problems as well as topics of recent study. Thus it will also be useful as a reference for graph theorists.

The Mathematics of Projectiles in Sport
  • Neville de Mestre
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    19 April 1990
  • The mathematical theory underlying many sporting activities is of considerable interest to both applied mathematicians and sporting enthusiasts alike. Here Professor de Mestre presents a rigorous account of the techniques applied to the motion of projectiles. This equips the reader for the final section of the book in which an enlightening collection of sporting applications is considered, ranging from soccer to table-tennis and high-jump to frisbees. The presentation should be accessible to most undergraduate science students and provides an ideal setting for the development of mathematical modelling techniques.

Manifolds and Mechanics
  • Arthur Jones, Alistair Gray, Robert Hutton
  • Published online:
    28 January 2010
    Print publication:
    14 May 1987
  • This book provides an easy introduction to the theory of differentiable manifolds. The authors then show how the theory can be used to develop, simply but rigorously, the theory of Lanrangian mechanics directly from Newton's laws. Unnecessary abstraction has been avoided to produce an account suitable for students in mathematics or physics who have taken courses in advanced calculus.