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An exploration of mathematical connections
Peter M Higgins
£15.99 £3.99
Please note, this offer price only applies to individual customers when ordering direct from Oxford University Press, while stock lasts. No further discounts will apply. If you are a bookseller, please contact your OUP sales representative.
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Richard Dawkins
£20.00
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Symmetry and the Monster
One of the greatest quests of mathematics
Mark Ronan
272 pages
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Line drawings & 12 halftones
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196x129mm
978-0-19-280723-6
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Paperback
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26 July 2007
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- The exciting story of one of the great mathematical quests, combining mathematics with stories of the extraordinary characters involved.
- Very accessible writing - dazzling concepts such as multi-dimensional snowflakes are explained for the general reader.
- An exciting, pacy, historical narrative covering two centuries - from the young genius Everiste Galois to the present day.
Imagine a giant snowflake in 196,884 dimensions...
This is the story of a mathematical quest that began two hundred years ago in revolutionary France, led to the biggest collaboration ever between mathematicians across the world, and revealed the 'Monster' - not monstrous at all, but a structure of exquisite beauty and complexity. Told here for the first time in accessible prose, it is a story that involves brilliant yet tragic characters, curious number 'coincidences' that led to breakthroughs in the mathematics of symmetry, and strange crystals that reach into many dimensions. And it is a story that is not yet over, for we have yet to understand the deep significance of the Monster - and its tantalizing hints of connections with
the physical structure of spacetime. Once we understand the full nature of the Monster, we may well have revealed a whole new and deeper understanding of the nature of our Universe.Readership: This book will appeal to readers of popular science and popular mathematics, both non-specialists and also specialists attracted by the biographical details and narrative of the quest for 'the Monster'
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Mark Ronan, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Visiting Professor of Mathematics at University College, London
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"Ronan unfolds his story with admirable verve and clarity... [His] exposition includes entertaining glimpses of the personalities involved in this extraordinary quest, but best of all gives an admirabe amount of detail concerning the actual substance of their work." - Peter Pesic. TLS "...accessible, artfully written...it stresses the human side of the drama. Though I have been a long-time participant in the story, I found myself learning much in every chapter and not wanting to put the book down." - Robert L. Griess Jr. "Ronan does a good job of describing the mathematics in broad strokes and giving a flavour of what is happening and - more importantly - why mathematicians get excited about these
questions." - The Mathematical Association of America "This book tells for the first time the fascinating story of the biggest theorem ever to have been proved. Mark Ronan graphically describes not only the last few decades of the chase and the intriguing characters who led it, but also some of the more interesting byways, including my personal favourite, the one I called 'Monstrous Moonshine'." - John H. Conway, F.R.S. "Ronan tells a good story, and in doing so he paints a convincing picture of how mathematicians conduct their research." - Gareth Jones, London Mathematical Society Newsletter
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Prologue
1: Theaetetus's Icosahedron
2: Galois: Death of a Genius
3: Irrational Solutions
4: Groups
5: Sophus Lie
6: Lie Groups and Physics
7: Going Finite
8: After the War
9: The Man from Uccle
10: The Big Theorum
11: Pandora's Box
12: The Leech Lattice
13: Fischer's Monsters
14: The Atlas
15: A Monstrous Mystery
16: Construction
17: Moonshine
Appendix 1: The Golden Section
Appendix 2: The Witt Design
Appendix 3: The Leech Lattice
Appendix4: The 26 Exceptions
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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