A.N. Kolmogorov (b. Tambov 1903, d. Moscow 1987) was one of the most brilliant mathematicians that the world has ever known. Incredibly deep and creative, he was able to approach each subject with a completely new point of view: in a few magnificent pages, which are models of shrewdness and imagination, and which astounded his contemporaries, he changed drastically the landscape of the subject.

Most mathematicians prove what they can, Kolmogorov was of those who prove what they want. For this book several world experts were asked to present one part of the mathematical heritage left to us by Kolmogorov.

Each chapter treats one of Kolmogorov's research themes, or a subject that was invented as a consequence of his discoveries. His contributions are presented, his methods, the perspectives he opened to us, the way in which this research has evolved up to now, along with examples of recent applications and a presentation of the current prospects.

This book can be read by anyone with a master's (even a bachelor's) degree in mathematics, computer science or physics, or more generally by anyone who likes mathematical ideas. Rather than present detailed proofs, the main ideas are described. A bibliography is provided for those who wish to understand the technical details.

One can see that sometimes very simple reasoning (with the right interpretation and tools) can lead in a few lines to very substantial results.

The Kolmogorov Legacy in Physics was published by Springer in 2004 (ISBN 978-3-540-20307-0).

Zusammenfassung

A.N. Kolmogorov (Tambov 1903, Moscow 1987) was one of the most brilliant mathematicians that the world has ever known. Incredibly deep and creative, he was able to approach each subject with a completely new point of view: in a few magnificent pages, which are models of shrewdness and imagination, and which astounded his contemporaries, he changed drastically the landscape of the subject.

Each chapter treats one of Kolmogorov's research themes, or a subject that was invented as a consequence of his discoveries. The authors present here his contributions, his methods, the perspectives he opened to us, the way in which this research has evolved up to now, along with examples of recent applications and a presentation of the modern prospects.

This book can be read by anyone with a master's (or even a bachelor's) degree in mathematics, computer science or physics, or more generally by anyone who likes mathematical ideas. Rather than presenting detailed proofs, the main ideas are described, and a bibliography for those who wish to understand the technical details.

Inhalt
The youth of Andrei Nikolaevich and Fourier series.- Kolmogorov's contribution to intuitionistic logic.- Some aspects of the probabilistic work.- Infinite dimensional Kolmogorov equations.- From Kolmogorov's theorem on empirical distribution to number theory.- Kolmogorov's ?-entropy and the problem of statistical estimation.- Kolmogorov and topology.- Geometry and approximation theory in A. N. Kolmogorov's works.- Kolmogorov and population dynamics.- Resonances and small divisors.- The KAM Theorem.- From Kolmogorov's Work on entropy of dynamical systems to Non-uniformly hyperbolic dynamics.- From Hilbert's 13th Problem to the theory of neural networks: constructive aspects of Kolmogorov's Superposition Theorem.- Kolmogorov Complexity.- Algorithmic Chaos and the Incompressibility Method.