Lectures on Polytopes

Based on a graduate course given at the Technische Universität, Berlin, these lectures present a wealth of material on the modern theory of convex polytopes. The clear and straightforward exposition features many illustrations, and provides complete proofs for most theorems. The material requires only linear algebra as a prerequisite, but takes the reader quickly from the basics to topics of recent research, including a number of unanswered questions. The lectures introduce the basic facts about polytopes, with an emphasis on the methods that yield the results, discuss important examples and elegant constructions, and show the excitement of current work in the field. They will provide interesting and enjoyable reading for researchers as well as students.

Auteur
Günter M. Ziegler, 1963 in München geboren, studierte in München und am MIT Mathematik und wurde mit 31 der jüngste Professor an der TU Berlin. Ausgezeichnet mit dem Leibniz-Preis, dem höchsten deutschen Forschungspreis, sowie dem Communicator-Preis, begann er als Präsident der Mathematiker-Vereinigung und "Jahr der Mathematik"-Initiator eine große Charme-Offensive für sein Fach. Und die setzt er jetzt von der FU Berlin aus fort.

Résumé

From the reviews:

"This is an excellent book on convex polytopes written by a young and extremely active researcher." (Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum)

"From the publication of the first printing, in 1994, this book became one of the most widely used textbooks in Discrete Geometry. The reviewer sees at least two reasons for that: the beautiful mathematics presented here, and the fact that the book can be used at a wide variety of levels, for several different courses. ... It is not only students who can benefits from the book. Researchers will find its updates notes and references very helpful." (Miklós Bóna, MathDL, August, 2007)

Contenu
and Examples.- Polytopes, Polyhedra, and Cones.- Faces of Polytopes.- Graphs of Polytopes.- Steinitz' Theorem for 3-Polytopes.- Schlegel Diagrams for 4-Polytopes.- Duality, Gale Diagrams, and Applications.- Fans, Arrangements, Zonotopes, and Tilings.- Shellability and the Upper Bound Theorem.- Fiber Polytopes, and Beyond.- Fiber Polytopes, and Beyond.