Three-Dimensional Geometry and Topology, Volume 1: (PMS-35)

William P. Thurston

Published by Princeton University Press 1997

Three-Dimensional Geometry and Topology, Volume 1

(PMS-35)

William P. Thurston
Edited by: Silvio Levy

Volume 52 in the series Princeton Mathematical Series

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400865321

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book develops some of the extraordinary richness, beauty, and power of geometry in two and three dimensions, and the strong connection of geometry with topology. Hyperbolic geometry is the star. A strong effort has been made to convey not just denatured formal reasoning (definitions, theorems, and proofs), but a living feeling for the subject. There are many figures, examples, and exercises of varying difficulty.

This book was the origin of a grand scheme developed by Thurston that is now coming to fruition. In the 1920s and 1930s the mathematics of two-dimensional spaces was formalized. It was Thurston's goal to do the same for three-dimensional spaces. To do this, he had to establish the strong connection of geometry to topology--the study of qualitative questions about geometrical structures. The author created a new set of concepts, and the expression "Thurston-type geometry" has become a commonplace.

Three-Dimensional Geometry and Topology had its origins in the form of notes for a graduate course the author taught at Princeton University between 1978 and 1980. Thurston shared his notes, duplicating and sending them to whoever requested them. Eventually, the mailing list grew to more than one thousand names. The book is the culmination of two decades of research and has become the most important and influential text in the field. Its content also provided the methods needed to solve one of mathematics' oldest unsolved problems--the Poincaré Conjecture.

In 2005 Thurston won the first AMS Book Prize, for Three-dimensional Geometry and Topology. The prize recognizes an outstanding research book that makes a seminal contribution to the research literature. Thurston received the Fields Medal, the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize, in 1982 for the depth and originality of his contributions to mathematics. In 1979 he was awarded the Alan T. Waterman Award, which recognizes an outstanding young researcher in any field of science or engineering supported by the National Science Foundation.

Author / Editor information

William P. Thurston is the Director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, and Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Davis. He received the Fields Medal in 1982 for his work on hyperbolic structures on 3-manifolds and foliations. Silvio Levy is editor of Experimental Mathematics and of the MSRI book series.

Reviews

Winner of the 1997 for the Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Mathematics, Association of American Publishers

Winner of the 2005 Book Prize, American Mathematical Society

The present volume represents the culmination of nearly two decades of honoring his famous but difficult 1978 lecture notes. This beautifully produced, exquisitely organized volume now reads as easily as one could possibly hope given the profundity of the material. An instant classic.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Reader’s Advisory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
1 What Is a Manifold? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2 Hyperbolic Geometry and Its Friends Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
3 Geometric Manifolds Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
4 The Structure of Discrete Groups Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	295
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	301