A Course in Convexity

Download or read book A Course in Convexity written by Alexander Barvinok and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2002-11-19 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Convexity is a simple idea that manifests itself in a surprising variety of places. This fertile field has an immensely rich structure and numerous applications. Barvinok demonstrates that simplicity, intuitive appeal, and the universality of applications make teaching (and learning) convexity a gratifying experience. The book will benefit both teacher and student: It is easy to understand, entertaining to the reader, and includes many exercises that vary in degree of difficulty. Overall, the author demonstrates the power of a few simple unifying principles in a variety of pure and applied problems. The prerequisites are minimal amounts of linear algebra, analysis, and elementary topology, plus basic computational skills. Portions of the book could be used by advanced undergraduates. As a whole, it is designed for graduate students interested in mathematical methods, computer science, electrical engineering, and operations research. The book will also be of interest to research mathematicians, who will find some results that are recent, some that are new, and many known results that are discussed from a new perspective.