E. Brian Davies Knihy

Focusing on the spectral theory of non-self-adjoint linear operators, this comprehensive text is tailored for postgraduate students and researchers. It covers essential topics such as Fredholm theory, Hilbert-Schmidt operators, and one-parameter semigroups, with applications to Markov semigroups. The book introduces the theory of pseudospectra and explores recent advancements in understanding their behavior related to orthogonal polynomials. Additionally, it presents innovative methods for estimating eigenvalues of non-self-adjoint Schrödinger operators and examines the unique spectral features of the non-self-adjoint harmonic oscillator.

In the follow-up to his acclaimed Science in the Looking Glass, Brian Davies discusses deep problems about our place in the world, using a minimum of technical jargon. The book argues that "absolutist" ideas of the objectivity of science, dating back to Plato, continue to mislead generationsof both theoretical physicists and theologians. It explains that the multi-layered nature of our present descriptions of the world is unavoidable, not because of anything about the world, but because of our own human natures. It tries to rescue mathematics from the singular and exceptional statusthat it has been assigned, as much by those who understand it as by those who do not. Working throughout from direct quotations from many of the important contributors to its subject, it concludes with a penetrating criticism of many of the recent contributions to the often acrimonious debates aboutscience and religions.