Instantons and Four-Manifolds

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Corrected but (except for the inclusion of a 6-page "Survey of recent results") not substantially revised new edition of a work first published in 1984. The ultimate source of the work is a seminar organized by Michael Freedman at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, the objective of which was to review the details of "Donaldson's theorem". While the title suggests physics, this is state-of-the-art topology; Donaldson, however, took gauge field theory as a point of departure, and ramifications of his work promise to repay his debt to physics. Demanding stuff, but exciting, particularly to those who find themselves doing these days a lot of jaywalking between the physicists' and the mathematicians' sides of a busy street. (NW) Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)