Topology, K. Janich

Assuming that the reader is familiar with sheaf theory, the book gives a self-contained introduction to the theory of constructible sheaves related to many kinds of singular spaces, such as cell complexes, triangulated spaces, semialgebraic and subanalytic sets, complex algebraic or analytic sets, stratified spaces, and quotient spaces. The relation to the underlying geometrical ideas are worked out in detail, together with many applications to the topology of such spaces. All chapters have their own detailed introduction, containing the main results and definitions, illustrated in simple terms by a number of examples. The technical details of the proof are postponed to later sections, since these are not needed for the applications.

The Banff NATO Summer School was held August 14-25, 1989 at the Banff Cen­ tre, Banff, Albert, Canada. It was a combination of two venues: a summer school in the annual series of Summer School in Theoretical Physics spon­ sored by the Theoretical Physics Division, Canadian Association of Physi­ cists, and a NATO Advanced Study Institute. The Organizing Committee for the present school was composed of G. Kunstatter (University of Winnipeg), H.C. Lee (Chalk River Laboratories and University of Western Ontario), R. Kobes (University of Winnipeg), D.l. Toms (University of Newcastle Upon Tyne) and Y.S. Wu (University of Utah). Thanks to the group of lecturers (see Contents) and the timeliness of the courses given, the school, entitled PHYSICS, GEOMETRY AND TOPOLOGY, was popular from the very outset.