An Introduction To Analytic Functions With Theoretical Implications

An Introduction to Analytic Functions

When first published in 1959, this book was the basis of a two-semester course in complex analysis for upper undergraduate and graduate students. J. S. Mac Nerney was a proponent of the Socratic, or “do-it-yourself” method of learning mathematics, in which students are encouraged to engage in mathematical problem solving, including theorems at every level which are often regarded as “too difficult” for students to prove for themselves. Accordingly, Mac Nerney provides no proofs. What he does instead is to compose and arrange the investigation in his own unique style, so that a contextual proof is always available to the persistent student who enjoys a challenge. The central idea is to empower students by allowing them to discover and rely on their own mathematical abilities. This text may be used in a variety of settings, including: the usual classroom or seminar, but with the teacher acting mainly as a moderator while the students present their discoveries, a small-group setting in which the students present their discoveries to each other, and independent study. The Editors, William E. Kaufman (who was Mac Nerney’s last PhD student) and Ryan C. Schwiebert, have composed the original typed Work into LaTeX ; they have updated the notation, terminology, and some of the prose for modern usage, but the organization of content has been strictly preserved. About this Book, some new exercises, and an index have also been added.

An Introduction to Analytic Functions with Theoretical Implications

An Introduction to Complex Function Theory

This book provides a rigorous yet elementary introduction to the theory of analytic functions of a single complex variable. While presupposing in its readership a degree of mathematical maturity, it insists on no formal prerequisites beyond a sound knowledge of calculus. Starting from basic definitions, the text slowly and carefully develops the ideas of complex analysis to the point where such landmarks of the subject as Cauchy's theorem, the Riemann mapping theorem, and the theorem of Mittag-Leffler can be treated without sidestepping any issues of rigor. The emphasis throughout is a geometric one, most pronounced in the extensive chapter dealing with conformal mapping, which amounts essentially to a "short course" in that important area of complex function theory. Each chapter concludes with a wide selection of exercises, ranging from straightforward computations to problems of a more conceptual and thought-provoking nature.