Groups and Graphs, Designs and Dynamics

This collection of four short courses looks at group representations, graph spectra, statistical optimality, and symbolic dynamics, highlighting their common roots in linear algebra. It leads students from the very beginnings in linear algebra to high-level applications: representations of finite groups, leading to probability models and harmonic analysis; eigenvalues of growing graphs from quantum probability techniques; statistical optimality of designs from Laplacian eigenvalues of graphs; and symbolic dynamics, applying matrix stability and K-theory. An invaluable resource for researchers and beginning Ph.D. students, this book includes copious exercises, notes, and references.

R. A. Bailey is Professor of Statistics at the University of St Andrews. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Past President of the British and Irish Region of the International Biometric Society. Her books on Association Schemes and Design of Comparative Experiments were published by Cambridge University Press in 2004 and 2008, respectively.

Peter J. Cameron is Professor of Mathematics at the University of St Andrews. He was chair of the British Combinatorial Committee for thirty years. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and was awarded the London Mathematical Society's Senior Whitehead Prize in 2017 and the Euler Medal of the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications in 2003.

Yaokun Wu is Professor of Mathematics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He arranged the 2019 lecture courses on which the current book is based.