Overview

This book treats Jacques Tits's beautiful theory of buildings, making that theory accessible to readers with minimal background. It includes all the material of the earlier book Buildings by the second-named author, published by Springer-Verlag in 1989, which gave an introduction to buildings from the classical (simplicial) point of view. This new book includes two other approaches to buildings, which nicely complement the simplicial approach: On the one hand, buildings may be viewed as abstract sets of chambers important in the theory and applications of buildings. On the other hand, buildings may be viewed as metric spaces. Beginners can still use parts of the new book as a friendly introduction to buildings, but the book also contains valuable material for the active researcher. There are several paths through the book, so that readers may choose to concentrate on one particular approach. The pace is gentle in the elementary parts of the book, and the style is friendly throughout. All concepts are well motivated. There are thorough treatments of advanced topics such as the Moufang property, with arguments that are much more detailed than those that have previously appeared in the literature. This book is suitable as a textbook, with many exercises, and it may also be used for self-study.

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9780387570389

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<p>American Mathematical Society Mathematical Reviews MR2439729: <p> The book under review ... is the first encyclopedic treatment of buildings made available in the literature, so that with writing this book the authors manage to close a serious gap in the mathematical literature: the non-existence of an easily accessible reference for buildings beyond an introduction.<p>In their introduction the authors state that it is their goal in this book to treat buildings from all three ...&nbsp;points of view [via the simplicial, the combinatorial, and the metric approach]. The various approaches complement one another and are useful. On the other hand, [the authors] recognize that some readers may prefer one particular viewpoint. [The authors] have therefore tried to create more than one path through the book so that, for example, the reader interested only in the combinatorial approach can learn the basics without having to spend too much time studying buildings as simplicial complexes.'' I

American Mathematical Society Mathematical Reviews MR2439729: The book under review ... is the first encyclopedic treatment of buildings made available in the literature, so that with writing this book the authors manage to close a serious gap in the mathematical literature: the non-existence of an easily accessible reference for buildings beyond an introduction.In their introduction the authors state that it is their goal in this book to treat buildings from all three ...&nbsp;points of view [via the simplicial, the combinatorial, and the metric approach]. The various approaches complement one another and are useful. On the other hand, [the authors] recognize that some readers may prefer one particular viewpoint. [The authors] have therefore tried to create more than one path through the book so that, for example, the reader interested only in the combinatorial approach can learn the basics without having to spend too much time studying buildings as simplicial complexes.'' I

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