MathOverflow will be down for maintenance for approximately 3 hours, starting Monday evening (06/24/2013) at approximately 9:00 PM Eastern time (UTC-4).
-2

Topological Methods in Group Theory witten by Ross Geoghegan What about this book?

flag
Only a general comment, inferring from similar questions: I believe that you are more likey to get a good answer, if you make more precise what exactly you want to know. For example: Are you interested in a book on this subject and want to know whether this one is a good choice or whether there are other alternatives (and what are the respective strengths of the books)? Is this for self-study, or as textbook acompanying a course,...? (And, what is your or the students background?) – quid Jan 17 2011 at 10:39
8 
 It's got a yellow cover. Anything else you'd like to know? You'd better be a little more precise. – Angelo Jan 17 2011 at 11:55
You can read a review for free online here: <a href="zentralblatt-math.org/zmath/en/advanced/…;. This is the ZMATH page, you can search for books of interest using the search form <a href="zentralblatt-math.org/zmath/en/advanced/…;. There are other journals etc. who publish reviews, too. – Tim van Beek Jan 17 2011 at 12:07
Sorry, the links did not come out right: Try "zentralblatt-math.org/zmath/en/advanced"; and search for the author Geoghegan. The reviews of the Zentralblatt Mathematik are usually quite informative. – Tim van Beek Jan 17 2011 at 12:09

closed as not a real question by Andrey Rekalo, Bill Johnson, Andrew Stacey, Alex Bartel, Mark Sapir Jan 17 2011 at 12:25

1 Answer

1

I can just review the first half of the book. In order, the short introduction of general topology is too short, a good reference would have been preferable. For the following, the theory of CW complexes requires a tough notation and technicalities in proofs and definitions. Furthermore, proofs are not so easy to read, since Geoghegan uses frequently expressions like "using Theorem 3.14.5 we get that..." so you are obliged to jump back many many times.

Though, I've found this book pretty good. The spirit is always geometric and you can find a good amount of interesting results of the last three decades.

link|flag
thanks very much. – honglangwang Jan 17 2011 at 19:02

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.