Introduction

Abstract

The main intention of this book is to provide material for an introductory graduate course of one or two semesters. The duration of the course clearly depends on such parameters as speed and teaching hours per week and on how much material is covered. In the book, I have indicated three options for skipping material. For example, one possibility is to omit Chap. 10 and most of Sect. 7.2. Another is to skip Chaps. 9–11 almost entirely. But apart from these options, interdependencies in the text are close enough to make it hard to skip material without tearing holes into proofs that come later. So the instructor can best limit the amount of material by choosing where to stop. A relatively short course would stop after Chap. 8, while other natural stopping points are after Chaps. 11 or 13.