Analysis and Probability

If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is. —John von Neumann While this is a course in analysis, our approach departs from the beaten path in some ways. Firstly, we emphasize a variety of connections to themes from neighboring fields, such as wavelets, fractals and signals; topics typically not included in a gradu­ ate analysis course. This in turn entails excursions into domains with a probabilistic flavor. Yet the diverse parts of the book follow a common underlying thread, and to­ gether they constitute a good blend; each part in the mix naturally complements the other. In fact, there are now good reasons for taking a wider view of analysis, for ex­ ample the fact that several applied trends have come to interact in new and exciting ways with traditional mathematical analysis—as it was taught in graduate classes for generations. One consequence of these impulses from "outside" is that conventional boundaries between core disciplines in mathematics have become more blurred. Fortunately this branching out does not mean that students will need to start out with any different or additional prerequisites. In fact, the ideas involved in this book are intuitive, natural, many of them visual, and geometric. The required background is quite minimal and it does not go beyond what is typically required in most graduate programs.