Indra's Pearls
The Vision of Felix Klein

This book tells the story of the first computer exploration of Klein's vision of infinitely repeated reflections, featuring extraordinary images.

David Mumford (Author), Caroline Series (Author), David Wright (Author)

9780521352536, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 April 2002

418 pages, 55 b/w illus. 150 colour illus. 75 exercises
25.4 x 20.2 x 2.7 cm, 1.197 kg

'One can browse through the numerous beautiful and fascinating pictures and marvel at them … Readers with widely different backgrounds will find something enjoyable in this unique book.' Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum

Felix Klein, one of the great nineteenth-century geometers, discovered in mathematics an idea prefigured in Buddhist mythology: the heaven of Indra contained a net of pearls, each of which was reflected in its neighbour, so that the whole Universe was mirrored in each pearl. Klein studied infinitely repeated reflections and was led to forms with multiple coexisting symmetries. For a century, these images barely existed outside the imagination of mathematicians. However, in the 1980s, the authors embarked on the first computer exploration of Klein's vision, and in doing so found many further extraordinary images. Join the authors on the path from basic mathematical ideas to the simple algorithms that create the delicate fractal filigrees, most of which have never appeared in print before. Beginners can follow the step-by-step instructions for writing programs that generate the images. Others can see how the images relate to ideas at the forefront of research.

Preface
Introduction
1. The language of symmetry
2. A delightful fiction
3. Double spirals and Möbius maps
4. The Schottky dance
5. Fractal dust and infinite words
6. Indra's necklace
7. The glowing gasket
8. Playing with parameters
9. Accidents will happen
10. Between the cracks
11. Crossing boundaries
12. Epilogue
Index
Road map.

Subject Areas: History of mathematics [PBX], Topology [PBP], Geometry [PBM], Philosophy of mathematics [PBB], Mathematics [PB]