Geometric Discrepancy An Illustrated Guide [Paperback]

What is the most uniform way of distributing n points in the unit square? How big is the irregularity necessarily present in any such distribution? This book is an accessible and lively introduction to the area of geometric discrepancy theory, with numerous exercises and illustrations. In separate, more specialized parts, it also provides a comprehensive guide to recent research.

What is the most uniform way of distributing n points in the unit square? How big is the irregularity necessarily present in any such distribution? This book is an accessible and lively introduction to the area of geometric discrepancy theory.

Discrepancy theory is also called the theory of irregularities of distribution. Here are some typical questions: What is the most uniform way of dis? tributing n points in the unit square? How big is the irregularity necessarily present in any such distribution? For a precise formulation of these questions, we must quantify the irregularity of a given distribution, and discrepancy is a numerical parameter of a point set serving this purpose. Such questions were first tackled in the thirties, with a motivation com? ing from number theory. A more or less satisfactory solution of the basic discrepancy problem in the plane was completed in the late sixties, and the analogous higher-dimensional problem is far from solved even today. In the meantime, discrepancy theory blossomed into a field of remarkable breadth and diversity. There are subfields closely connected to the original number? theoretic roots of discrepancy theory, areas related to Ramsey theory and to hypergraphs, and also results supporting eminently practical methods and algorithms for numerical integration and similar tasks. The applications in? clude financial calculations, computer graphics, and computational physics, just to name a few. This book is an introductory textbook on discrepancy theory. It should be accessible to early graduate stl“,