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'It is clear that this book is a labour of love, and that no effort has been spared in making it a useful textbook and reference for those seeking to understand its subject. The target readership consists both of first-time learners, for whom pedagogically sound explanations and numerous well-chosen exercises are provided to enhance comprehension, and of experienced mathematicians, for whom many tables of data and readable concise guides to research literature are provided. Numerous figures are included to supplement written explanations. The content is well-modularized, in the sense that different sections of the book may be read independently of one another, and that when there is an essential dependence between sections then this fact is clearly pointed out and the relationship between the sections is explained. This, and a thorough index, combine to make this book not only a valuable textbook, but also a valuable reference.' Zentralblatt MATH Informationen zum Autor S. Chmutov is Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Ohio State University. Klappentext A detailed exposition of the theory with an emphasis on its combinatorial aspects.This detailed exposition of a relatively recent development in knot theory, namely, the theory of Vassiliev knot invariants, is intended to serve both as a textbook for readers with little background in this area, and as a guide to some of the more advanced material. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1. Knots and their relatives; 2. Knot invariants; 3. Finite type invariants; 4. Chord diagrams; 5. Jacobi diagrams; 6. Lie algebra weight systems; 7. Algebra of 3-graphs; 8. The Kontsevich integral; 9. Framed knots and cabling operations; 10. The Drinfeld associator; 11. The Kontsevich integral: advanced features; 12. Braids and string links; 13. Gauss diagrams; 14. Miscellany; 15. The space of all knots; Appendix; References; Notations; Index.
