Real Analysis Through Modern Infinitesimals

Real Analysis Through Modern Infinitesimals provides a course on mathematical analysis based on Internal Set Theory (IST) introduced by Edward Nelson in 1977. After motivating IST through an ultrapower construction, the book provides a careful development of this theory representing each external class as a proper class. This foundational discussion, which is presented in the first two chapters, includes an account of the basic internal and external properties of the real number system as an entity within IST. In its remaining fourteen chapters, the book explores the consequences of the perspective offered by IST as a wide range of real analysis topics are surveyed. The topics thus developed begin with those usually discussed in an advanced undergraduate analysis course and gradually move to topics that are suitable for more advanced readers. This book may be used for reference, self-study, and as a source for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses.

Nader Vakil is a Professor of Mathematics at Western Illinois University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1984, where he worked with Edwin Hewitt, His research interests center on the foundation of mathematical analysis and applications of the theory of modern infinitesimals in topology and functional analysis.