Foreword to the special issue on Applications of computer algebra

Abstract

Computer algebra has traveled from its origins as an aid to specialized physics calculations to the development of general purpose algorithms for a variety of mathematical domains to now being a standard tool for modeling in a wide swath of applications from simple to complex, as evidenced by the ACA conferences and the papers in this issue. These days, general and special purpose computer algebra systems (and computer algebra enhanced numerical software) are available on handheld devices and calculators as well as desktop to high-end computers, becoming a ubiquitous software item. Welcome to this special issue of the Journal of Symbolic Computation containing selected papers primarily from the conferences ACA’2001 and ACA’2002, held respectively in May 31–June 3, 2001, at the Technical Vocational Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, and June 25–28, 2002, at the University of Thessaly in Volos, Greece. These conferences were chaired by Bill Pletsch (2001), and Alkiviadis G. Akritas and Ilias S. Kotsireas (2002). The First International Conference on Applications of Computer Algebra (ACA), sponsored by IMACS (International Association for Mathematics and Computers in Simulation), was held May 16–19, 1995, on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. The organizers were Stanly Steinberg and Michael Wester. Since then, ACA conferences have been held in a variety of locales in North America and Europe, and recently in Asia, Japan. The primary goal of these conferences is to promote the interaction of developers of computer algebra systems and packages with researchers and users (in particular, scientists, engineers, educators, etc.).1 A companion special issue (Wester et al., 2004) emphasizing papers from ACA’2001 and ACA’2002 with a strong “applied” component has appeared. This current collection consists of eight papers covering enumeration/depiction of molecular stereo-isomers, bifurcation theory, asymptotic invariant tori of perturbed two-body problems, Sturm’s algorithm and isolating blocks, improving the efficiency of involutive basis computations, constructions for real algebraic curves, producing explicit formulae implicitizing rational hypersurfaces, and economical maps in simplicial algebraic topology.