Author Description

"This book is based on the notes of a graduate course on differential geometry which the author gave at the Nankai Institute of Mathematics. It consists of two parts: the first part contains an introduction to the geometric theory of characteristic classes due to Shiing-shen Chern and Andre Weil, as well as a proof of the Gauss Bonnet Chern theorem based on the Mathai Quillen construction of Thom forms; the second part presents analytic proofs of the Poincare Hopf index formula, as well as the Morse inequalities based on deformations introduced by Edward Witten.". "Readership: Graduate students and researchers in differential geometry, topology and mathematical physics."--BOOK JACKET.