No label defined (Q4795229)

The purpose of this book is to give a systematic and comprehensive presentation of the theory of \(n\)-metric spaces, linear \(n\)-normed spaces and \(n\)-inner product spaces, with special emphasis on the case \(n=2\). The book consists of fifteen chapters and is organized as follows: Chapter 1 recalls inner product spaces primarily for reference purposes. In Chapter 2 the concepts of linear 2-normed spaces, 2-metric spaces and semi-2-metric spaces are introduced. In Chapter 3, 2-inner product spaces are defined. Chapter 4 treats \(G\)-inner product spaces and \(G\)-Hilbert spaces. Chapter 5 extends the notions of strict and uniform convexity to linear 2-normed spaces. Chapter 6 studies Gâteaux derivatives and \(p\)-semi-inner products. Chapter 7 introduces orthogonal and orthonormal sets in 2-inner product spaces. Chapter 8 studies a special covariant tensor of rank 4 and its relation to 2-inner products. In Chapter 9, a new orthogonality relation for normed linear spaces is introduced using the concept of area of a parallelogram. In Chapter 10, some properties of three new quadratic forms on a module over a star-algebra defined by C. S. Lin are given. In Chapter 11, the Heron formula in inner product spaces is introduced. The remaining Chapters 12-15 of this book consist of the results in A. Misiak's doctoral dissertation.