This book reflects our own struggle to understand the semiclassical behaviour of quantized fields in the presence of boundaries. Along many years, motivated by the problems of quantum cosmology and quantum field theory, we have studied in detail the one-loop properties of massless spin-l/2 fields, Euclidean Maxwell the ory, gravitino potentials and Euclidean quantum gravity. Hence our book begins with a review of the physical and mathematical motivations for studying physical theories in the presence of boundaries, with emphasis on electrostatics, vacuum v Maxwell theory and quantum cosmology. We then study the Feynman propagator in Minkowski space-time and in curved space-time. In the latter case, the corre sponding Schwinger-DeWitt asymptotic expansion is given. The following chapters are devoted to the standard theory of the effective action and the geometric im provement due to Vilkovisky, the manifestly covariant quantization of gauge fields, zeta-function regularization in mathematics and in quantum field theory, and the problem of boundary conditions in one-loop quantum theory. For this purpose, we study in detail Dirichlet, Neumann and Robin boundary conditions for scalar fields, local and non-local boundary conditions for massless spin-l/2 fields, mixed boundary conditions for gauge fields and gravitation. This is the content of Part I. Part II presents our investigations of Euclidean Maxwell theory, simple super gravity and Euclidean quantum gravity.

th The 29 International Conference was held as the first one of the millennium at its Fort Lauderdale venue. These conferences began, with High Energy Physics being the main topic, by introducing gradually cosmology into its programs. These proceedings of the 2000 conference reflect the variety of topics and ideas discussed. Our future conferences will be designed somewhat akin to the early Coral Gables Conferences where we shall seek some convergence of ideas. For this reason various committees have been formed from among the participating physicists. The committees and their memberships are listed in these proceedings. We further decided for the first time to include some graduate student participants in our future meetings for which also a committee has already been established. The topics will demonstrate a more activist structure of the Coral Gables Conferences, for example the duality of the gravitational forces and expansion of the universe will be discussed from this point of view since it conveys a convergence to the ideas of quintessence versus the ordinary theory, which are considered as the cause of the expansion of the universe. We further wish to announce that the future conferences will assume a collective organization where several committees as listed in these proceedings will have their input into the conference. We have now introduced new topics and ideas, which referred especially to the attractive and repulsive nature of the gravitational force. These proceedings of the conference contain a variety of topics and ideas.

Over the past five de-:: ades researchers have sought to develop a new framework that would resolve the anomalies attributable to a patchwork formulation of relativistic quantum mechanics. This book chronicles the development of a new paradigm for describing relativistic quantum phenomena. What makes the new paradigm unique is its inclusion of a physically measurable, invariant evolution parameter. The resulting theory has been sufficiently well developed in the refereed literature that it is now possible to present a synthesis of its ideas and techniques. My synthesis is intended to encourage and enhance future research, and is presented in six parts. The environment within which the conventional paradigm exists is described in the Introduction. Part I eases the mainstream reader into the ideas of the new paradigm by providing the reader with a discussion that should look very familiar, but contains subtle nuances. Indeed, I try to provide the mainstream reader with familiar "landmarks" throughout the text. This is possible because the new paradigm contains the conventional paradigm as a subset. The foundation of the new paradigm is presented in Part II, fol owed by numerous applications in the remaining three parts. The reader should notice that the new paradigm handles not only the broad class of problems typically dealt with in conventional relativistic quantum theory, but also contains fertile research areas for both experimentalists and theorists. To avoid developing a theoretical framework without physical validity, numerous comparisons between theory and experiment are provided, and several predictions are made.

The basic subjects and main topics covered by this book are: (1) Physics of Black Holes (classical and quantum); (2) Thermodynamics, entropy and internal dynamics; (3) Creation of particles and evaporation; (4) Mini black holes; (5) Quantum mechanics of black holes in curved spacetime; (6) The role of spin and torsion in the black hole physics; (7) Equilibrium geometry and membrane paradigm; (8) Black hole in string and superstring theory; (9) Strings, quantum gravity and black holes; (10) The problem of singularity; (11) Astrophysics of black holes; (12) Observational evidence of black holes. The book reveals the deep connection between gravitational, quantum and statistical physics and also the importance of black hole behaviour in the very early universe. An important new point discussed concerns the introduction of spin in the physics of black holes, showing its central role when correctly put into the Einstein equations through the geometric concept of torsion, with the new concept of a time-temperature uncertainty relation, minimal time, minimal entropy, quantization of entropy and the connection of black hole with wormholes. Besides theoretical aspects, the reader will also find observational evidence for black holes in active galactic nuclei, in binary X-ray sources and in supernova remnants. The book will thus interest physicists, astronomers, and astrophysicists at different levels of their career who specialize in classical properties, quantum processes, statistical thermodynamics, numerical collapse, observational evidence, general relativity and other related problems.

This book is based upon the lectures delivered from 18 to 22 June 2007 at the INFN-LaboratoriNazionali di Frascati School on Attractor Mechanism, directed by Stefano Bellucci, with the participation of prestigious lecturers, including S. Ferrara, M. Gnaydin, P. Levay, T. Mohaupt, and A. Zichichi. All lectures were given at a pedagogical, introductory level, a feature which is re?ected in the s- ci?c "?avor" of this volume, which has also bene?ted much from the extensive discussions and related reworking of the various contributions. This is the fourth volume in a series of books on the general topics of sup- symmetry, supergravity, black holes, and the attractor mechanism. Indeed, based on previous meetings, three volumes have already been published: BELLUCCI S. (2006). Supersymmetric Mechanics - Vol. 1: Supersymmetry, NoncommutativityandMatrixModels.(vol.698, pp.1-229).ISBN:3-540-33313-4. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Verlag (Germany). Springer Lecture Notes in Physics Vol. 698. BELLUCCIS., S.FERRARA, A.MARRANI.(2006).SupersymmetricMech- ics - Vol. 2: The Attractor Mechanism and Space Time Singularities. (vol. 701, pp. 1-242). ISBN-13: 9783540341567. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Verlag (G- many). Springer Lecture Notes in Physics Vol. 701. BELLUCCIS.(2008).SupersymmetricMechanics-Vol.3: AttractorsandBlack HolesinSupersymmetricGravity.(vol.755, pp.1-373).ISBN-13:9783540795223. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Verlag (Germany). Springer Lecture Notes in Physics 755. In this volume, we have included two contributions originating from short p- sentations of recent original results given by participants, i.e., Wei Li and Filipe Moura.

Observational and experimental data pertaining to gravity and cosmology are changing our view of the Universe. General relativity is a fundamental key for the understanding of these observations and its theory is undergoing a continuing enhancement of its intersection with observational and experimental data. These data include direct observations and experiments carried out in our solar system, among which there are direct gravitational wave astronomy, frame dragging and tests of gravitational theories from solar system and spacecraft observations. This book explores John Archibald Wheeler's seminal and enduring contributions in relativistic astrophysics and includes: the General Theory of Relativity and Wheeler's influence; recent developments in the confrontation of relativity with experiments; the theory describing gravitational radiation, and its detection in Earth-based and space-based interferometer detectors as well as in Earth-based bar detectors; the mathematical description of the initial value problem in relativity and applications to modeling gravitational wave sources via computational relativity; the phenomenon of frame dragging and its measurement by satellite observations. All of these areas were of direct interest to Professor John A. Wheeler and were seminally influenced by his ideas.

This book on the theory of three-dimensional spinors and their applications fills an important gap in the literature. It gives an introductory treatment of spinors. From the reviews: "Gathers much of what can be done with 3-D spinors in an easy-to-read, self-contained form designed for applications that will supplement many available spinor treatments. The book...should be appealing to graduate students and researchers in relativity and mathematical physics." --MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS

Observing our Universe and its evolution with ever increasing sensitivity from ground-based or space-borne telescopes is posing great challenges to Fundamental Physics and Astronomy. The remnant cosmic microwave background, as beautifully measured by successive space missions COBE, WMAP, and now PLANCK, provides a unique probe of the very early stages of our Universe. The red-shift of atomic lines in distant galaxies, the dynamics of pulsars, the large scale structure of galaxies, and black holes are a few manifestations of the theory of General Relativity. Yet, today, we understand only 4% of the mass of our Universe, the rest being called dark energy and dark matter, both of unknown origin! A second family of space missions is currently emerging; rather than designing ever more re nedobservationalinstruments,physicistsandengineersseekalsotousethespaceenvironment to perform high-precision tests of the fundamental laws of physics. The technology required for such tests has become available only over the course of the last decades. Clocks of high accuracy are an example. They are based on advances in atomic and laser physics, such as cold atoms, enabling a new generation of highly sensitive quantum sensors for ground and space experiments. Two experiments in space have now tested Einstein's relativity theory: * Several decades ago, Gravity Probe A con rmed the accuracy of the gravitational red-shift ?5 according to general relativity to a level of 7x 10 [R. F. C. Vessot et al. , Test of Relativistic Gravitation with a Space-Borne Hydrogen Maser, Phys. Rev. Lett. 45, 2081-2084 (1980)].

Research on photon and electron collisions with atomic and molecular targets and their ions has seen a rapid increase in interest, both experimentally and theoretically, in recent years. This is partly because these processes provide an ideal means of investigating the dynamics of many particle systems at a fundamental level and partly because their detailed understanding is required in many other fields, particularly astrophysics, plasma physics and controlled thermonuclear fusion, laser physics, atmospheric processes, isotope separation, radiation physics and chemistry and surface science. In recent years a number of important advances have been made, both on the experimental side and on the theoretical side. On the experimental side these include absolute measurements of cross sections, experiments using coincidence techniques, the use of polarised beams and targets, the development of very high energy resolution electron beams, the use of synchrotron radiation sources and ion storage rings, the study of laser assisted atomic collisions, the interaction of super-intense lasers with atoms and molecules and the increasing number of studies using positron beams.

In light of the barrage of popular books on physics and cosmology, one may question the need for another. Here, two books especially come to mind: Steven Weinberg's The First Three Minutes, written 12 years ago, and the recent best-seller ABriefHistory of Time by Stephen Hawking. The two books are complementary. Weinberg-Nobel prize winner/physicist-wrote from the standpoint of an elementary particle physicist with emphasis on the contents of the universe, whereas Hawking wrote more as a general relativist with emphasis on gravity and the geometry of the universe. Neither one, however, presented the complete story. Weinberg did not 13 venture back beyond the time when temperature was higher than 10 K and 32 perhaps as high as 10 K. He gave no explanation for the origin of particles and the singularity or source of the overwhelming radiation energy in our uni verse of one billion photons for each proton. Hawking presents a uni verse that has no boundaries, was not created, and will not be destroyed. The object of this book is to describe my new theory on the creation of our uni verse in a multi-universe cosmos. The new cosmological model eliminates the troublesome singularity-big bang theory and explains for the first time the origin of matter and the overwhelming electromagnetic radiation contained in the universe. My new theory also predicted the existence ofhigh-energy gamma rays, which were recendy detected in powerful bursts.

It would seem that any specialist in plasma physics studying a medium in which the interaction between particles is as distance-dependent as the inter action between stars and other gravitating masses would assert that the role of collective effects in the dynamics of gravitating systems must be decisive. However, among astronomers this point of view has been recog nized only very recently. So, comparatively recently, serious consideration has been devoted to theories of galactic spiral structure in which the dominant role is played by the orbital properties of individual stars rather than collec tive effects. In this connection we would like to draw the reader's attention to a difference in the scientific traditions of plasma physicists and astrono mers, whereby the former have explained the delay of the onset of controlled thermonuclear fusion by the "intrigues" of collective processes in the plasma, while many a generation of astronomers were calculating star motions, solar and lunar eclipses, and a number of other fine effects for many years ahead by making excellent use of only the laws of Newtonian mechanics. Therefore, for an astronomer, it is perhaps not easy to agree with the fact that the evolution of stellar systems is controlled mainly by collective effects, and the habitual methods of theoretical mechanics III astronomy must make way for the method of self-consistent fields."

Dr. KURT GODEL'S sixtieth birthday (April 28, 1966) and the thirty fifth anniversary of the publication of his theorems on undecidability were celebrated during the 75th Anniversary Meeting of the Ohio Ac ademy of Science at The Ohio State University, Columbus, on April 22, 1966. The celebration took the form of a Festschrift Symposium on a theme supported by the late Director of The Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey, Dr. J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER: "Logic, and Its Relations to Mathematics, Natural Science, and Philosophy." The symposium also celebrated the founding of Section L (Mathematical Sciences) of the Ohio Academy of Science. Salutations to Dr. GODEL were followed by the reading of papers by S. F. BARKER, H. B. CURRY, H. RUBIN, G. E. SACKS, and G. TAKEUTI, and by the announcement of in-absentia papers contributed in honor of Dr. GODEL by A. LEVY, B. MELTZER, R. M. SOLOVAY, and E. WETTE. A short discussion of "The II Beyond Godel's I" concluded the session."

The discovery of the ?rst case of superluminal radio jets in our galaxy in 1994 from the bright and peculiar X-ray source GRS 1915+105 has opened the way to a major shift in the direction of studies of stellar-mass accreting binaries. The past decade has seen an impressive increase in multi-wavelength studies. It is now known that all black hole binaries in our galaxy are radio sources and most likely their radio emission originates from a powerful jet. In addition to the spectacular events related to the ejection of superluminal jets, steady jets are known from many systems. Compared with their supermassive cousins, the nuclei of active galaxies, stellar-mass X-ray binaries have the advantage of varying on time scales accessible within a human life (sometimes even much shorter than a second). This has led to the ?rst detailed studies of the relation between accretion and ejection. It is even possible that, excluding their "soft" periods, the majority of the power in gal- tic sources lies in the jets and not in the accretion ?ows. This means that until a few years ago we were struggling with a physical problem, accretion onto compact objects, without considering one of the most important components of the system. Models that associate part of the high-energy emission and even the fast aperiodic variability to the jet itself are now being proposed and jets can no longer be ignored.

This volume is dedicated to the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of Hermann Minkowski's paper "Raum und Zeit" in 1909 [1]. The paper presents the textofthetalkMinkowskigaveatthe80thMeetingoftheGermanNaturalScientists and Physicians in Cologne on September 21, 1908. Minkowski's work on the spacetime representation of special relativity had a huge impact on the twentieth century physics, which can be best expressed by merely stating what is undeniable - that modern physics would be impossible wi- out the notion of spacetime. It is suf cient to mention as an example only the fact that general relativity would be impossible without this notion; Einstein succeeded to identifygravitywith the curvatureofspacetime onlywhen he overcamehis initial hostile reactionto Minkowski'sfour-dimensionalrepresentationof special relativity and adopted spacetime as the correct relativistic picture of the world. While there exists an unanimous consensus on the mathematical signi cance of spacetime for theoretical physics, for a hundred years there has been no consensus on the nature of spacetime itself. The rst sign of this continuing controversy was Sommerfeld's remark in his notes on Minkowski's article [2]: "What will be the epistemologicalattitudetowardsMinkowski'sconceptionofthetime-spaceproblem is another question, but, as it seems to me, a question which does not essentially touch his physics".

This book is devoted to one of the central problems of contemporary thinking, for which c.P. Snow in 1959 coined the phrase of the "Two Cultures". In this concept, human endeavour is directed on one side to the (forward-looking) sci ences (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, etc.) and on the other side to the (backward-looking) humanities (including psychology, linguistics, sociology, etc.). In this dichotomy Snow saw no possibility of unification. On the other hand the urge towards self-consistency and harmony in the mental and spiritual lives of both man and society as a whole is clearly one of the major forces of creativity, both scientific and artistic. This force aims at the unification of the "Two Cultures" in order to build an integrated self-consistent system for our intellectual life. Some attempts in this direction have been made before, and will be described in this book. It is our aim to contribute to the achievement of an integrated mental life on the basis of information theory. In order to construct our model, we examine the laws of information theory, leading us to the deduction of the main laws inherent in both "cultures". Thus, we consider the evolution of both non-living and living matter, human behaviour, the phenomenon of language, the sphere of aesthetics, etc. We hope that our work will be useful both for researchers (who are trying to derive different integral theories) and for various other "consumers" of scientific knowledge (meaning broad circles of intellectuals).

The present book grew out of lecture notes prepared for a "Cours du troisieme cycle de la Suisse Romande", 1983 in Lausanne. The original notes are considerably extended and brought up to date. In fact the book offers at many instances completely new derivations. Half-way between textbook and research monograph we believe it to be useful for students in elementary particle physics as well as for research workers in the realm of supersymmetry. In writing the book we looked back not only on ten years of super- symmetry but also on ten years of our own life and work. We realize how deeply we are indebted to many friends and colleagues. Some shared our efforts, some helped and encouraged us, some provided the facili- ties to work. Their list comprises at least C. Becchi, S. Bedding, P. Breitenlohner, T. E. Clark, S. Ferrara, R. Gatto, M. Jacob, W. Lang, J. H. Lowenstein, D. Maison, H. Nicolai, J. Prentki, A. Rouet, H. Ruegg, M. Schweda, R. Stora, J. Wess, W. Zimmermann, B. Zumino. During the last ten years we had the privilege to work at CERN (Geneva), Departement de Physique Theorique (University of Geneva), Institut fUr Theoretische Physik (University of Karlsruhe) and at the Max-Planck-Institut fUr Physik und Astrophysik (Munich) for which we are most grateful. Grate- fully acknowledged is also the support we received by "the Swiss National Science Foundation" (O. P. ), the "Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft" (Heisenberg-Fellowship; K. S. ).

Modem dynamics is increasingly participating in the solution of problems raised by as tronomical observations. This new relationship is being fostered on one side by the im provements in the observations, which in recent years contributed several discoveries of new systems, such as the objects in the Kuiper belt, the pulsar and star companions, to speak only of the most striking ones, and, on the other hand, by the progresses in modem dynamics. The progresses in modem dynamics are due to two factors: the dissemination of fast computers, allowing the numerical studies of very complex systems by a large number of scientists, and the improvement in our understanding of the complex behaviour of Hamiltonian systems. KAM and Nekhorochev theories have shed a light on the subtle and surprizing interplays between regular and chaotic motions; numerical experiments and analytical approximations have shown how these peculiarities are indeed present in astronomically important systems and are instrumental in understanding their formation and evolution.

InMay1988,theFirstInternationalConferenceonDissociativeRecombination:Theory, ExperimentandApplicationswasheldatChateauLakeLouise,Alberta,Canada. Thismeeting gaveaconsiderableimpetustothissubject,whichisofparticularinterestforalargevarietyof fieldsincludinginterstellarclouds,planetaryatmospheres,gaslasers,plasmaprocessing,ion sourcesandthermonuclearplasmas. Sincethen,indeed,severalcollaborationswereinitiated betweenexperimentalistsworkingwithdifferenttechniques,betweentheoreticiansdealingwith molecularstructureononehandanddynamicsontheotherhandandalsobetween experimentalistsandtheoreticians. Duringthelastfouryears,therefore,alargenumberof studieswerecarriedoutandraisedanewsetofquestions. Moreparticularly,theresultsthat wereobtainedconcerningcontroversialspeciessuchasH!andHeir,castingsomedoubton theverymechanismsbywhichdissociativerecombinationproceeds. The Second International Conference on Dissociative Recombination: Theory, ExperimentandApplications heldat"I'AbbayedeSaintJacutdelaMer",Brittany,France, May3-8,1992,camethereforeattherighttimetosurveythecurrentstateofthesubject. The symposiumbroughttogetherleadinginvestigatorsinthefieldsofmolecularionrecombination research,atomicandmoleculartheoryandexperiment,plasmasphysics,astrochemistryand aeronomy. Speakerspresentedtalksreviewingtheirownworkandthesewerefollowedby livelydiscussionsessions. Freetimeperiodsallowedparticipantstodiscoveranenchanting peninsulaofNorthBrittanywhilepursuingstimulatingscientificdiscussions. Thepapersinthis volumearebasedonthesetalksandfurtherdiscussions,withtheexceptionofcontributions fromT. AmanoandB. M. McLaughlinwhowereunabletoattend. Alistofparticipantsas wellasasouvenirgroupphotoisgivenattheendofthebook. WeareindebtedtoNATOforitsfinancialsupportwhichcontributedtothegreat successofthissecondmeeting. TheUniversityofRennesIandtheBalzerscompanyarealso acknowledgedfortheiradditionalsupportManythankstothewholestaffoftheabbeyforits kindnessandeffortsinprovidinguswithapropitiousenvironmentforsuchaworkshop. We arealsogratefultoL. Caubetforhervaluableadministrativeassistanceduringthepreparation ofthemeeting. Finallyaspecialmentionmustbegiventoallthesessionchairpersonsfortheir skillinorchestratingthediscussions. Lookingforwardtoattendingthethirdmeeting. TheEditors Bertrand R. Rowe J. Bria/l A. Mitchell Andre Callosa DepartementdePhysique DepartmentofPhysics DepartementdePhysique AtomiqueetMoleculaire TheUniversityofWesternOntario AtomiqueetMoleculaire UniversitedeRennesI London,Canada,N6A3K7 UniversitedeRennesI CampusdeBeaulieu CampusdeBeaulieu 35042RennesCedex, 35042RennesCedex, France France v CONTENTS ORALCONTRIBUTIONS PolyatomicIonDissociativeRecombination . 1 D. R. Bates RecentDevelopmentsandPerspectivesintheTreatmentofDissociative RecombinationandRelatedProcesses...11 A. Giusti-Suzor, I. F Schneider, and 0. Dulieu CharacteristicsofSuperexcitedStatesofMoleculesandMQDTStudiesofNO+ DissociativeRecombination...25 H. Sun, K. Nakashima, and H. Nakamura CalculationsforAr +Xe*andArXe+ +e 35 A. P. Hickman, DL Huestis, and R. P. Saxon Electron-IonContinuum-ContinuumMixinginDissociativeRecombination 47 s. L. Guberman ATheoreticalStudyoftheHCO+andHCS+ElectronicDissociativeRecombinations. . 59 D. Talbi, and Y Ellinger DissociativeRecombinationofCH;:SomeBasicInformationfromElectronic 2 StructureCalculations. 67 WP. Kraemer TheoreticalProblemsintheDissociativeRecombinationofH~ +e...75 H. Takagi RecentMergedBeamsInvestigationsofHydrogenMolecularIonRecombination...87 J B. A. Mitchell, F B. Yousif, P. Van der Donk, and T. J Morgan vii FlowingAfterglowStudiesofElectron-IonRecombinationusingLangmuirProbesand OpticalSpectroscopy...99 NG. Adams RecentFlowingAfterglowMeasurements . 113 B. R. Rowe InfraredSpectroscopicStudiesoftheDissociativeRecombinationProcessesofH...127 3 T. Amano RecombinationofClusterIons . 135 R. Johnsen PredissociationofExcitedStatesofH . . 145 3 H. Helm AStudyofHe e,3I,;)BoundandContinuumStates...155 2 CJ Gillan, B. M McLaughlin. and P. G. Burke ElectronCollisionInducedExcitationsandDissociationofHeH+usingthe R-MatrixMethod . . 163 BK Sarpal, J Tennyson, and L. A. Morgan AssociativeIonisationofHydrogen:ExperimentswithFastMergedBeams...173 F Brouillard, andX Urbain TheoryoftheAsssociativeIonisationReactionbetweenTwoLaser-Excited . 187 SodiumAtoms 0. Du!ieu, A. Giusti-Suzor, andF Masnou-Seeuws ResonantTheoryofDissociativeAttachment...195 J. J. Fabrikant MicroscopicandMacroscopicTheoriesofTermolecularRecombinationbetween AtomicIons...205 MR. Flannery DissociativeRecombinationinPlanetaryIonospheres . . 219 JL. Fox ChemistryofSupernova1987a . 243 A. Dalgarno DissociativeRecombinationinInterstellarClouds . .

In 1908 Hermann Minkowski gave the four-dimensional(spacetime) formulationof special relativity[1]. In fact,HenriPoincare[ ' 2] rst noticedin1906that the Lorentz transformations had a geometric interpretation as rotations in a four-dimensional space with time as the fourth dimension. However it was Minkowski, who succe- fully decoded the profound message about the dimensionality of the world hidden in the relativity postulate, which re ects the experimental fact that natural laws are the same in all inertial reference frames. Unlike Poincare, ' Minkowski did not regardspacetime - the uni cation of space and time - as a convenientmathematical space, but insisted that this absolute four-dimensional world, as Minkowski called it, represents physical phenomena and the world more adequately than the relativity postulate: "the word relativity-postulate...seems to me very feeble. Since the pos- late comes to mean that only the four-dimensional world in space and time is given by the phenomena...I prefer to call it the postulate of the absolute world"[3]. The impact of Minkowski's ideas on the twentieth century physics has been so immense that one cannot imagine modern physics without the notion of spacetime. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that spacetime has been the greatest discoveryinphysicsofall times. Theonlyotherdiscoverythatcomesclosetospa- time is Einstein's general relativity, which revealed that gravity is a manifestation of the curvature of spacetime. But it was the discovery of spacetime, which paved the way for this deep understanding of what gravity really is. Einstein saw the link betweenthegeometryofspacetimeandgravitationonlyafterheovercamehis initial hostile attitude toward the notion of spacetime.

Over the past years the author has developed a quantum language going beyond the concepts used by Bohr and Heisenberg. The simple formal algebraic language is designed to be consistent with quantum theory. It differs from natural languages in its epistemology, modal structure, logical connections, and copulatives. Starting from ideas of John von Neumann and in part also as a response to his fundamental work, the author bases his approach on what one really observes when studying quantum processes. This way the new language can be seen as a clue to a deeper understanding of the concepts of quantum physics, at the same time avoiding those paradoxes which arise when using natural languages. The work is organized didactically: The reader learns in fairly concrete form about the language and its structure as well as about its use for physics.

After some decades of work a satisfactory theory of quantum gravity is still not available; moreover, there are indications that the original field theoretical approach may be better suited than originally expected. There, to first approximation, one is left with the problem of quantum field theory on Lorentzian manifolds. Surprisingly, this seemingly modest approach leads to far reaching conceptual and mathematical problems and to spectacular predictions, the most famous one being the Hawking radiation of black holes. Ingredients of this approach are the formulation of quantum physics in terms of C*-algebras, the geometry of Lorentzian manifolds, in particular their causal structure, and linear hyperbolic differential equations where the well-posedness of the Cauchy problem plays a distinguished role, as well as more recently the insights from suitable concepts such as microlocal analysis. This primer is an outgrowth of a compact course given by the editors and contributing authors to an audience of advanced graduate students and young researchers in the field, and assumes working knowledge of differential geometry and functional analysis on the part of the reader.

Cosmology in Scalar-Tensor Gravity covers all aspects of cosmology in scalar-tensor theories of gravity. Considerable progress has been made in this exciting area of physics and this book is the first to provide a critical overview of the research. Among the topics treated are:
-Scalar-tensor gravity and its limit to general relativity,
-Effective energy-momentum tensors and conformal frames,
-Gravitational waves in scalar-tensor cosmology,
-Specific scalar-tensor theories,
-Exact cosmological solutions and cosmological perturbations,
-Scalar-tensor scenarios of the early universe and inflation,
-Scalar-tensor models of quintessence in the present universe and their far-reaching consequences for the ultimate fate of the cosmos.

The physical processes driving the different manifestations of the phe nomenon of active galactic nuclei have been studied extensively during the last decade. A major obstacle in all attempts to understand the relevant pro cesses has always been the wide range of frequencies over which significant fractions of the total power are emitted. During the last decade, orbiting telescopes and instrumental improvements for ground-based instrumenta tion provided the means for major advancements on the observational side. The organizers felt that it was timely to organize a meeting to discuss the impact of this new situation on the understanding of the relevant physical processes. More then 400 astrophysicists were interested in participating in the meeting, in spite of the constraints on overseas travel which were imposed in early 1991. Unfortunately only 220 participants could be hosted by the Max-Planck-Haus, the site of the 1991 Heidelberg conference. The meet ing was organized by Sonderforschungsbereich 328 "Evolution of Galaxies". During 5 sessions, most of which lasted for one day each, 47 invited and con tributed talks and 150 poster papers were given, most, but not all, of which are included in these proceedings. With a few exceptions the order of the written texts follows that of the oral contributions during the meeting. The arrangement of posters into the five sections was not always unambiguous. We hope to have placed them in the most appropriate sections, in which they are listed in alphabetical order.

Because of recent progress in the development of quasistationary toroidal mag- netic confinement systems, especially tokamaks, these systems are at the center of research on controlled thermonuclear fusion. Tokamaks were proposed and first built at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy. In the 1960s the basic features of plasma behavior in toroidal magnetic confinement systems were investigated in ex- periments on the first tokamaks and the possibility of obtaining effective confine- ment in them was demonstrated. The successes of this first stage led to a rapid ex- pansion in tokamak research around the world. The development of a thermonu- clear power reactor based on the tokamak is now actively under way. During the earliest phase of research on tokamaks, it was already clear that the ohmic heating used in them was not sufficient to obtain the temperatures needed for initiation of a self-sustaining thermonuclear reaction. At the beginning of the 1970s, therefore, a search was begun for methods of heating which could supple- ment ohmic heating. The best of these auxiliary heating techniques are neutral beam injection, various methods based on the collisionless absorption of rf (radio fre- quency) waves, and adiabatic compression of the plasma by a rising magnetic field.