Loop groups, the simplest class of infinite dimensional Lie groups, have recently been the subject of intense study. This book gives a complete and self-contained account of what is known about them from a geometrical and analytical point of view, drawing together the many branches of mathematics from which current theory developed--algebra, geometry, analysis, combinatorics, and the mathematics of quantum field theory. The authors discuss Loop groups' applications to simple particle physics and explain how the mathematics used in connection with Loop groups is itself interesting and valuable, thereby making this work accessible to mathematicians in many fields.

To take stock and to discuss the most fruitful directions for future research, many of the world's leading figures met at the Durham Symposium on Quantum Groups in the summer of 1999, and this volume provides an excellent overview of the material presented there. It includes important surveys of both cyclotomic Hecke algebras and the dynamical Yang-Baxter equation. Plus contributions which treat the construction and classification of quantum groups or the associated solutions of the quantum Yang-Baxter equation. The representation theory of quantum groups is discussed, as is the function algebra approach to quantum groups, and there is a new look at the origins of quantum groups in the theory of integrable systems.

Loop groups are the simplest class of infinite dimensional Lie groups, and have important applications in elementary particle physics. They have recently been studied intensively, and the theory is now well developed, involving ideas from several areas of mathematics - algebra, geometry, analysis, and combinatorics. The mathematics of quantum field theory is an important ingredient. This book gives a complete and self-contained account of what is known about the subject and it is written from a geometrical and analytical point of view, with quantum field theory very much in mind. The mathematics used in connection with loop groups is interesting and important beyond its immediate applications and the authors have tried to make the book accessible to mathematicians in many fields. The hardback edition was published in December 1986.