This book presents the Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians in Quantum Physics, held in Palermo, Italy, from 18 to 23 May 2015. Non-Hermitian operators, and non-Hermitian Hamiltonians in particular, have recently received considerable attention from both the mathematics and physics communities. There has been a growing interest in non-Hermitian Hamiltonians in quantum physics since the discovery that PT-symmetric Hamiltonians can have a real spectrum and thus a physical relevance. The main subjects considered in this book include: PT-symmetry in quantum physics, PT-optics, Spectral singularities and spectral techniques, Indefinite-metric theories, Open quantum systems, Krein space methods, and Biorthogonal systems and applications. The book also provides a summary of recent advances in pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians and PT-symmetric Hamiltonians, as well as their applications in quantum physics and in the theory of open quantum systems.

This book offers a review of the theory of locally convex quasi *-algebras, authored by two of its contributors over the last 25 years. Quasi *-algebras are partial algebraic structures that are motivated by certain applications in Mathematical Physics. They arise in a natural way by completing a *-algebra under a locally convex *-algebra topology, with respect to which the multiplication is separately continuous. Among other things, the book presents an unbounded representation theory of quasi *-algebras, together with an analysis of normed quasi *-algebras, their spectral theory and a study of the structure of locally convex quasi *-algebras. Special attention is given to the case where the locally convex quasi *-algebra is obtained by completing a C*-algebra under a locally convex *-algebra topology, coarser than the C*-topology. Introducing the subject to graduate students and researchers wishing to build on their knowledge of the usual theory of Banach and/or locally convex algebras, this approach is supported by basic results and a wide variety of examples.

This book presents the Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians in Quantum Physics, held in Palermo, Italy, from 18 to 23 May 2015. Non-Hermitian operators, and non-Hermitian Hamiltonians in particular, have recently received considerable attention from both the mathematics and physics communities. There has been a growing interest in non-Hermitian Hamiltonians in quantum physics since the discovery that PT-symmetric Hamiltonians can have a real spectrum and thus a physical relevance. The main subjects considered in this book include: PT-symmetry in quantum physics, PT-optics, Spectral singularities and spectral techniques, Indefinite-metric theories, Open quantum systems, Krein space methods, and Biorthogonal systems and applications. The book also provides a summary of recent advances in pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians and PT-symmetric Hamiltonians, as well as their applications in quantum physics and in the theory of open quantum systems.

Partial Inner Product (PIP) Spaces are ubiquitous, e.g. Rigged Hilbert spaces, chains of Hilbert or Banach spaces (such as the Lebesgue spaces Lp over the real line), etc. In fact, most functional spaces used in (quantum) physics and in signal processing are of this type. The book contains a systematic analysis of PIP spaces and operators defined on them. Numerous examples are described in detail and a large bibliography is provided. Finally, the last chapters cover the many applications of PIP spaces in physics and in signal/image processing, respectively.

As such, the book will be useful both for researchers in mathematics and practitioners of these disciplines.