Almost ?fteen years later, and there is little change in our motivation. Mathem- ical physics of quantum systems remains a lively subject of intrinsic interest with numerous applications, both actual and potential. Intheprefacetothe?rsteditionwehavedescribedtheoriginofthisbookrooted at the beginning in a course of lectures. With this fact in mind, we were naturally pleased to learn that the volume was used as a course text in many points of the world and we gladly accepted the o?er ofSpringer Verlag which inherited the rights from our original publisher, to consider preparation of a second edition. It was our ambition to bring the reader close to the places where real life dwells, and therefore this edition had to be more than a corrected printing. The ?eld is developing rapidly and since the ?rst edition various new subjects have appeared; as a couple of examples let us mention quantum computing or the major progress in theinvestigationofrandomSchr] odingeroperators.Thereare, however, goodsources intheliteraturewherethereadercanlearnabouttheseandothernewdevelopments.

Almost ?fteen years later, and there is little change in our motivation. Mathem- ical physics of quantum systems remains a lively subject of intrinsic interest with numerous applications, both actual and potential. Intheprefacetothe?rsteditionwehavedescribedtheoriginofthisbookrooted at the beginning in a course of lectures. With this fact in mind, we were naturally pleased to learn that the volume was used as a course text in many points of the world and we gladly accepted the o?er ofSpringer Verlag which inherited the rights from our original publisher, to consider preparation of a second edition. It was our ambition to bring the reader close to the places where real life dwells, and therefore this edition had to be more than a corrected printing. The ?eld is developing rapidly and since the ?rst edition various new subjects have appeared; as a couple of examples let us mention quantum computing or the major progress in theinvestigationofrandomSchr] odingeroperators.Thereare, however, goodsources intheliteraturewherethereadercanlearnabouttheseandothernewdevelopments.