Based on courses given at the CRM Banff summer school in 1999, this volume provides a snapshot of topics engaging theoretical physicists at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. Young physicists will find in these chapters pedagogical introductions to subjects currently active in theoretical physics, and more seasoned physicists will find a chance to share the excitement of fields outside their immediate research interests.

The present volume has its source in the CAP-CRM summer school on "Particles and Fields" that was held in Banff in the summer of 1994. Over the years, the Division of Theoretical Physics of the Canadian Associa- tion of Physicists (CAP) has regularly sponsored such schools on various theoretical and experimental topics. In 1994, the Centre de Recherches Mathematiques (CRM) lent its support to the event. This institute, located in Montreal, is one of Canada's national research centers in the mathe- matical sciences. Its mandate includes the organization of scientific events across Canada and since 1994 the CRM has been holding a yearly summer school in Banff as part of its thematic program. The summer school, whose lectures are collected here, has thus become a tradition. The focus of the school was integrable theories, matrix models, statistical systems, field theory and its applications to condensed matter physics, as well as certain aspects of algebra, geometry, and topology. This covers some of the most significant advances in modern theoretical physics. The present volume updates and expands these lectures and reflects the high pedagogical level of the school. The first chapter by E. Corrigan describes some of the remarkable fea- tures of the integrable Toda field theories which are associated with affine Dynkin diagrams. The second chapter by J. Feldman, H. Knorrer, D. Leh- mann, and E.

In the 1970s F. Calogero and D. Sutherland discovered that for certain potentials in one-dimensional systems, but for any number of particles, the Schrödinger eigenvalue problem is exactly solvable. Until then, there was only one known nontrivial example of an exactly solvable quantum multi-particle problem. J. Moser subsequently showed that the classical counterparts to these models is also amenable to an exact analytical approach. The last decade has witnessed a true explosion of activities involving Calogero-Moser-Sutherland models, and these now play a role in research areas ranging from theoretical physics (such as soliton theory, quantum field theory, string theory, solvable models of statistical mechanics, condensed matter physics, and quantum chaos) to pure mathematics (such as representation theory, harmonic analysis, theory of special functions, combinatorics of symmetric functions, dynamical systems, random matrix theory, and complex geometry). The aim of this volume is to provide an overview of the many branches into which research on CMS systems has diversified in recent years. The contributions are by leading researchers from various disciplines in whose work CMS systems appear, either as the topic of investigation itself or as a tool for further applications.

This book pays tribute to two pioneers in the field of Mathematical physics, Jiri Patera and Pavel Winternitz of the CRM. Each has contributed more than forty years to the subject of mathematical physics, particularly to the study of algebraic methods.

In the 1970s F. Calogero and D. Sutherland discovered that for certain potentials in one-dimensional systems, but for any number of particles, the Schroedinger eigenvalue problem is exactly solvable. Until then, there was only one known nontrivial example of an exactly solvable quantum multi-particle problem. J. Moser subsequently showed that the classical counterparts to these models is also amenable to an exact analytical approach. The last decade has witnessed a true explosion of activities involving Calogero-Moser-Sutherland models, and these now play a role in research areas ranging from theoretical physics (such as soliton theory, quantum field theory, string theory, solvable models of statistical mechanics, condensed matter physics, and quantum chaos) to pure mathematics (such as representation theory, harmonic analysis, theory of special functions, combinatorics of symmetric functions, dynamical systems, random matrix theory, and complex geometry). The aim of this volume is to provide an overview of the many branches into which research on CMS systems has diversified in recent years. The contributions are by leading researchers from various disciplines in whose work CMS systems appear, either as the topic of investigation itself or as a tool for further applications.

The present volume has its source in the CAP-CRM summer school on "Particles and Fields" that was held in Banff in the summer of 1994. Over the years, the Division of Theoretical Physics of the Canadian Associa- tion of Physicists (CAP) has regularly sponsored such schools on various theoretical and experimental topics. In 1994, the Centre de Recherches Mathematiques (CRM) lent its support to the event. This institute, located in Montreal, is one of Canada's national research centers in the mathe- matical sciences. Its mandate includes the organization of scientific events across Canada and since 1994 the CRM has been holding a yearly summer school in Banff as part of its thematic program. The summer school, whose lectures are collected here, has thus become a tradition. The focus of the school was integrable theories, matrix models, statistical systems, field theory and its applications to condensed matter physics, as well as certain aspects of algebra, geometry, and topology. This covers some of the most significant advances in modern theoretical physics. The present volume updates and expands these lectures and reflects the high pedagogical level of the school. The first chapter by E. Corrigan describes some of the remarkable fea- tures of the integrable Toda field theories which are associated with affine Dynkin diagrams. The second chapter by J. Feldman, H. Knorrer, D. Leh- mann, and E.

This book pays tribute to two pioneers in the field of Mathematical physics, Jiri Patera and Pavel Winternitz of the CRM. Each has contributed more than forty years to the subject of mathematical physics, particularly to the study of algebraic methods.

Based on courses given at the CRM Banff summer school in 1999, this volume provides a snapshot of topics engaging theoretical physicists at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. Young physicists will find in these chapters pedagogical introductions to subjects currently active in theoretical physics, and more seasoned physicists will find a chance to share the excitement of fields outside their immediate research interests.