This is the first volume in a series of books on the general theme of Supersymmetric Mechanics; the series is based on lectures and discussions held in 2005 and 2006 at the INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati. This volume supplies a pedagogical introduction, at the non-expert level, to the attractor mechanism in space-time singularities. After a qualitative overview, explicit examples realizing the attractor mechanism are treated at length.

This is the first volume in a series of books on the general theme of Supersymmetric Mechanics; the series is based on lectures and discussions held in 2005 and 2006 at the INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati. This volume supplies a pedagogical introduction, at the non-expert level, to the attractor mechanism in space-time singularities. After a qualitative overview, explicit examples realizing the attractor mechanism are treated at length.

Supersymmetry was created by the physicists in the 1970's to give a unified treatment of fermions and bosons, the basic constituents of matter. Since then its mathematical structure has been recognized as that of a new development in geometry, and mathematicians have busied themselves with exploring this aspect. This volume collects recent advances in this field, both from a physical and a mathematical point of view, with an accent on a rigorous treatment of the various questions raised.