For almost two decades, Sidney Coleman has been giving review lectures on frontier topics in theoretical high-energy physics at the International School of Subnuclear Physics held each year at Erice, Sicily. This volume is a collection of some of the best of these lectures. To this day they have few rivals for clarity of exposition and depth of insight. Although very popular when first published, many of the lectures have been difficult to obtain recently. Graduate students and professionals in high-energy physics will welcome this collection by a master of the field.

The past decade has seen the development of the operational understanding of fun damental interactions within the standard model. This has detoured our attention from the great enigmas posed by the dynamics and collective behavior of strongly interacting particles. Discovered more than 30 years ago, the thermal nature of the hadronic particle spectra has stimulated considerable theoretical effort, which so far has failed to 'confirm' on the basis of microscopic interactions the origins of this phenomenon. However, a highly successful Statistical Bootstrap Model was developed by Rolf Hagedorn at CERN about 30 years ago, which has led us to consider the 'boiling hadronic matter' as a transient state in the trans formation of hadronic particles into their melted form which we call Quark-GIuon-Plasma (QGP). Today, we return to seek detailed understanding of the thermalization processes of hadronic matter, equipped on the theoretical side with the knowledge of the fundamental strong interaction theory, the quantum chromo-dynamics (QCD), and recognizing the im portant role of the complex QCD-vacuum structure. On the other side, we have developed new experimental tools in the form of nuclear relativistic beams, which allow to create rather extended regions in space-time of Hot Hadronic Matter. The confluence of these new and recent developments in theory and experiment led us to gather together from June 27 to July 1, 1994, at the Grand Hotel in Divonne-Ies-Bains, France, to discuss and expose the open questions and issues in our field.

This is an introductory textbook on amorphous magnets for students and scientists in physics and materials science. Basic physical arguments are given and experimental data are systematically collected and discussed. The book deals mostly with the qualitative and semiquantitative aspects of materials that can be deduced, in a relatively simple way, from the fundamental equations of solid state physics.

In August 1979 a group of 94 physicists from 60 laboratories in 21 countries met in Erice to attend the 17th Course of the International School of Subnuclear Physics. The countries represented at the School were: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Federal Republic of Germany, France, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Nor way, Poland, Rumania, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Yugoslavia. The School was sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Public Education (MPI), the Italian Ministry of Scientific and Techno logical Research (MRST) , the Sicilian Regional Government, and the Weizman Institute of Science. In the theoretical sessions, as expected, Sidney Coleman's (liN) lectures provided a new masterpiece in his Erice series. Andre Martin lectured on the theory of new particles, R.L. Jaffe on the Bag Hodel and Francis E. Low on quark status at low energy. In the more specialized section we were able to reflect on the problem of asymptotic changes in gauge theory, troubles experienced with instantons and finally on the fate of false vacua, thanks to A. Patrascioiu, R. Petronzio, and H. Kleinert. A quite exceptional event this year was the special QCD session wId_ch I leave the reader to enjoy without further introduction.