This is a collection of articles on fundamental physical principles and methods, the topics ranging from matrix models, random surfaces, quantum dots and rings, to black holes, cosmology and testing of the tiny effects predicted by General Relativity. Among the authors are Sir Roger Penrose and other well-known experts and the articles are addressed to graduate students and researchers. The volume is a Festschrift to a noted physicist and mentor Sergei Matinyan.

The four volumes of the proceedings of MG14 give a broad view of all aspects of gravitational physics and astrophysics, from mathematical issues to recent observations and experiments. The scientific program of the meeting included 35 morning plenary talks over 6 days, 6 evening popular talks and 100 parallel sessions on 84 topics over 4 afternoons.Volume A contains plenary and review talks ranging from the mathematical foundations of classical and quantum gravitational theories including recent developments in string theory, to precision tests of general relativity including progress towards the detection of gravitational waves, and from supernova cosmology to relativistic astrophysics, including topics such as gamma ray bursts, black hole physics both in our galaxy and in active galactic nuclei in other galaxies, and neutron star, pulsar and white dwarf astrophysics.The remaining volumes include parallel sessions which touch on dark matter, neutrinos, X-ray sources, astrophysical black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, binary systems, radiative transfer, accretion disks, quasars, gamma ray bursts, supernovas, alternative gravitational theories, perturbations of collapsed objects, analog models, black hole thermodynamics, numerical relativity, gravitational lensing, large scale structure, observational cosmology, early universe models and cosmic microwave background anisotropies, inhomogeneous cosmology, inflation, global structure, singularities, chaos, Einstein-Maxwell systems, wormholes, exact solutions of Einstein's equations, gravitational waves, gravitational wave detectors and data analysis, precision gravitational measurements, quantum gravity and loop quantum gravity, quantum cosmology, strings and branes, self-gravitating systems, gamma ray astronomy, cosmic rays and the history of general relativity.

This book provides extended versions of the talks given at the memorial Pomeranchuk-100 Conference, June 5-6, held in the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow, Russia and the review of the 2013 Pomeranchuk Prize Winner — Mikhail Shifman. It shall provide a broad review of the current status of the research in the high energy physics and astrophysics.

Mathematical gauge theory studies connections on principal bundles, or, more precisely, the solution spaces of certain partial differential equations for such connections. Historically, these equations have come from mathematical physics, and play an important role in the description of the electro-weak and strong nuclear forces. The use of gauge theory as a tool for studying topological properties of four-manifolds was pioneered by the fundamental work of Simon Donaldson in theearly 1980s, and was revolutionized by the introduction of the Seiberg-Witten equations in the mid-1990s. Since the birth of the subject, it has retained its close connection with symplectic topology. The analogy between these two fields of study was further underscored by Andreas Floer's constructionof an infinite-dimensional variant of Morse theory that applies in two a priori different contexts: either to define symplectic invariants for pairs of Lagrangian submanifolds of a symplectic manifold, or to define topological This volume is based on lecture courses and advanced seminars given at the 2004 Clay Mathematics Institute Summer School at the Alfred Renyi Institute of Mathematics in Budapest, Hungary. Several of the authors have added a considerable amount of additional material tothat presented at the school, and the resulting volume provides a state-of-the-art introduction to current research, covering material from Heegaard Floer homology, contact geometry, smooth four-manifold topology, and symplectic four-manifolds. Information for our distributors: Titles in this seriesare copublished with the Clay Mathematics Institute (Cambridge, MA).

During the last six decades, Yang-Mills theory has increasingly become the cornerstone of theoretical physics. It is seemingly the only fully consistent relativistic quantum many-body theory in four space-time dimensions. As such it is the underlying theoretical framework for the Standard Model of Particle Physics, which has been shown to be the correct theory at the energies we now can measure. It has been investigated also from many other perspectives, and many new and unexpected features have been uncovered from this theory. In recent decades, apart from high energy physics, the theory has been actively applied in other branches of physics, such as statistical physics, condensed matter physics, nonlinear systems, etc. This makes the theory an indispensable topic for all who are involved in physics.The conference celebrated the exceptional achievements using Yang-Mills theory over the years but also many other truly remarkable contributions to different branches of physics from Prof C N Yang. This volume collects the invaluable talks by Prof C N Yang and the invited speakers reviewing these remarkable contributions and their importance for the future of physics.

In this volume, topics are drawn from field theory, especially gauge field theory, as applied to particle, condensed matter and gravitational physics, and concern a variety of interesting subjects. These include geometricalDtopological effects in quantum theory, fractional charge, time travel, relativistic quantized fields in and out of thermal equilibrium and quantum modifications of symmetry in physical systems.Many readers will find this a useful volume, especially theoretical physicists and mathematicians. The material will be of interest to both the expert who will find well-presented novel and stimulating viewpoints of various subjects and the novice who will find complete, detailed and precise descriptions of important topics of current interest, in theoretical and mathematical physics.

Few people studying Gauge Field Theory need to be convinced of the importance of the work of 't Hooft. This volume contains a selection of articles and review topics covering his well-known studies on the renormalization of non-Abelian gauge theorems, topological phenomena in gauge field theory and thoughts on the role of black holes in quantum gravity.The chapters are tied together by thoughtful commentaries which provide a background and the illumination of hindsight ? together they form a clear and coherent picture of the physical and theoretical importance of gauge theories and the gauge principle. This book is ideal for students and researchers.Gerard 't Hooft is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. He has taught at Harvard, SLAC and Caltech prior to his present position. Other distinguished honors include being awarded the Dannie Heineman Prize, the Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Chicago, Wolf Prize of the State of Israel, Pius XI Medal (Vatican), and the Lorentz Medal (KNAW, Amsterdam).