The aim of the conference was to find common elements between quantization and coherent states, and quantization on Poisson manifolds. Topics included are coherent states, geometric quantization, phase space quantization, deformation and *-products and Berry's phase.

This self-contained introduction discusses the evolution of the notion of coherent states, from the early works of Schrödinger to the most recent advances, including signal analysis. An integrated and modern approach to the utility of coherent states in many different branches of physics, it strikes a balance between mathematical and physical descriptions. Split into two parts, the first introduces readers to the most familiar coherent states, their origin, their construction, and their application and relevance to various selected domains of physics. Part II, mostly based on recent original results, is devoted to the question of quantization of various sets through coherent states, and shows the link to procedures in signal analysis.

This book is a self-contained and concise introduction to the techniques and applications of path integral quantization and functional techniques, aimed at students and practitioners. The first half of the text focuses on quantum mechanics, including a review of the action formulation of classical mechanics and quantum mechanics in the Dirac operator and state formalism, and further examination of the path integral. The second part examines relativistic field theories, reviewing special relativity, as well as derivation of the path integral representation of the vacuum transition element for quantized scalar, spinor, and vector fields from the coherent state representation of the respective field theories. Key Features Concise introduction to the derivation and methods of path integral approaches to quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. Self-contained guide for students and practitioners

The XIIIth Bialowieza Summer Workshop was held from July 9 to 15, 1994. While still within the general framework of Differential Geometric Methods in Physics, the XnIth Workshop was expanded in scope to include quantum groups, q-deformations and non-commutative geometry. It is expected that lectures on these topics will now become an integral part of future workshops. In the more traditional areas, lectures were devoted to topics in quantization, field theory, group representations, coherent states, complex and Poisson structures, the Berry phase, graded contractions and some infinite-dimensional systems. Those of us who have taken part in the evolution of the workshops over the years, feel a good measure of satisfaction with the excellent quality of the papers presented, in particular the mathematical rigour and novelty. Each year a significant number of new results are presented and future directions of research are discussed. Their freshness and immediacy inevitably leads to intense discussions and an exchange of ideas in an informal and physically charming environment. The present workshop also had a higher attendance than its predecessors, with ap proximately 65 registered participants. As usual, there was a large number of graduate students and young researchers among them.

This volume is a review on coherent states and some of their applications. The usefulness of the concept of coherent states is illustrated by considering specific examples from the fields of physics and mathematical physics. Particular emphasis is given to a general historical introduction, general continuous representations, generalized coherent states, classical and quantum correspondence, path integrals and canonical formalism. Applications are considered in quantum mechanics, optics, quantum chemistry, atomic physics, statistical physics, nuclear physics, particle physics and cosmology. A selection of original papers is reprinted.

Most of our present understanding of the elementary building blocks of matter and the forces between them is based on the quantized version of the field theories which are locally symmetric under gauge transformations. The present set of lecture notes gives both a status report and a survey of recent advances for the most important quantization methods in the field theories for elementary particle physics. The first part of the book introduces light-cone quantization as an interesting alternative to the commonly used covariant perturbation theory and functional-integral methods. Next, a general formalism for quantizing systems with constraints, the projection-operator approach, is presented and structural aspects of the renormalization problem for gauge invariant field theories are discussed. Finally, the mathematics underlying the functional-integral quantization is reviewed. Suitable as a reference for researchers in the field, the book will prove particularly useful for lecturers and graduate students in search of additional reading beyond the standard texts on quantum field theory.