This book presents four survey articles on different topics in mathematical analysis that are closely linked to concepts and applications in physics. Specifically, it discusses global aspects of elliptic PDEs, Berezin-Toeplitz quantization, the stability of solitary waves, and sub-Riemannian geometry. The contributions are based on lectures given by distinguished experts at a summer school in Göttingen. The authors explain fundamental concepts and ideas and present them clearly. Starting from basic notions, these course notes take the reader to the point of current research, highlighting new challenges and addressing unsolved problems at the interface between mathematics and physics. All contributions are of interest to researchers in the respective fields, but they are also accessible to graduate students.

This volume presents the theory of partial differential equations (PDEs) from a modern geometric point of view so that PDEs can be characterized by using either technique of differential geometry or algebraic geometry. This allows us to recognize the richness of the structure of PDEs. It presents, for the first time, a geometric theory of non-commutative (quantum) PDEs and gives a general application of this theory to quantum field theory and quantum supergravity.

This monograph presents various ongoing approaches to the vast topic of quantization, which is the process of forming a quantum mechanical system starting from a classical one, and discusses their numerous fruitful interactions with mathematics.The opening chapter introduces the various forms of quantization and their interactions with each other and with mathematics.A first approach to quantization, called deformation quantization, consists of viewing the Planck constant as a small parameter. This approach provides a deformation of the structure of the algebra of classical observables rather than a radical change in the nature of the observables. When symmetries come into play, deformation quantization needs to be merged with group actions, which is presented in chapter 2, by Simone Gutt.The noncommutativity arising from quantization is the main concern of noncommutative geometry. Allowing for the presence of symmetries requires working with principal fiber bundles in a non-commutative setup, where Hopf algebras appear naturally. This is the topic of chapter 3, by Christian Kassel. Nichols algebras, a special type of Hopf algebras, are the subject of chapter 4, by Nicolás Andruskiewitsch. The purely algebraic approaches given in the previous chapters do not take the geometry of space-time into account. For this purpose a special treatment using a more geometric point of view is required. An approach to field quantization on curved space-time, with applications to cosmology, is presented in chapter 5 in an account of the lectures of Abhay Ashtekar that brings a complementary point of view to non-commutativity.An alternative quantization procedure is known under the name of string theory. In chapter 6 its supersymmetric version is presented. Superstrings have drawn the attention of many mathematicians, due to its various fruitful interactions with algebraic geometry, some of which are described here. The remaining chapters discuss further topics, as the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism and direct products of spectral triples.This volume addresses both physicists and mathematicians and serves as an introduction to ongoing research in very active areas of mathematics and physics at the border line between geometry, topology, algebra and quantum field theory.

These notes are based on a course entitled ``Symplectic Geometry and Geometric Quantization'' taught by Alan Weinstein at the University of California, Berkeley (fall 1992) and at the Centre Emile Borel (spring 1994). The only prerequisite for the course needed is a knowledge of the basic notions from the theory of differentiable manifolds (differential forms, vector fields, transversality, etc.). The aim is to give students an introduction to the ideas of microlocal analysis and the related symplectic geometry, with an emphasis on the role these ideas play in formalizing the transition between the mathematics of classical dynamics (hamiltonian flows on symplectic manifolds) and quantum mechanics (unitary flows on Hilbert spaces). These notes are meant to function as a guide to the literature. The authors refer to other sources for many details that are omitted and can be bypassed on a first reading.

This is a monograph on geometrical and topological features which arise in various quantization procedures. Quantization schemes consider the feasibility of arriving at a quantum system from a classical one and these involve three major procedures viz. i) geometric quantization, ii) Klauder quantization, and iii) stochastic quanti zation. In geometric quantization we have to incorporate a hermitian line bundle to effectively generate the quantum Hamiltonian operator from a classical Hamil tonian. Klauder quantization also takes into account the role of the connection one-form along with coordinate independence. In stochastic quantization as pro posed by Nelson, Schrodinger equation is derived from Brownian motion processes; however, we have difficulty in its relativistic generalization. It has been pointed out by several authors that this may be circumvented by formulating a new geometry where Brownian motion proceses are considered in external as well as in internal space and, when the complexified space-time is considered, the usual path integral formulation is achieved. When this internal space variable is considered as a direc tion vector introducing an anisotropy in the internal space, we have the quantization of a Fermi field. This helps us to formulate a stochastic phase space formalism when the internal extension can be treated as a gauge theoretic extension. This suggests that massive fermions may be considered as Skyrme solitons. The nonrelativistic quantum mechanics is achieved in the sharp point limit.