This volume presents the experimental and theoretical methods of studying soft interaction physics in high energy collisions. The topics include: dynamical and Bose-Einstein correlations, multiplicity fluctuation, soft photons, disoriented chiral condensate, self-similarity and self-affine behaviors, wavelet analysis, intermittency, chaos, and phase transition.

The purpose of the symposium is to discuss current experimental and theoretical studies of weak and electromagnetic interactions in nuclei, emphasizing fundamental problems of particle, nuclear and astrophysics. Subjects discussed included symmetries and conservation laws, neutrino physics, nuclear weak process and weak form factors, electromagnetic probes for hadrons and nuclear structures, symmetries and flavornuclei, new facilities, and others.

High precision measurements of weak neutral current and charged current processes and of the properties of the Z and W bosons have established the standard electroweak model as correct down to a distance scale of 10-16 cm, and are a sensitive probe of possible underlying physics. In this book, all aspects of the program are considered in detail, including the structure of the standard model, radiative corrections, high precision experiments, and their implications. The major classes of experiments are surveyed, covering the experiments themselves, the data analysis, results, and prospects.This volume is a detailed reference for theoretical and experimental researchers, as well as an introductory text for advanced students.

WEIN '98 focussed on searches for physics beyond the Standard Model of elementary particles at low and medium energies, including theoretical studies in these areas. In addition, selected topics in the physics of the Standard Model, searches for new physics at high energy facilities, and topics in nuclear and particle astrophysics were discussed. The conference was mainly composed of plenary talks reviewing the present status of the field. The proceedings include written versions of these plenary talks plus several invited talks given at the parallel sessions covering specific topics that could not be included in the plenary sessions.

The NEWS 99 international symposium discusses symmetries in electroweak processes in nuclei. Many phenomena in nuclear and particle physics are related to symmetry. It is known that we are living in a left-handed world as far as the Weak interaction is concerned, but neutrino physics suggests that a right-handed world may also be relevant. Chiral symmetry and its breaking plays an essential role in generating hadron masses. Symmetries related to flavor in the strong interaction like isospin, SU(3) and so on are known to be violated although they play a crucial role for the understanding of phenomena in nuclear and particle physics. The treatment of tiny breaking is of particular importance. Weak and electromagnetic interactions are well established at the fundamental level and can be used to probe the structure of nuclei and hadrons.A wide variety of phenomena in nuclear and particle physics were discussed in NEWS 99 with an emphasis on symmetry. Topics ranged from nuclear structure to neutrino properties, covering highly phenomenological to fundamental fields.

Nuclear double beta decay is one of the most promising tools for probing beyond-the-standard-model physics on beyond-accelerator energy scales. It is already now probing the TeV scale, on which new physics should manifest itself according to theoretical expectations. Only in the early 1980s was it known that double beta decay yields information on the Majorana mass of the exchanged neutrino. At present, the sharpest bound for the electron neutrino mass arises from this process. It is only in the last 10 years that the much more far-reaching potential of double beta decay has been discovered. Today, the potential of double beta decay includes a broad range of topics that are equally relevant to particle physics and astrophysics, such as masses of heavy neutrinos, of sneutrinos, as SUSY models, compositeness, leptoquarks, left-right symmetric models, and tests of Lorentz symmetry and equivalence principle in the neutrino sector. Double beta decay has become indispensable nowadays for solving the problem of the neutrino mass spectrum and the structure of the neutrino mass matrix — together with present and future solar and atmospheric neutrino oscillation experiments. Some future double beta experiments (like GENIUS) will be capable to be simultaneously neutrino observatories for double beta decay and low-energy solar neutrinos, and observatories for cold dark matter of ultimate sensitivity.This invaluable book outlines the development of double beta research from its beginnings until its most recent achievements, and also presents the outlook for its highly exciting future.