This volume is based on lectures given during the program “Complex Quantum Systems” held at the National University of Singapore's Institute for Mathematical Sciences from 17 February to 27 March 2010. It guides the reader through two introductory expositions on large Coulomb systems to five of the most important developments in the field: derivation of mean field equations, derivation of effective Hamiltonians, alternative high precision methods in quantum chemistry, modern many-body methods originating from quantum information, and — the most complex — semirelativistic quantum electrodynamics.These introductions are written by leaders in their fields; amongst them are Volker Bach, Rafael Benguria, Thomas Chen, and Jan Philip Solovej. Together, they fill a gap between current textbooks and the vast modern literature on complex quantum systems.

A mathematically consistent formulation of relativistic quantum electrodynamics (QED) has still to be found. Nevertheless, there are several simplified effective models that successfully describe many body quantum systems and the interaction of radiation with matter. Large Coulomb Systems explores a selection of mathematical topics inspired by QED. It comprises selected, expanded and edited lectures given by international experts at a topical summer school.

A mathematically consistent formulation of relativistic quantum electrodynamics (QED) has still to be found. Nevertheless, there are several simplified effective models that successfully describe many body quantum systems and the interaction of radiation with matter. Large Coulomb Systems explores a selection of mathematical topics inspired by QED. It comprises selected, expanded and edited lectures given by international experts at a topical summer school.

The International Conference on Strongly Coupled Coulomb Systems was held on the campus of Boston College in Newton, Massachusetts, August 3–10, 1997. Although this conference was the first under a new name, it was the continuation of a series of international meetings on strongly coupled plasmas and other Coulomb systems that started with the NATO Summer Institute on Strongly Coupled Plasmas, almost exactly twenty years prior to this conference, in July of 1977 in Orleans la Source, France. Over the intervening period the field of strongly coupled plasmas has developed vigorously. In the 1977 meeting the emphasis was on computer (Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics) simulations which provided, for the first time, insight into the rich and new physics of strongly coupled fully ionizedplasmas. While theorists scrambled to provide a theoretical underpinning for these results, there was also a dearth of real experimental input to reinforce the computer simulations. Over the past few years this situation has changed drastically and a variety of direct experiments on classical, pure, strongly correlated plasma systems (charged particle traps, dusty plasmas, electrons on the surface of liquid helium, etc. ) have become available. Even more importantly, entire new area of experimental interest in condensed matter physics have opened up through developments in nano-technology and the fabrication of low-dimensional systems, where the physical behavior, in many ways, is similar to that in classical plasmas. Strongly coupled plasma physics has always been an interdisciplinaryactivity.