This book constitutes a review volume on the relatively new subject of Quantum Topology. Quantum Topology has its inception in the 1984/1985 discoveries of new invariants of knots and links (Jones, Homfly and Kauffman polynomials). These invariants were rapidly connected with quantum groups and methods in statistical mechanics. This was followed by Edward Witten's introduction of methods of quantum field theory into the subject and the formulation by Witten and Michael Atiyah of the concept of topological quantum field theories.This book is a review volume of on-going research activity. The papers derive from talks given at the Special Session on Knot and Topological Quantum Field Theory of the American Mathematical Society held at Dayton, Ohio in the fall of 1992. The book consists of a self-contained article by Kauffman, entitled Introduction to Quantum Topology and eighteen research articles by participants in the special session.This book should provide a useful source of ideas and results for anyone interested in the interface between topology and quantum field theory.

In recent years topology has firmly established itself as an important part of the physicist's mathematical arsenal. It has many applications, first of all in quantum field theory, but increasingly also in other areas of physics. The main focus of this book is on the results of quantum field theory that are obtained by topological methods. Some aspects of the theory of condensed matter are also discussed. Part I is an introduction to quantum field theory: it discusses the basic Lagrangians used in the theory of elementary particles. Part II is devoted to the applications of topology to quantum field theory. Part III covers the necessary mathematical background in summary form. The book is aimed at physicists interested in applications of topology to physics and at mathematicians wishing to familiarize themselves with quantum field theory and the mathematical methods used in this field. It is accessible to graduate students in physics and mathematics.

Combining physics, mathematics and computer science, topological quantum computation is a rapidly expanding research area focused on the exploration of quantum evolutions that are immune to errors. In this book, the author presents a variety of different topics developed together for the first time, forming an excellent introduction to topological quantum computation. The makings of anyonic systems, their properties and their computational power are presented in a pedagogical way. Relevant calculations are fully explained, and numerous worked examples and exercises support and aid understanding. Special emphasis is given to the motivation and physical intuition behind every mathematical concept. Demystifying difficult topics by using accessible language, this book has broad appeal and is ideal for graduate students and researchers from various disciplines who want to get into this new and exciting research field.

This volume, based on lectures and short communications at a summer school in Villa de Leyva, Colombia (July 2005), offers an introduction to some recent developments in several active topics at the interface between geometry, topology and quantum field theory. It is aimed at graduate students in physics or mathematics who might want insight in the following topics (covered in five survey lectures): Anomalies and noncommutative geometry, Deformation quantisation and Poisson algebras, Topological quantum field theory and orbifolds. These lectures are followed by nine articles on various topics at the borderline of mathematics and physics ranging from quasicrystals to invariant instantons through black holes, and involving a number of mathematical tools borrowed from geometry, algebra and analysis.

The emergence of topological quantum ?eld theory has been one of the most important breakthroughs which have occurred in the context of ma- ematical physics in the last century, a century characterizedbyindependent developments of the main ideas in both disciplines, physics and mathematics, which has concluded with two decades of strong interaction between them, where physics, as in previous centuries, has acted as a source of new mat- matics. Topological quantum ?eld theories constitute the core of these p- nomena, although the main drivingforce behind it has been the enormous e?ort made in theoretical particle physics to understand string theory as a theory able to unify the four fundamental interactions observed in nature. These theories set up a new realm where both disciplines pro?t from each other. Although the most striking results have appeared on the mathema- calside,theoreticalphysicshasclearlyalsobene?tted,sincethecorresponding developments have helped better to understand aspects of the fundamentals of ?eld and string theory.

The remarkable developments in differential topology and how these recent advances have been applied as a primary research tool in quantum field theory are presented here in a style reflecting the genuinely two-sided interaction between mathematical physics and applied mathematics. The author, following his previous work (Nash/Sen: Differential Topology for Physicists, Academic Press, 1983), covers elliptic differential and pseudo-differential operators, Atiyah-Singer index theory, topological quantum field theory, string theory, and knot theory. The explanatory approach serves to illuminate and clarify these theories for graduate students and research workers entering the field for the first time. Treats differential geometry, differential topology, and quantum field theory Includes elliptic differential and pseudo-differential operators, Atiyah-Singer index theory, topological quantum field theory, string theory, and knot theory Tackles problems of quantum field theory using differential topology as a tool

Symplectic and contact geometry naturally emerged from the mathematical description of classical physics. The discovery of new rigidity phenomena and properties satisfied by these geometric structures launched a new research field worldwide. The intense activity of many European research groups in this field is reflected by the ESF Research Networking Programme "Contact And Symplectic Topology" (CAST). The lectures of the Summer School in Nantes (June 2011) and of the CAST Summer School in Budapest (July 2012) provide a nice panorama of many aspects of the present status of contact and symplectic topology. The notes of the minicourses offer a gentle introduction to topics which have developed in an amazing speed in the recent past. These topics include 3-dimensional and higher dimensional contact topology, Fukaya categories, asymptotically holomorphic methods in contact topology, bordered Floer homology, embedded contact homology, and flexibility results for Stein manifolds.