The first comprehensive survey of (2+1)-dimensional quantum gravity - for graduate students and researchers.

This book is an introduction to the role of topology in the quantization of classical systems. It is also an introduction to topological solitons with special emphasis on Skyrmions. As regards the first aspect, several issues of current interest are dealt with at a reasonably elementary level. Examples are principal fibre bundles and their role in quantum physics, the possibility of spinorial quantum states in a Lagrangian theory based on tensorial variables, and multiply connected configuration spaces and associated quantum phenomena like the QCD q angle and exotic statistics. The ideas are also illustrated by simple examples such as the spinning particle, the charge-monopole system and strings in 3+1 dimensions. The application of these ideas to quantum gravity is another subject treated at an introductory level. An attempt has been made in this book to introduce the reader to the significance of topology for many distinct physical systems such as spinning particles, the charge- monopole system, strings, Skyrmions, QCD and gravity. The book is an outgrowth of lectures given by the authors at various institutions and conferences. Contents:Part I: Classical Mechanics and Quantum States:The Dirac-Bergmann Theory of ConstraintsNonrelativistic Particles with Fixed SpinMagnetic MonopolesThe Canonical Formalism and QuantizationThe Wess-Zumino Term and the Path SpaceQuantum Symmetries and the Wess-Zumino TermQuantum Theory for Multiply Connected Configuration SpacesPart II: Topological Solitons and Nonlinear Models:Topological Solitons in One and Two DimensionsNonlinear Models as Gauge TheoriesThe Chern-Simons TermPart III: Skyrmions:The Effective Lagrangian for QCDSkyrme Solitons for Two FlavoursPreliminary Discussion of Skyrme's ProposalsBaryon Number and Spin of the SkyrmionMore on the Wess-Zumino TermA Hierarchy of “Spherically Symmetric” AnsätzeSkyrmion PhenomenologyElectroweak SkyrmionsPart IV: Gauge, Gravity and String Theories:Multiply Connected Configuration Spaces in Gauge and Gravity TheoriesGeons and their PropertiesStatistics, Strings and Gravity Readership: Mathematical physicists and physicists interested in topological concepts, soliton and skyrmion theory and foundations of quantum theory. keywords:Skyrmions and Other Solitons;Geons;Magnetic Monopoles;Nonlinear Models;Wess-Zumino Term;Topology and Quantum Theory;Chern-Simons Theory;Fibre Bundles;Constraint Theory and Quantization;Spin and Statistics

The Cargese Workshop Random Surfaces and Quantum Gravity was held from May 27 to June 2, 1990. Little was known about string theory in the non-perturbative regime before Oetober 1989 when non-perturbative equations for the string partition functions were found by using methods based on the random triangulations of surfaees. This set of methods pro vides a deseription of non-eritical string theory or equivalently of the coupling of matter fields to quantum gravity in two dimensions. The Cargese meeting was very successful in that it provided the first opportunity to gather most of the active workers in the field for a fuH week of lectures and extensive informal discussions about these exeiting new developments. The main results were reviewed, recent advances were explained, new results and conjectures (which appear for the first time in these proceedings) were presented and discussed. Among the most important topics discussed at the workshop were: The relation of KdV theory to loop equations and the Virasoro algebra, new results in Liouville field theory, effective (1 + 1) dimensional theory for 2 - D quantum gravity coupled to c = 1 matter and its fermionization, proposal for a new geometrical interpretation of the string equation and possible definition of quantum Riemann surfaces, discussion of the string equation for the multi-matrix models, links with topological field theories of gravity, issues in using target space supersymmetry to define good theories, definition of the partition function via analytic continuation, new models of random surfaces

This book addresses graduate students in the first place and is meant as a modern compendium to the existing texts on black hole astrophysics. The authors present in pedagogically written articles our present knowledge on black holes covering mathematical models including numerical aspects and physics and astronomical observations as well. In addition, in their write-up of a panel discussion the participants of the school address the existence of black holes consenting that it has by now been verified with certainty.

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