Over the last two decades, topological ideas have found increasingly more applications in quantum field theory. Topological field theories are the culmination of these developments, and they formed the dominating theme of the conference. The other focal point was two-dimensional quantum gravity. The participation of such leading mathematicians as M Atiyah, R Bott, G Segal, and I Singer, is a testmony to the deep interplay of mathematics and theoretical physics.
Contents:
- Magnetic Monopoles and the Yang-Baxter Equations (M Atiyah)
- Introduction to Cohomological Field Theories (E Witten)
- Topological Quantum Field Theories and Gauge Invariance in Stochastic Quantization (L Baulieu)
- On the Algebraic Structure of Quantum Gravity in Two Dimensions (J-L Gervais)
- Strings in Critical Dimensions (C Vafa)
- A Proof of Modular Invariance (W Nahm)
- On E. Verlinde's Formula in the Context of Stable Bundles (R Bott)
- The Geometry of the KdV Equation (G Segal)
- Universal W-Algebras in Quantum Field Theory (I Bakas & E B Kiritsis)
- Properties of Covariant W-Gravity (P van Nieuwenhuizen et al.)
- Intuitive Understanding of Anomalies — A Paradox with Regularization (H B Nielsen & M Ninomiya)
- and other papers
Readership: Mathematical physicists.
