Author: Mo-lin Ge
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9813233877
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 634
Book Description
Ludwig Faddeev is widely recognized as one of the titans of 20th century mathematical physics. His fundamental contributions to scattering theory, quantum gauge theories, and the theory of classical and quantum completely integrable systems played a key role in shaping modern mathematical physics.Ludwig Faddeev's major achievements include the solution of the three-body problem in quantum mechanics, the mathematical formulation of quantum gauge theories and corresponding Feynman rules, Hamiltonian and algebraic methods in mathematical physics, with applications to gauge theories with anomalies, quantum systems with constraints and solitons, the discovery of the algebraic structure of classical and quantum integrable systems and quantum groups, and solitons with the topology of knots.Faddeev's name is imprinted in many areas of mathematics and theoretical physics, including 'Faddeev's equations' and 'Faddeev's Green function' in scattering theory, 'Faddeev-Popov ghosts' and 'Faddeev-Popov determinant' in gauge theories, 'Gardner-Faddeev-Zakharov bracket' for the KdV equation, 'Faddeev-Zamolodchikov algebra' in quantum integrable systems, 'Faddeev-Reshetikhin-Takhtajan construction' in the theory of quantum groups, knotted solitons in the 'Skyrme-Faddeev model' and many others.Ludwig Faddeev founded the St. Petersburg school of modern mathematical physics and distinguished himself by serving the mathematics community for over three decades including his leadership of the International Mathematical Union in the period of 1986-1990. He was conferred numerous prizes and memberships of prestigious institutions in recognition of the importance of his work. These include the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics, the Dirac Medal, the Max Planck Medal, the Shaw Prize and the Lomonosov Gold Medal among others.A gathering of contributions from some of the biggest names in mathematics and physics, this volume serves as a tribute to this legendary figure. Volume contributors include: Fields medalist Sir Michael Atiyah, Jürg Fröhlich, Roman Jackiw, Vladimir Korepin, Nikita Nekrasov, André Neveu, Alexander M Polyakov, Samson Shatashvili, Fedor Smirnov as well as Nobel laureates Frank Wilczek and C N Yang.
Ludwig Faddeev Memorial Volume: A Life In Mathematical Physics
Author: Mo-lin Ge
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9813233877
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 634
Book Description
Ludwig Faddeev is widely recognized as one of the titans of 20th century mathematical physics. His fundamental contributions to scattering theory, quantum gauge theories, and the theory of classical and quantum completely integrable systems played a key role in shaping modern mathematical physics.Ludwig Faddeev's major achievements include the solution of the three-body problem in quantum mechanics, the mathematical formulation of quantum gauge theories and corresponding Feynman rules, Hamiltonian and algebraic methods in mathematical physics, with applications to gauge theories with anomalies, quantum systems with constraints and solitons, the discovery of the algebraic structure of classical and quantum integrable systems and quantum groups, and solitons with the topology of knots.Faddeev's name is imprinted in many areas of mathematics and theoretical physics, including 'Faddeev's equations' and 'Faddeev's Green function' in scattering theory, 'Faddeev-Popov ghosts' and 'Faddeev-Popov determinant' in gauge theories, 'Gardner-Faddeev-Zakharov bracket' for the KdV equation, 'Faddeev-Zamolodchikov algebra' in quantum integrable systems, 'Faddeev-Reshetikhin-Takhtajan construction' in the theory of quantum groups, knotted solitons in the 'Skyrme-Faddeev model' and many others.Ludwig Faddeev founded the St. Petersburg school of modern mathematical physics and distinguished himself by serving the mathematics community for over three decades including his leadership of the International Mathematical Union in the period of 1986-1990. He was conferred numerous prizes and memberships of prestigious institutions in recognition of the importance of his work. These include the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics, the Dirac Medal, the Max Planck Medal, the Shaw Prize and the Lomonosov Gold Medal among others.A gathering of contributions from some of the biggest names in mathematics and physics, this volume serves as a tribute to this legendary figure. Volume contributors include: Fields medalist Sir Michael Atiyah, Jürg Fröhlich, Roman Jackiw, Vladimir Korepin, Nikita Nekrasov, André Neveu, Alexander M Polyakov, Samson Shatashvili, Fedor Smirnov as well as Nobel laureates Frank Wilczek and C N Yang.
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9813233877
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 634
Book Description
Ludwig Faddeev is widely recognized as one of the titans of 20th century mathematical physics. His fundamental contributions to scattering theory, quantum gauge theories, and the theory of classical and quantum completely integrable systems played a key role in shaping modern mathematical physics.Ludwig Faddeev's major achievements include the solution of the three-body problem in quantum mechanics, the mathematical formulation of quantum gauge theories and corresponding Feynman rules, Hamiltonian and algebraic methods in mathematical physics, with applications to gauge theories with anomalies, quantum systems with constraints and solitons, the discovery of the algebraic structure of classical and quantum integrable systems and quantum groups, and solitons with the topology of knots.Faddeev's name is imprinted in many areas of mathematics and theoretical physics, including 'Faddeev's equations' and 'Faddeev's Green function' in scattering theory, 'Faddeev-Popov ghosts' and 'Faddeev-Popov determinant' in gauge theories, 'Gardner-Faddeev-Zakharov bracket' for the KdV equation, 'Faddeev-Zamolodchikov algebra' in quantum integrable systems, 'Faddeev-Reshetikhin-Takhtajan construction' in the theory of quantum groups, knotted solitons in the 'Skyrme-Faddeev model' and many others.Ludwig Faddeev founded the St. Petersburg school of modern mathematical physics and distinguished himself by serving the mathematics community for over three decades including his leadership of the International Mathematical Union in the period of 1986-1990. He was conferred numerous prizes and memberships of prestigious institutions in recognition of the importance of his work. These include the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics, the Dirac Medal, the Max Planck Medal, the Shaw Prize and the Lomonosov Gold Medal among others.A gathering of contributions from some of the biggest names in mathematics and physics, this volume serves as a tribute to this legendary figure. Volume contributors include: Fields medalist Sir Michael Atiyah, Jürg Fröhlich, Roman Jackiw, Vladimir Korepin, Nikita Nekrasov, André Neveu, Alexander M Polyakov, Samson Shatashvili, Fedor Smirnov as well as Nobel laureates Frank Wilczek and C N Yang.
The Abel Prize 2013-2017
Author: Helge Holden
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319990284
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 762
Book Description
The book presents the winners of the Abel Prize in mathematics for the period 2013–17: Pierre Deligne (2013); Yakov G. Sinai (2014); John Nash Jr. and Louis Nirenberg (2015); Sir Andrew Wiles (2016); and Yves Meyer (2017). The profiles feature autobiographical information as well as a scholarly description of each mathematician’s work. In addition, each profile contains a Curriculum Vitae, a complete bibliography, and the full citation from the prize committee. The book also includes photos for the period 2003–2017 showing many of the additional activities connected with the Abel Prize. As an added feature, video interviews with the Laureates as well as videos from the prize ceremony are provided at an accompanying website (http://extras.springer.com/). This book follows on The Abel Prize: 2003-2007. The First Five Years (Springer, 2010) and The Abel Prize 2008-2012 (Springer 2014), which profile the work of the previous Abel Prize winners.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319990284
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 762
Book Description
The book presents the winners of the Abel Prize in mathematics for the period 2013–17: Pierre Deligne (2013); Yakov G. Sinai (2014); John Nash Jr. and Louis Nirenberg (2015); Sir Andrew Wiles (2016); and Yves Meyer (2017). The profiles feature autobiographical information as well as a scholarly description of each mathematician’s work. In addition, each profile contains a Curriculum Vitae, a complete bibliography, and the full citation from the prize committee. The book also includes photos for the period 2003–2017 showing many of the additional activities connected with the Abel Prize. As an added feature, video interviews with the Laureates as well as videos from the prize ceremony are provided at an accompanying website (http://extras.springer.com/). This book follows on The Abel Prize: 2003-2007. The First Five Years (Springer, 2010) and The Abel Prize 2008-2012 (Springer 2014), which profile the work of the previous Abel Prize winners.
Frank Wilczek: 50 Years Of Theoretical Physics
Author: Antti Niemi
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9811255180
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
Frank Wilczek is one of the foremost theoretical physicists of the past half-century. He has made several fundamental contributions that shape our understanding of high energy physics, cosmology, condensed matter physics, and statistical physics. In all these fields his many discoveries continue to play a key role in shaping the direction of modern theoretical physics.Among Wilczek's major achievements is the discovery of asymptotic freedom, which predicts and explains the ultraviolet behavior of non-abelian gauge theories. The axion, which he co-discovered and named, has emerged as the prevalent candidate for explaining the origin of dark matter in the Universe. His invention of color-flavor locking explains chiral symmetry breaking in high density quantum chromodynamics. His introduction of fractional statistics and anyons are pivotal to our understanding of the fractional quantum Hall effect and form the building blocks of topological quantum computing. His invention of the time crystal concept has catalyzed extensive investigations of dynamical phases of physical systems.Frank Wilczek received the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of asymptotic freedom. He is also the recipient of several Prizes and honorary awards including the MacArthur Fellowship, the Lorentz Medal of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society, the High Energy and Particle Physics Prize of the European Physical Society, and the King Faisal International Prize for Science of the King Faisal Foundation. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He is also a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Sweden.He is currently the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT Center for Theoretical Physics. He also holds a professorship at Stockholm University, is a Distinguished Professor at Arizona State University, and is the founding director of the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute and Chief Scientist of the Wilczek Quantum Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.This volume serves as a tribute to Frank Wilczek's legendary scientific contributions, commemorating his 70th birthday and the first 50 years of his career as a theoretical physicist. The contributors include several of his PhD students, close collaborators, and both past and present colleagues.
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9811255180
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
Frank Wilczek is one of the foremost theoretical physicists of the past half-century. He has made several fundamental contributions that shape our understanding of high energy physics, cosmology, condensed matter physics, and statistical physics. In all these fields his many discoveries continue to play a key role in shaping the direction of modern theoretical physics.Among Wilczek's major achievements is the discovery of asymptotic freedom, which predicts and explains the ultraviolet behavior of non-abelian gauge theories. The axion, which he co-discovered and named, has emerged as the prevalent candidate for explaining the origin of dark matter in the Universe. His invention of color-flavor locking explains chiral symmetry breaking in high density quantum chromodynamics. His introduction of fractional statistics and anyons are pivotal to our understanding of the fractional quantum Hall effect and form the building blocks of topological quantum computing. His invention of the time crystal concept has catalyzed extensive investigations of dynamical phases of physical systems.Frank Wilczek received the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of asymptotic freedom. He is also the recipient of several Prizes and honorary awards including the MacArthur Fellowship, the Lorentz Medal of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society, the High Energy and Particle Physics Prize of the European Physical Society, and the King Faisal International Prize for Science of the King Faisal Foundation. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He is also a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Sweden.He is currently the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT Center for Theoretical Physics. He also holds a professorship at Stockholm University, is a Distinguished Professor at Arizona State University, and is the founding director of the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute and Chief Scientist of the Wilczek Quantum Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.This volume serves as a tribute to Frank Wilczek's legendary scientific contributions, commemorating his 70th birthday and the first 50 years of his career as a theoretical physicist. The contributors include several of his PhD students, close collaborators, and both past and present colleagues.
Proceedings of the Conference in Honour of Murray Gell-Mann's 80th Birthday
Author: Harald Fritzsch
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814335606
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 730
Book Description
The Conference on Quantum Mechanics, Elementary Particles, Quantum Cosmology and Complexity was held in honour of Professor Murray Gell-Mann's 80th birthday in Singapore on 24?26 February 2010. The conference paid tribute to Professor Gell-Mann's great achievements in the elementary particle physics. This notable birthday volume contains the presentations made at the conference by many eminent scientists, including Nobel laureates C N Yang, G 't Hooft and K Wilson. Other invited speakers include G Zweig, N Samios, M Karliner, G Karl, M Shifman, J Ellis, S Adler and A Zichichi. About Murray Gell-Mann Murray Gell-Mann, born September 15, 1929, won the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. His contributions span the entire history of particle physics, from the early days of the particle zoo to the modern day QCD. Along the way, even as he proposed new quantum numbers to bring order into the zoo, he had fun in naming them. And thus was born Strangeness, Flavor, Hadrons, Baryons, Leptons, the Eightfold Way, Color, Quarks, Gluons and, with Harald Fritzsch, the standard field theory of strong interactions, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). He also proposed with Richard Feynman the V-A theory of beta decay. Gell-Mann discovered the Current Algebra, proposed (with Levy) the sigma model of pions and the see-saw mechanism for the neutrino masses.
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814335606
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 730
Book Description
The Conference on Quantum Mechanics, Elementary Particles, Quantum Cosmology and Complexity was held in honour of Professor Murray Gell-Mann's 80th birthday in Singapore on 24?26 February 2010. The conference paid tribute to Professor Gell-Mann's great achievements in the elementary particle physics. This notable birthday volume contains the presentations made at the conference by many eminent scientists, including Nobel laureates C N Yang, G 't Hooft and K Wilson. Other invited speakers include G Zweig, N Samios, M Karliner, G Karl, M Shifman, J Ellis, S Adler and A Zichichi. About Murray Gell-Mann Murray Gell-Mann, born September 15, 1929, won the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. His contributions span the entire history of particle physics, from the early days of the particle zoo to the modern day QCD. Along the way, even as he proposed new quantum numbers to bring order into the zoo, he had fun in naming them. And thus was born Strangeness, Flavor, Hadrons, Baryons, Leptons, the Eightfold Way, Color, Quarks, Gluons and, with Harald Fritzsch, the standard field theory of strong interactions, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). He also proposed with Richard Feynman the V-A theory of beta decay. Gell-Mann discovered the Current Algebra, proposed (with Levy) the sigma model of pions and the see-saw mechanism for the neutrino masses.
Hamiltonian Methods in the Theory of Solitons
Author: Ludwig Faddeev
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3540699694
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 602
Book Description
The main characteristic of this classic exposition of the inverse scattering method and its applications to soliton theory is its consistent Hamiltonian approach to the theory. The nonlinear Schrödinger equation is considered as a main example, forming the first part of the book. The second part examines such fundamental models as the sine-Gordon equation and the Heisenberg equation, the classification of integrable models and methods for constructing their solutions.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3540699694
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 602
Book Description
The main characteristic of this classic exposition of the inverse scattering method and its applications to soliton theory is its consistent Hamiltonian approach to the theory. The nonlinear Schrödinger equation is considered as a main example, forming the first part of the book. The second part examines such fundamental models as the sine-Gordon equation and the Heisenberg equation, the classification of integrable models and methods for constructing their solutions.
Lectures on Quantum Mechanics for Mathematics Students
Author: L. D. Faddeev
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 082184699X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 250
Book Description
Describes the relation between classical and quantum mechanics. This book contains a discussion of problems related to group representation theory and to scattering theory. It intends to give a mathematically oriented student the opportunity to grasp the main points of quantum theory in a mathematical framework.
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 082184699X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 250
Book Description
Describes the relation between classical and quantum mechanics. This book contains a discussion of problems related to group representation theory and to scattering theory. It intends to give a mathematically oriented student the opportunity to grasp the main points of quantum theory in a mathematical framework.
Under the Spell of Landau
Author: M. Shifman
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814436577
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 560
Book Description
This invaluable collection of memoirs and reviews on scientific activities of the most prominent theoretical physicists belonging to the Landau School OCo Landau, Anselm, Gribov, Zeldovich, Kirzhnits, Migdal, Ter-Martirosyan and Larkin OCo are being published in English for the first time.The main goal is to acquaint readers with the life and work of outstanding Soviet physicists who, to a large extent, shaped theoretical physics in the 1950sOCo70s. Many intriguing details have remained unknown beyond the OC Iron CurtainOCO which was dismantled only with the fall of the USSR.
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814436577
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 560
Book Description
This invaluable collection of memoirs and reviews on scientific activities of the most prominent theoretical physicists belonging to the Landau School OCo Landau, Anselm, Gribov, Zeldovich, Kirzhnits, Migdal, Ter-Martirosyan and Larkin OCo are being published in English for the first time.The main goal is to acquaint readers with the life and work of outstanding Soviet physicists who, to a large extent, shaped theoretical physics in the 1950sOCo70s. Many intriguing details have remained unknown beyond the OC Iron CurtainOCO which was dismantled only with the fall of the USSR.
Quantum Inverse Scattering Method and Correlation Functions
Author: V. E. Korepin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521586467
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 582
Book Description
The quantum inverse scattering method is a means of finding exact solutions of two-dimensional models in quantum field theory and statistical physics (such as the sine-Go rdon equation or the quantum non-linear Schrödinger equation). These models are the subject of much attention amongst physicists and mathematicians.The present work is an introduction to this important and exciting area. It consists of four parts. The first deals with the Bethe ansatz and calculation of physical quantities. The authors then tackle the theory of the quantum inverse scattering method before applying it in the second half of the book to the calculation of correlation functions. This is one of the most important applications of the method and the authors have made significant contributions to the area. Here they describe some of the most recent and general approaches and include some new results.The book will be essential reading for all mathematical physicists working in field theory and statistical physics.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521586467
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 582
Book Description
The quantum inverse scattering method is a means of finding exact solutions of two-dimensional models in quantum field theory and statistical physics (such as the sine-Go rdon equation or the quantum non-linear Schrödinger equation). These models are the subject of much attention amongst physicists and mathematicians.The present work is an introduction to this important and exciting area. It consists of four parts. The first deals with the Bethe ansatz and calculation of physical quantities. The authors then tackle the theory of the quantum inverse scattering method before applying it in the second half of the book to the calculation of correlation functions. This is one of the most important applications of the method and the authors have made significant contributions to the area. Here they describe some of the most recent and general approaches and include some new results.The book will be essential reading for all mathematical physicists working in field theory and statistical physics.
Fifty Years of Mathematical Physics
Author: Molin Ge
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
ISBN: 9814340960
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 596
Book Description
This unique volume summarizes with a historical perspective several of the major scientific achievements of Ludwig Faddeev, with a foreword by Nobel Laureate C N Yang. The volume that spans over fifty years of Faddeev's career begins where he started his own scientific research, in the subject of scattering theory and the three-body problem. It then continues to describe Faddeev's contributions to automorphic functions, followed by an extensive account of his many fundamental contributions to quantum field theory including his original article on ghosts with Popov. Faddeev's contributions to soliton theory and integrable models are then described, followed by a survey of his work on quantum groups. The final scientific section is devoted to Faddeev's contemporary research including articles on his long-term interest in constructing knotted solitons and understanding confinement. The volume concludes with his personal view on science and mathematical physics in particular.
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
ISBN: 9814340960
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 596
Book Description
This unique volume summarizes with a historical perspective several of the major scientific achievements of Ludwig Faddeev, with a foreword by Nobel Laureate C N Yang. The volume that spans over fifty years of Faddeev's career begins where he started his own scientific research, in the subject of scattering theory and the three-body problem. It then continues to describe Faddeev's contributions to automorphic functions, followed by an extensive account of his many fundamental contributions to quantum field theory including his original article on ghosts with Popov. Faddeev's contributions to soliton theory and integrable models are then described, followed by a survey of his work on quantum groups. The final scientific section is devoted to Faddeev's contemporary research including articles on his long-term interest in constructing knotted solitons and understanding confinement. The volume concludes with his personal view on science and mathematical physics in particular.
Painleve Transcendents
Author: A. S. Fokas
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 082183651X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 570
Book Description
At the turn of the twentieth century, the French mathematician Paul Painleve and his students classified second order nonlinear ordinary differential equations with the property that the location of possible branch points and essential singularities of their solutions does not depend on initial conditions. It turned out that there are only six such equations (up to natural equivalence), which later became known as Painleve I-VI. Although these equations were initially obtainedanswering a strictly mathematical question, they appeared later in an astonishing (and growing) range of applications, including, e.g., statistical physics, fluid mechanics, random matrices, and orthogonal polynomials. Actually, it is now becoming clear that the Painleve transcendents (i.e., the solutionsof the Painleve equations) play the same role in nonlinear mathematical physics that the classical special functions, such as Airy and Bessel functions, play in linear physics. The explicit formulas relating the asymptotic behaviour of the classical special functions at different critical points, play a crucial role in the applications of these functions. It is shown in this book, that even though the six Painleve equations are nonlinear, it is still possible, using a new technique called theRiemann-Hilbert formalism, to obtain analogous explicit formulas for the Painleve transcendents. This striking fact, apparently unknown to Painleve and his contemporaries, is the key ingredient for the remarkable applicability of these ``nonlinear special functions''. The book describes in detail theRiemann-Hilbert method and emphasizes its close connection to classical monodromy theory of linear equations as well as to modern theory of integrable systems. In addition, the book contains an ample collection of material concerning the asymptotics of the Painleve functions and their various applications, which makes it a good reference source for everyone working in the theory and applications of Painleve equations and related areas.
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 082183651X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 570
Book Description
At the turn of the twentieth century, the French mathematician Paul Painleve and his students classified second order nonlinear ordinary differential equations with the property that the location of possible branch points and essential singularities of their solutions does not depend on initial conditions. It turned out that there are only six such equations (up to natural equivalence), which later became known as Painleve I-VI. Although these equations were initially obtainedanswering a strictly mathematical question, they appeared later in an astonishing (and growing) range of applications, including, e.g., statistical physics, fluid mechanics, random matrices, and orthogonal polynomials. Actually, it is now becoming clear that the Painleve transcendents (i.e., the solutionsof the Painleve equations) play the same role in nonlinear mathematical physics that the classical special functions, such as Airy and Bessel functions, play in linear physics. The explicit formulas relating the asymptotic behaviour of the classical special functions at different critical points, play a crucial role in the applications of these functions. It is shown in this book, that even though the six Painleve equations are nonlinear, it is still possible, using a new technique called theRiemann-Hilbert formalism, to obtain analogous explicit formulas for the Painleve transcendents. This striking fact, apparently unknown to Painleve and his contemporaries, is the key ingredient for the remarkable applicability of these ``nonlinear special functions''. The book describes in detail theRiemann-Hilbert method and emphasizes its close connection to classical monodromy theory of linear equations as well as to modern theory of integrable systems. In addition, the book contains an ample collection of material concerning the asymptotics of the Painleve functions and their various applications, which makes it a good reference source for everyone working in the theory and applications of Painleve equations and related areas.