The aim of this interdisciplinary conference was to bring together experts in quantum field theory and condensed matter physics to survey the latest exciting developments in this border-line field, such as the Chern-Simons field theory and quantum hall effect, anyon superconductivity, Yang-Baxter equations and quantum groups, conformal field theory and multi-channel kondo effect, matrix models and quantum gravity, etc.This set of proceedings contains brief reviews contributed by leading experts in the field.

The 19th IUPAP International Conference on Statistical Physics is devoted to the general field of statistical physics, including traditional topics such as statistical methods concerning the static and dynamic properties of mesoscopic and macroscopic states of matter, as well as hot topics of current interest in applications of statistical physics. These include quantum chaos and turbulence, structures and patterns, fractals, neural networks, computer simulation and visualization in statistical physics, disordered systems and heterogeneous systems, simple and complex fluids.

This is a collection of pedagogical lectures and research papers that were presented during a combined course/conference program held at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste in the summer of 1991. The lectures begin from an elementary level and were intended to bring student participants to the point where they could appreciate the research conference that came at the end of program.

This conference series is now firmly established as one of the premier series of international meetings in the field of many-body physics. The current volume maintains the tradition of covering the entire spectrum of theoretical tools developed to tackle important and current quantum many-body problems. It aims to foster the exchange of ideas and techniques among physicists working in diverse subfields of physics, such as nuclear and sub-nuclear physics, astrophysics, atomic and molecular physics, quantum chemistry, complex systems, quantum field theory, strongly correlated electronic systems, magnetism, quantum fluids and condensed matter physics. The highlights of this book include state-of-the-art contributions to the understanding of supersolid helium, BEC-BCS crossover, fermionic BEC, quantum phase transitions, computing, simulations, as well as the latest results on the more traditional topics of liquid helium, droplets, nuclear and electronic systems. This volume demonstrates the vitality and the fundamental importance of many-body theories, techniques, and applications in understanding diverse and novel phenomena at the cutting-edge of physics. It contains most of the invited talks plus a selection of excellent poster presentations.

Casimir forces between spheres and loop integrals / J. Babington -- Analytic corrections to the electromagnetic Casimir interaction between a sphere and a plate at short distances / M. Bordag and V. Nikolaev -- Casimir physics : geometry, shape and material / T. Emig -- Semitransparent pistons / P. Morales and K. Kirsten -- Using boundary methods to compute the Casimir energy / F.C. Lombardo, F.D. Mazzitelli and P.I. Villar -- Electromagnetic non-contact gears : prelude / P. Parashar [und weitere] -- The scattering approach to the Casimir force / S. Reynaud [und weitere] -- Scalar Casimir energies for separable coordinate systems : application to semi-transparent planes in an annulus / J. Wagner, K.A. Milton and K. Kirsten -- Demonstrating the strong geometry dependence of the Casimir force on a surface with deep, nanoscale corrugations / H.B. Chan [und weitere] -- New results for the Casimir interaction : sample characterization and low temperature measurements / R.S. Decca, D. Lopez and E. Osquiguil -- Casimir force experiments in air : two birds with one stone / S. De Man [und weitere] -- Experimental features of the recent lateral Casimir force measurement / H.-C. Chiu and U. Mohideen -- Lateral Casimir-Polder force measurement using Bose Einstein condensates / G.A. Moreno -- Repulsive Casimir and van der Waals forces : from measurements to future technologies / J.N. Munday and F. Capasso -- Macroscopic quantum vacuum and microscopic gravitation / R. Onofrio -- The PVLAS experiment and its results : probing the quantum vacuum with polarized light and magnetic fields / F. Della Valle [und weitere] -- Thermal Casimir effect for conducting plates and the Bohr-van Leeuwen theorem / G. Bimonte -- Electromagnetic Casimir effect in wedge geometry and the energy-momentum tensor in media / I. Brevik, S.A. Ellingsen and K.A. Milton -- Casimir-Polder potential in thermal non-equilibrium / S.A. Ellingsen [und weitere] -- Geometry-temperature interplay in the Casimir effect / H. Gies and A. Weber -- Thermal effects in the magnetic Casimir-Polder interaction / H. Haakh, F. Intravaia and C. Henkel -- Mode contributions to the Casimir effect / F. Intravaia and C. Henkel -- Thermal Casimir force between magnetic materials / G.L. Klimchitskaya, B. Geyer and V.M. Mostepanenko -- The Casimir effect and the foundations of statistical physics / V.M. Mostepanenko and G.L. Klimchitskaya -- Casimir-Lifshitz forces and entropy / L.P. Pitaevskii -- The thermal Casimir effect : saturation / B.E. Sernelius -- Finite temperature Casimir effect in the presence of extra dimensions / L.P. Teo and K. Kirsten -- The role of magnetoplasmons in Casimir force calculations / R. Esquivel-Sirvent [und weitere] -- Suspended graphene films and their Casimir interaction with ideal conductor / I.V. Fialkovsky -- Casimir energy of finite width mirrors : renormalization, self-interaction limit and Lifshitz formula / I.V. Fialkovsky, V.N. Markov and Yu. M. Pis'mak -- Role of surface states in the Casimir force between semiconducting films / M. Govoni, C. Calandra and A. Benassi -- On the Casimir entropy between "perfect crystals" / C. Henkel and F. Intravaia -- Theory of the Casimir effect for gratings / V.N. Marachevsky