Supernovae are highly energetic phenomena for which it is necessary to use simultaneously particle physics, nuclear physics and hydrodynamics to study the creation of the strong explosions involved. Supernovae synthesize heavy elements and in some cases lead to the formation of neutron stars or black holes. Recent progress has revealed new classes of explosions, and new insights into the evolution and explosion mechanisms including that of the dramatic event SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Major questions still remain, concerning the evolution of massive stars in binary systems, the nature of gravitational collapse, and the physical processes involved in the thermonuclear explosion of degenerate stars. This School explores our current understanding of supernovae, and areas of active study.

The subject of Quantum Cosmology is concerned with providing a quantum mechanical description of the universe as a whole and, within that description, to constructing a theory of the universe's initial condition whose predictions can be compared with observation. The recent progress in this area has profound implications for physics at all scales. The lectures at this School describe these theories and their implications. They cover basic quantum mechanics of cosmology, proposals for theories of initial conditions, and their application to the prediction of the large scale features of our universe. A special emphasis of the School is the implication of topological fluctuations of spacetime (wormholes, baby universes) for the observed coupling constants of the low energy interactions of elementary particles and as a potential explanation for the vanishing of the cosmological constant.

The School explored the delicate interplay between geometry and statistical mechanics in these materials such as microemulsions, wetting and growth interfaces, bulk lyotropic liquid crystals, chalcogenide glasses and sheet polymers, using tools from the fields of polymer physics, of differential geometry and of critical phenomena.

From the reviews: "Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts has appeared in semi-annual volumes since 1969 and it has already become one of the fundamental publications in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics and neighbouring sciences. It is the most important English-language abstracting journal in the mentioned branches. ...The abstracts are classified under more than a hundred subject categories, thus permitting a quick survey of the whole extended material. The AAA is a valuable and important publication for all students and scientists working in the fields of astronomy and related sciences. As such it represents a necessary ingredient of any astronomical library all over the world." Space Science Reviews#1 "Dividing the whole field plus related subjects into 108 categories, each work is numbered and most are accompanied by brief abstracts. Fairly comprehensive cross-referencing links relevant papers to more than one category, and exhaustive author and subject indices are to be found at the back, making the catalogues easy to use. The series appears to be so complete in its coverage and always less than a year out of date that I shall certainly have to make a little more space on those shelves for future volumes." The Observatory Magazine#2