Solitons were discovered by John Scott Russel in 1834, and have interested scientists and mathematicians ever since. They have been the subject of a large body of research in a wide variety of fields of physics and mathematics, not to mention engineering and other branches of science such as biology. This volume comprises the written versions of the talks presented at a workshop held at Queen's University in 1997, an interdisciplinary meeting wherein top researchers from many fields could meet, interact, and exchange ideas. Topics covered include mathematical and numerical aspects of solitons, as well as applications of solitons to nuclear and particle physics, cosmology, and condensed-matter physics. The book should be of interest to researchers in any field in which solitons are encountered.

Inhalt

1 Berry Phase and Dissipation of Topological Singularities.- 2 Normal Mode Spectra of Multi-Skyrmions.- 3 Standard-Model Dirac Particles Trapped in Flat (Noncompact) Higher Dimensions.- 4 Planar QED in Magnetic or Electric Solitonic Backgrounds.- 5 Collective Coordinates and Inequivalent Coset Space Quantizations.- 6 Spatial Solitons of the Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation of Arbitrary Nonlinearity with a Potential Hill.- 7 Hairs on the Unicorn: Fine Structure of Monopoles and Other Solitons.- 8 A Model for Partially Polarized Quantum Hall States.- 9 Ordering Dynamics of Topological Defect Networks.- 10 Gauge Theory Description of Spin Chains and Ladders.- 11 Soliton Solutions of the Integrable Chiral Model in (2+1) Dimensions.- 12 String Winding Modes From Charge Nonconservation in Compact Chern-Simons Theory.- 13 Holes in the Charge Density of Topological Solitons.- 14 From Two-dimensional Black Holes to sine-Gordon Solitons.- 15 Solitons and Exciton Superfluidity.- 16 Quantum Effects on Higgs Winding Configurations.- 17 Solitons and Their Moduli Spaces.- 18 Deformed Skyrmions.- 19 The Large-Nc Renormalization Group.- 20 Instantons in Nonirreducible Representations of the Lorentz Group.- 21 Fermion Vacuum Effects on Soliton Stability.- 22 Soliton Solutions of the ?-Model and Disoriented Chiral Condensates.- 23 Dynamics of Topological Magnetic Solitons.- 24 Fun with Baby-Skyrmions.- 25 Skyrmions and Domain Walls.- 26 Fun with Electroweak Solitons.- 27 Neutral and Charged Spin Excitations in the Quantum Hall Ferromagnet.- 28 Quantum Corrections to Monopoles.- 29 Nonabelian Dyons.- 30 Electroweak Baryon Properties in Soliton Models.- 31 Solitons, Duality, and Supersymmetric Gauge Theories.- 32 Solitonic Strings and Knots.- 33 Toward a String Formulation of Vortex Dynamics.- 34 Domain Walls in a Chern-Simons Theory.- 35 Microphysics of Gauge Vortices and Baryogenesis.- 36 On a Dual Standard Model.- 37 From Skyrmions to the Nucleon-Nucleon Potential.- 38 Two-dimensional Solitons at Finite Temperature.- 39 Nontopological Structures in the Baby-Skyrme Model.