Harmonic Mappings Twistors And Sigma Models

Harmonic mappings have played in recent years and will likely to play in the future an important role in Differential Geometry and Theoretical Physics, where they are known as s-models. These Proceedings develop both aspects of the theory, with a special attention to the constructive methods, in particular the so-called twistorial approach. It includes expository articles on the twistorial methods, the various appearence of σ-models in Physics, the powerful analytic theory of regularity of SCHOEN-UHLENBECK.

This book gathers together established ideas and applications of sigma models and presents them together with modern applications to provide a unified and complete view of simple sigma models and the role they play in model building in field theoretical methods in elementary particle physics. The book is written for both mathematicians and physicists and is aimed at graduate students and researchers in theoretical particle physics who are interested in sigma models and those working in the general area of harmonic maps in pure mathematics.