The history of critical phenomena goes back to the year 1869 when Andrews discovered the critical point of carbon dioxide, located at about 31°C and 73 atmosph

Critical phenomena arise in a wide variety of physical systems. Classi cal examples are the liquid-vapour critical point or the paramagnetic ferromagnetic trans

This volume contains Introductory Notes and major reprints on conformal field theory and its applications to 2-dimensional statistical mechanics of critical phe

Contents:Conformal Boundary Conditions — and What They Teach Us (V B Petkova & J-B Zuber)A Physical Basis for the Entropy of the AdS3 Black Hole (S Fernando &

Filling an important gap in the literature, this comprehensive text develops conformal field theory from first principles. The treatment is self-contained, peda