The phenomenon of turbulence in fluid mechanics has been known for many centuries. Indeed, it was for instance discussed by the Latin poet Lucretius who described in "de natura rerum" how a small perturbation ("clinamen") could be at the origin of the development of a turbulent order in an initially laminar river made of randomly agitated atoms. More recently, Leonardo da Vinci drew vortices. Analogous vortices were sketched by the Japonese school of artists called Utagawa in the 19th century, which certainly influenced van Gogh in "The Starry Night." However, and notwithstanding decisive...

This title is devoted to the study of quantum effects in atomic systems, and reviews the fields of Bose-Einstein condensation, quantum information processing, and the problems of propagation of matter waves in complex media.

The phenomenon of turbulence in fluid mechanics has been known for many centuries. Indeed, it was for instance discussed by the Latin poet Lucretius who described in "de natura rerum" how a small perturbation ("clinamen") could be at the origin of the development of a turbulent order in an initially laminar river made of randomly agitated atoms. More recently, Leonardo da Vinci drew vortices. Analogous vortices were sketched by the Japonese school of artists called Utagawa in the 19th century, which certainly influenced van Gogh in "The Starry Night." However, and notwithstanding decisive...

In these lectures, I have discussed a number of basic concepts that provide the necessary background to the current studies of star formation. A ?rst partwas dedicatedto illustrate the conceptofa protostar, discussing con- tions and propertiesof the collapseof a molecular core. A secondpart deals with circumstellardisks. Disks areimportantnot only to the processofstar formation itself, but also because they are in all probability the site where planets form. The age range of pre-main sequence stars coincides with the timescales for the formation of very large planetesimals, the building...

Progress in atomic physics has been so vigorous during the past decade that one is hard pressed to follow all the new developments. In the early 1990s the first atom interferometers opened a new field in which we have been able to use the wave nature of atoms to probe fundamental quantum me chanics questions as well as to make precision measurements. Coming fast on the heels of this development was the demonstration of Bose Einstein condensation in dilute atomic vapors which intensified research interest in studying the wave nature of matter, especially in a domain in which "macro scopic"...