This invaluable book provides a quick introduction to the rudiments of perturbative string theory and a detailed introduction to the more current topic of D-brane dynamics. The presentation is very pedagogical, with much of the technical detail streamlined. The rapid but highly coherent introduction to the subject is perhaps what distinguishes this book from other string theory or D-brane books. The material is based on mini-courses delivered by the author at various summer schools in theoretical high energy physics, so its actual level has been appropriately tested.

This text reviews equivariant localization techniques for the evaluation of Feynman path integrals, and explores the symmetries inherent in localizable models for assessing the applicability of localization formulae. Various applications from physics and mathematics are presented.

This book reviews localization for the equivariant evaluation of techniques It Feynmanpathintegrals. methods for developssystematicgeometric study the semi classical of ing for properties phase spacepath integrals dynamical the relationswith and systems, emphasizing integrable topologicalquantum field theories. with a detailed review ofthe relevant Beginning mathemat ical and the Duistermaat Heckman background equivariant cohomology it demonstrates theorem, how the localization ideas are related to classical andhow be can extended to derive local integrability they formally explicit...