Symposium No. 88 of the International Astronomical Union was devoted to a comprehensive review of all types of close.binary stars. The nine sessions were organized according to the type of the objects to be discussed. We have preserved this system, but assembled twelve papers of a more general character (reviews and surveys) into a special chapter placed at the beginning of this book. We would like to remind the reader that the Symposium was preceded by the IAU Colloquium No. 53 on White Dwarfs and Variable Degenerate Stars , and that the sessions on Cataclysmic Variables and related topics...

Symposium No. 88 of the International Astronomical Union was devoted to a comprehensive review of all types of close.binary stars. The nine sessions were organized according to the type of the objects to be discussed. We have preserved this system, but assembled twelve papers of a more general character (reviews and surveys) into a special chapter placed at the beginning of this book. We would like to remind the reader that the Symposium was preceded by the IAU Colloquium No. 53 on White Dwarfs and Variable Degenerate Stars , and that the sessions on Cataclysmic Variables and related topics...