The purpose of this book is to introduce two recent topics in mathematical physics and probability theory: the Schramm Loewner evolution (SLE) and interacting particle systems related to random matrix theory. A typical example of the latter systems is Dyson's Brownian motion (BM) model. The SLE and Dyson's BM model may be considered as "children" of the Bessel process with parameter D, BES(D), and the SLE and Dyson's BM model as "grandchildren" of BM. In Chap. 1 the parenthood of BM in diffusion processes is clarified and BES(D) is defined for any D 1. Dependence...

Hermite's theorem makes it known that there are three levels of mathematical frames in which a simple addition formula is valid. They are rational, q-analogue, and elliptic-analogue. Based on the addition formula and associated mathematical structures, productive studies have been carried out in the process ofq-extension of the rational (classical) formulas in enumerative combinatorics, theory of special functions, representation theory, study of integrable systems, and so on. Originating from the paper by Date, Jimbo, Kuniba, Miwa, and Okado on the exactly solvable statistical mechanics...