The launch of this Advanced Lectures in Mathematics series is aimed at keeping mathematicians informed of the latest developments in mathematics, as well as to aid in the learning of new mathematical topics by students all over the world. Each volume consists of either an expository monograph or a collection of significant introductions to important topics. This series emphasizes the history and sources of motivation for the topics under discussion, and also gives an overview of the current status of research in each particular field. These volumes are the first source to which people will turn in order to learn new subjects and to discover the latest results of many cutting-edge fields in mathematics.