L. Gross

The reader will get an overview of the past and present research in all fields of Surface Science. Readers not familiar with a given field will benefit from the tutorial character of the Introductions, as a rule present in every chapter. Throughout the book emphasis is mainly given to clean surfaces although sometimes adsorbate-covered surfaces are also accounted for. Many readers will be particularly interested in chapters dealing with recently developed topics (graphene, nanotubes, metal oxides, solid-liquid interfaces, theoretical simulations, manipulation of atoms at surfaces with the methods of scanning probe microscopy, Casimir effect, etc.), for which research is continuously evolving. As it is customary in the LB Series, the results obtained in a given field are quoted as thoroughly as possible. The most relevant among them are presented in the form of figures (or tables), and comments or comparisons with other results are usually provided.

The theory of Dirichlet forms has witnessed recently some very important developments both in theoretical foundations and in applications (stochasticprocesses, quantum field theory, composite materials,...). It was therefore felt timely to have on this subject a CIME school, in which leading experts in the field would present both the basic foundations of the theory and some of the recent applications. The six courses covered the basic theory and applications to: - Stochastic processes and potential theory (M. Fukushima and M. Roeckner) - Regularity problems for solutions to elliptic equations in general domains (E. Fabes and C. Kenig) - Hypercontractivity of semigroups, logarithmic Sobolev inequalities and relation to statistical mechanics (L. Gross and D. Stroock). The School had a constant and active participation of young researchers, both from Italy and abroad.