The conceptofspontaneous symmetry breaking plays a fundamental role in
contemporary physics. It is essential for the description of degenerate
ground states, massless modes, and topological defects. Examples are
abundant in condensed matter physics, atomic and particle physics, as
well as in astro- physics and cosmology. In fact, spontaneous symmetry
breaking can be re- garded as a cornerstone ofa whole branch ofphysics
which intersects the above mentioned traditionally distinct fields. In
the year 2000 the European Science Foundation (ESF) started the Pro-
gramme "Cosmology in the Laboratory" (COSLAB), with the goal to search
for and to develop analogies betweencondensed matterphysics, particle
physics, and cosmology. Not surprisingly, spontaneous symmetry breaking
is among the most useful notions in that endeavour. It has been decided
that in the sec- ond year of the Programme a School should be held in
order to work out and deliver to a wide audience of students synthetic
overviews of achievements and of current research topics of COSLAB. This
idea has been supported by the Scientific and Environmental Affairs
Division of NATO by including the School in the renowned series of its
Advanced Study Institutes. The School, entitled" Patterns of Symmetry
Breaking", was held in Cracow during 16-28 September 2002. It gathered
17 lecturers and about 60 students. The present volume contains notes
ofmost of the lectures from that School. We hope that of the physics of
spon- it will convey to the reader the breadth and the beauty taneous
symmetry breaking.