Quantum dynamics underlies macroscopic systems exhibiting some kind of
ordering, such as superconductors, ferromagnets and crystals. Even large
scale structures in the Universe and ordering in biological systems
appear to be the manifestation of microscopic dynamics ruling their
elementary components. The scope of this book is to answer questions
such as: how it happens that the mesoscopic/macroscopic scale and
stability characterizing those systems are dynamically generated out of
the microscopic scale of fluctuating quantum components; how quantum
particles coexist and interact with classically behaving macroscopic
objects, e.g. vortices, magnetic domains and other topological defects.
The quantum origin of topological defects and their interaction with
quanta is a crucial issue for the understanding of symmetry breaking
phase transitions and structure formation in a wide range of systems
from condensed matter to cosmology. Deliberately not discussing other
important problems, primarily renormalization problems, this book
provides answers to such questions in a unitary, self-consistent
physical and mathematical framework, which makes it unique in the
panorama of existing texts on a similar subject. Crystals, ferromagnets
and superconductors appear to be macroscopic quantum systems, i.e. their
macroscopic properties cannot be explained without recourse to the
underlying quantum dynamics. Recognizing that quantum field dynamics is
not confined to the microscopic world is one of the achievements of this
book, also marking its difference from other texts. The combined use of
algebraic methods, and operator and functional formalism constitutes
another distinctive, valuable feature.
