Michele Cini is Full Professor in Physics at the University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Italy, since 2000, having joined the university in 1988 as Associate Professor. Dr. Cini graduated in Physics cum laude from Pisa University in 1969. After a period as a research worker in the ENI group, he joined the National Research Council (CNR), "Instituto di Metodologie Avanzate Inorganiche", and was responsible for delivering two official courses for the degree in Physics at the University of L' Aquila. Dr. Cini has been the coordinator of two European ESPRIT projects and the prestigious Italian 'prin' project on Auger spectroscopy of magnetic systems of low dimensionality. He has also been a member of the scientific boards for various conferences. He has authored or co-authored about 150 papers as well as some previous Springer books.

This book provides course material in theoretical physics intended for undergraduate and graduate students specializing in condensed matter, including experimentalists who want a good theoretical background. The book arose naturally from teaching activity, offering readable and mathematical treatments explained in sufficient detail to be followed easily. Proofs of all the relevant theorems are provided, but the main emphasis is always on the physical meaning and applicability of the results. Many examples are provided for illustration; these also serve as worked problems.
Other related topics discussed in the book are atomic physics, relativistic quantum mechanics, elementary QED, electron spectroscopy, nonlinear optics, and various aspects of the many-body problem. Methods such as group representation theory, Green's functions, the Keldysh formalism and recursion techniques were also imparted. As prerequisite, a good first course in quantum mechanics is assumed.

I-Introductory Many-Body Physics.- Basic Many-Body Quantum Mechanics.- Adiabatic Switching and Time-Ordered series.- Atomic Shells and Multiplets.- Greens Functions as Thought Experiments.- Hopping Electron Models: an Appetizer.- Many-body Effects in Electron Spectroscopies.- Symmetry in Quantum Physics.- Group Representations for Physicists.- Simpler Uses of Group Theory.- Product of Representations and Further Physical Applications.- More on Green Function Techniques.- Equations of Motion and Further Developments.- Feynman Diagrams for Condensed Matter Physics.- Many-Body Effects and Further Theory.- Non-Equilibrium Theory.- Non-Perturbative Approaches and Applications.- Some Recursion Techniques with Applications.- Aspects of Nonlinear Optics and Many-Photon Effects.- Selected Exact Results in Many-Body Problems.- Quantum Phases.- Pairing from repulsive interactions.- Algebraic Methods.- Appendices.- Appendix 1: Zero-point Energy in a Pillbox.- Appendix II-Character Tables.- Proof of the Wigner-Eckart Theorem.