This book covers the present status of art of grand unification with and without supersymmetry (gravity), including cosmological consequences. It is addressed to graduate students and researchers interested in this fastly developing field. But without necessarily any previous experience, however, at least some parts of the book and, in particular, those concerning the most recent developments, are of interest to actively involved researchers in the field.

Some topics covered during the workshop include String Theory, Conformal Field Theory, Physics in 2+1 Dimensions, String Phenomenology and Quantum Cosmology.

The realization that precision LEP data lend support to the idea of supersymmetric grand unification and supersymmetry in general, led to the organization of the First HARC International Workshop on Recent Advances in the SuperWorld. The idea was to have a workshop that discussed all aspects of the supersymmetric world — the SuperWorld as it should be properly known. These aspects are so diverse that they are usually studied by high energy physicists with vastly different interests. The selection of speakers included the whole spectrum in ''energy'', from experimental physicists, to specialists in low energy phenomenology, supersymmetric grand unification, supergravity, superstrings and supercosmology.

Over the past few years we have seen remarkable, and at times independent advances in the understanding of extended objects like strings, black holes and membranes at the ''microscopic'' level. This volume primarily focuses on the synthesis of many diverse ideas in the physics of extended objects. The topics discussed include black holes as solutions of superstrings, string-membrane duality, QCD and strings, and nonperturbative strings.

This book covers the present status of art of grand unification with and without supersymmetry (gravity), including cosmological consequences. It is addressed to graduate students and researchers interested in this fastly developing field. But without necessarily any previous experience, however, at least some parts of the book and, in particular, those concerning the most recent developments, are of interest to actively involved researchers in the field.

Some topics covered during the workshop include String Theory, Conformal Field Theory, Physics in 2+1 Dimensions, String Phenomenology and Quantum Cosmology.

The realization that precision LEP data lend support to the idea of supersymmetric grand unification and supersymmetry in general, led to the organization of the First HARC International Workshop on Recent Advances in the SuperWorld. The idea was to have a workshop that discussed all aspects of the supersymmetric world — the SuperWorld as it should be properly known. These aspects are so diverse that they are usually studied by high energy physicists with vastly different interests. The selection of speakers included the whole spectrum in ''energy'', from experimental physicists, to specialists in low energy phenomenology, supersymmetric grand unification, supergravity, superstrings and supercosmology.

Over the past few years we have seen remarkable, and at times independent advances in the understanding of extended objects like strings, black holes and membranes at the ''microscopic'' level. This volume primarily focuses on the synthesis of many diverse ideas in the physics of extended objects. The topics discussed include black holes as solutions of superstrings, string-membrane duality, QCD and strings, and nonperturbative strings.