Statistical Mechanics is a traditional subject in Florence, which
has been accounted for by this 19-year old INFN initiative. 
All the people have a quantum field theory background, and thus have been
investigating the fruitful relations and analogies among statistical
mechanics, condensed matter and particle physics.
The main theme is the study of exactly solvable models in two dimensions, 
namely the conformal field theories and the integrable systems,
and their application to statistical mechanics and condensed matter problems.
Exact solutions provide the tools to understand many physical problems 
which are characterized by strong interactions and non-perturbative effects. 
These same problems are also investigated by a variety of numerical methods,
and the comparison between the two approaches can often be done.

There is a rather broad spectrum of strongly-interacting systems in
statistical mechanics, and, similarly, there are many subjects 
analyzed by the participants of this INFN Initiative.
Among others, let us mention the quantum Hall effect and in general
the strongly-interacting electron systems in low dimension,
the random and disordered systems, the open systems out of equilibrium, 
the many-body dynamical systems and the approach to equilibrium near 
a phase transition.

The exactly solvable field theories in two-dimensions can also be 
applied to rather different domains, like the model building 
in String Theory (here condensed-matter analogies have been very fruitful). 
Another use of exact solutions is for testing fundamental aspects of 
field theory such as the irreversibility of the renormalization-group 
flow (the c-theorem).

The main interests of the participants are:

Florence
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A. Cappelli: conformal field theories applied to condensed matter and
statistical mechanics;

F. Colomo: quantum field theories and integrable systems
applied to condensed matter and statistical mechanics;

G. D'Appollonio: conformal field theory applied to condensed matter and
string theory;

M. Zabzine: as above;

M. Pettini: statistical mechanics and dynamical systems with many degrees
of freedom;

F. Bagnoli: as above;

S. Ruffo: as above;

Genova
------
N. Magnoli: conformal field theories and integrable systems
applied to condensed matter and statistical mechanics; 

Trieste
-------
D. Fioravanti: conformal field theories and integrable systems
applied to condensed matter and statistical mechanics; 

G. Mussardo: as above;

G. Delfino: as above;

Controzzi, Mossa, Mosconi: as above;

A. Cappelli is asking 3KEuro for inviting G.R. Zemba
(Univ. di Buenos Aires) for 2 months for collaborating on
``effective field theories of the quantum Hall effect''

S. Ruffo is asking 1.5KEuro for inviting Raul Rechman
Schrenzel (CIE Temixco), Mexico for one month for studying
 the diffusion of particles in dynamical systems with
microscopic chaos (CV and publ. list of Rechman available
at the page http://arturo.fi.infn.it/cappelli/is).

F. Colomo is asking 1.5  KEuro for inviting A.G.Pronko,
(Steklov Math. Inst), St. Petersbourg, for 1 month for
studying integrable systems, within the well-established
connection Florence -Steklov Inst. (CV and publ. list of
Pronko available at the page 
http://arturo.fi.infn.it/cappelli/is).

M. Zabzine is asking 1.5 KEuro for participating to the
Cargese 2002 Summer School ``PROGRESS IN STRING, FIELD 
AND PARTICLE THEORY'', 25.06.2002-11.07.2002.

A. Cappelli is asking 2.0 KEuro for participating to
the Conference ``Strings 2002'', Cambdrige, July 15-20
2002, and the Workshop ``Nonunitary and Logarithmic
Conformal Field Theories'', June 10-14, IHES, Paris.

We also ask 2.0 KEuro for Italian missions to partecipate
to an internal FI11 meeting (one already took place 
in Trieste on January) and for scientific exchanges with
the Trieste FI11 group.

N. Magnoli is asking 1.0 KEuro for inviting R. Guida
(SPhT, Saclay), Paris, for 15 days for continuing the
collaboration on the extension of the c-theorem in four
 dimensions.

G. Mussardo is asking 1KEuro for inviting A. LeClair
for one month for collaboration on ``boundary integrable
conformal field theories''

The group is asking 3.0 KEuro for Italian missions for
participating to the Cortona Conference (6 people),
to an internal FI11 meeting (one already took place in
Trieste on January) and for the scientific exchanges
with the Florence group.

Mussardo, Delfino, Controzzi and Riva are asking 4 KEuro
for partial support to participate to the International
 Conference on Theoretical Physics, Paris, 22-27 July 2002. 

Mussardo and Delfino are asking 2.5 KEuro for partial
support to participate to the Conference of the Landau
 Institute for the 60th birthday of A. Belavin.

Mussardo and Controzzi are asking 2.5 KEuro for partial
 support to participate to the Workshop on Integrable
Theories, Solitons and Duality, IFT, San-Paulo, Brazil.