Overview

The NATO Advanced Study Institute "Microlocal Analysis and Spectral The- ory" was held in Tuscany (Italy) at Castelvecchio Pascoli, in the district of Lucca, hosted by the international vacation center "11 Ciocco", from September 23 to October 3, 1996. The Institute recorded the considerable progress realized recently in the field of Microlocal Analysis. In a broad sense, Microlocal Analysis is the modern version of the classical Fourier technique in solving partial differential equa- tions, where now the localization proceeding takes place with respect to the dual variables too. Precisely, through the tools of pseudo-differential operators, wave-front sets and Fourier integral operators, the general theory of the lin- ear partial differential equations is now reaching a mature form, in the frame of Schwartz distributions or other generalized functions. At the same time, Microlocal Analysis has grown up into a definite and independent part of Math- ematical Analysis, with other applications all around Mathematics and Physics, one major theme being Spectral Theory for Schrodinger equation in Quantum Mechanics.