The field of geometric variational problems, that is, nonlinear problems arising in geometry and topology from the point of view of global analysis, has developed very rapidly in the last decade. It was therefore felt timely to produce a set of presentations on this subject in which leading experts would provide general survey of current research from the fundamentals to the most recent results with a view to future research.

This volume will interest both mature researchers and graduate students concerned with gauge theory and low dimensional topology, theory of harmonic maps, and minimal surfaces and minimal submanifolds in Riemannian manifolds.