Geometry and physics of branes

This book brings together the contents of the courses given at the doctoral school on 'Geometry and Physics of Branes' which took place in the spring of 2001 at the Centre for Scientific Culture 'Alessandro Volta' located in the beautiful environment of Villa Olmo in Como, Italy. The central topic of the school was the concept of the brane in string theory, from both physical and mathematical viewpoints. Rather than attempting to make a (forcefully superficial) general overview of the mathematics and physics of branes, the philosophy underlying the choice of lectures was to provide an introduction to some lines of research, related to the notion of branes in string theory, which are presently the object of strong interest in the mathematical and physical communities.