edited by V G Gurzadyan (University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy) & A G Sedrakian (Yerevan Physics Institute, Armenia)

This collection of twenty articles in honor of the noted physicist and mentor Sergei Matinyan focuses on topics that are of fundamental importance to high-energy physics, field theory and cosmology. The topics range from integrable quantum field theories, three-dimensional Ising models, parton models and tests of the Standard Model, to black holes in loop quantum gravity, the cosmological constant and magnetic fields in cosmology. A pedagogical essay by Lev Okun concentrates on the problem of fundamental units. The articles have been written by well-known experts and are addressed to graduate students and researchers.

• 3D Ising Model on Dual BCC Lattice: The Sign-Factor (J Ambjorn et al.)
• On Algebra of the Baxter Q-Operators (A A Belavin & R A Usmanov)
• Aspect of Locality in the Form Factor Program (O A Castro-Alvaredo & A Fring)
• On the Origin of Symmetries (J L Chkareuli)
• Generalization of Magnetic Fields in Cosmology (A D Dolgov)
• On the Cosmological Constant and Vacuum Energy (V G Gurzadyan & S S Xue)
• Topics in Parton Model (O V Kancheli)
• Bjorken Asymptotics of QCD and Integrable Systems (D Karakhanyan & R Kirschner)
• Entropy and Area of Black Holes in Loop Quantum Gravity (I B Khriplovich)
• Statistical Ensembles and Density of States (V Kostrykin & R Schrader)
• The Anthropic Principle Revisted (B Müller)
• Fundamental Units (L B Okun)
• Structure Constant of Boundary Operators in Liouville Field Theory (B Ponsot & J Teschner)
• Winding Number Versus Chern–Pontryagin Charge (T Tchrakian)
• Magnetically Induced Vacuum-Energy Releasing (S S Xue)
• and other papers