From Quantum Fields to Spin Glasses

‘In the past half-century, no-one has touched such a diversity of topics in theoretical physics, mathematics, and computer science with such brilliance as Giorgio Parisi. His contributions are characterized by a remarkable intuitive understanding soundly based on practical computations. This volume, consisting of fourteen chapters written by his collaborators and each on a different topic on which he has made his mark, reads as a survey of some of the most profound advances in theoretical science in recent times. It will be useful background material both for graduate students in these areas and for historians of contemporary science. A fascinating fifteenth chapter contains Parisi’s own analysis of his early work.’ John Cardy, University of Oxford
‘Welcome to the delightful banquet of theoretical physics. I have been so fortunate to witness the magic of Giorgio Parisi’s way of doing science. Every student interested in how new ideas are born, through a mix of serendipity, technical mastery, curiosity and luck, will treasure this book.’ JP Bouchaud, Capital Fund Management & Académie des Sciences
‘Giorgio Parisi has made fundamental contributions across an extraordinary range of theoretical physics, a breadth beautifully reflected in this volume’s journey from quantum field theory to statistical physics. Each chapter introduces a seminal contribution and traces the many developments it inspired, making the book both an illuminating intellectual history and an excellent pedagogical reference for experts and students alike. I expect to return to it often in my research and teaching.’ Mehran Kardar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
‘This is a unique and fascinating book. Unique because it covers almost every field of modern theoretical physics, and fascinating because it is very hard to drop once you’ve started reading it. Both attributes are to be expected from a collection of lecture notes by leading experts, each one presenting a subject developed by Giorgio Parisi - one of the most original and prolific physicists of our time. From statistical mechanics and the physics of disordered systems to the rules that govern the flight of bird flocks, every phenomenon in Nature excites Parisi’s imagination. All readers, no matter their field of expertise, will come across topics with which they are familiar. But they will also discover plenty of others of which they have only a vague or superficial knowledge. Some advice: don’t open the book in the evening; you may spend a sleepless night.’ John Iliopoulos, ENS-PSL

• Roberto Aloisio is Professor of Physics at the Gran Sasso Science Institute in L’Aquila. His research lies at the intersection of particle physics and astrophysics, addressing the most energetic phenomena in the universe and their theoretical interpretation.
• Maria Chiara Angelini is a researcher at the Sapienza University of Rome, and her work is focused on statistical physics, disordered systems, optimization and inference problems. She has written two popular science books (published in Italian): MatematicaMente (Gribaudo, 2023) and Giorgio Parisi – La fisica che domina il caos, dal clima alle neuroscienze (La Repubblica – Le Scienze, 2024).
• Marco Bonvini is a theoretical physicist at INFN Rome. His research focuses on quantum chromodynamics and Higgs physics, with seminal contributions on parton distributions, resummation, and the quantification of theoretical uncertainties using Bayesian inference.
• Giacomo Gradenigo is Associate Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of Padova. His research ranges from problems in the statistical mechanics of disordered systems to functional non-perturbative approaches in quantum field theory and quantum mechanics.
• Enzo Marinari is Professor of Physics at the Sapienza University of Rome. His main research focus is the statistical physics of disordered systems.
• Antonio Davide Polosa is Professor of Physics at the Sapienza University of Rome. His research is on hadron collider physics, exotic hadrons phenomenology, particularly tetraquarks and pentaquarks, and direct dark matter detection with condensed matter targets.
• Federico Ricci-Tersenghi is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Sapienza University of Rome. His primary field of research is the statistical physics of disordered systems, with key applications in the study of high-dimensional optimization and inference problems, as well as machine learning.

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