Investigations were performed with S. Vafaeisefat [l, 41 on the mechanism of spontaneous chi-ral symmetry breaking via extenal fields in QED, especially by computer calculation using the Schwinger proper-time formalism in a density of states type of simulations. Some of the most significant results obtained include: the precise determination of the the parameter space widths for the gaussians in which one observes chiral symmetry breaking as defined by a non-zero expectation value for the fedonbilinear field expression; and the appropriate values for the parameters so that one also obtains spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in a fully four-dimensional configuration produced by colliding same-sign charges. Our results provide strong evidence of a generic effect of such field configurations, which consitute a remarkable new phenomenon in quantum field theory. Our results allow us to estimate the minimum field strength required to induce spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking. The extension of these results to SU(2) non-abelian gauge theory was initiated with J. Cannellos at Buffalo, and E. Ferrer and V. Incera at S U N Y Fredonia, and is in progress. Strings, Conformal Field Theories, and Toda Field Theories N o investigations of affine Toda field theories were carried out with 2. Zhu. In the first investigation [2], Hirota's method was used to construct multi-soliton and plane-wave solutions for affine Toda field theories with imaginary coupling. In the second [3], it was shown that there are infinitely many topological solitons in any given complex affine Toda theories and most of them have complex energy density. When we require the energy density of the solitons to be real, we find that the reality condition is related to a simple "pairing condition." Unfortunately, rather few soliton solutions in these theories survive the reality constraint, especially if one also demands positivity. The resulting implications for the physical applicability of these theories were investigated. Cosmological Neutrino Condensates With A. Chodos [5], we investigated the possibility that neutrinos form superfluid-type condensates in background cosmological densities. Such condensates could give rise to small neutrino masses and splittings, as well as an important contribution, perhaps, to the cosmological constant. We discussed various channels in the context of the standard model. Many of these do not support a condensate, but some mixed-flavor channels do. We also suggested a new interaction, acting only among neutrinos, that could induce a neutrino Majorana mass of order 1 eV. Our conclusions can be enumerated as 'follows: (i) There is no attractive channel in the purely neutrino sector of the standard model; (ii) The addition of charged leptons leads to attraction in the flavor off-diagonal channels, but a pairing instability occurs only if the Fermi momenta of the neutrino and I DOE Patent Clearance Granted Mark t ? Dvorscak Office of Intellectual Props $.Law DOE Chicago Operations frce cf.fl.ol Date v-L-630) 252-2393-mail: ...