The conjugate operator method is a powerful recently developed technique for studying spectral properties of self-adjoint operators. One of the purposes of this volume is to present a refinement of the original method due to Mourre leading to essentially optimal results in situations as varied as ordinary differential operators, pseudo-differential operators and N -body Schrödinger hamiltonians. Another topic is a new algebraic framework for the N -body problem allowing a simple and systematic treatment of large classes of many-channel hamiltonians. The monograph will be of interest to research mathematicians and mathematical physicists. The authors have made efforts to produce an essentially self-contained text, which makes it accessible to advanced students. Thus about one third of the book is devoted to the development of tools from functional analysis, in particular real interpolation theory for Banach spaces and functional calculus and Besov spaces associated with multi-parameter C 0-groups. - - - Certainly this monograph (containing a bibliography of 170 items) is a well-written contribution to this field which is suitable to stimulate further evolution of the theory. (Mathematical Reviews)  .