This volume presents a completely self-contained introduction to the elaborate theory of locally compact quantum groups, bringing the reader to the frontiers of present-day research. The exposition includes a substantial amount of material on functional analysis and operator algebras, subjects which in themselves have become increasingly important with the advent of quantum information theory. In particular, the rather unfamiliar modular theory of weights plays a crucial role in the theory, due to the presence of “˜Haar integrals’ on locally compact quantum groups, and is thus treated quite extensively