Theoretical physics department, june 96-may 98 status report

This status report presents the work done at SPhT (service de physique theorique, CEA) from june 96 to may 98. The topics have been classified into 3 themes: - statistical physics, - mathematical physics and field theory, - astrophysics, nuclear and particle physics. In the first theme relevant contributions have been made to phase transitions, correlated electronic systems, polymers, membranes, proteins, disordered systems and out of equilibrium processes. The second theme collects various works, some works dedicated to aleatory matrices and quantum chaos aim at developing investigation methods, other works like cord theories use these methods. As for the third theme, the recent discovery of the fluctuations of background cosmological radiation has fomented a great activity at SPhT. Mean field approximation and effective strength have been the starting point of research in the field of nuclear structure. High energy quantum chromodynamics has been applied to deep inelastic scattering where the proton structure is studied through electron-proton collisions. A list of all the publications made by SPhT is given. (A.C.)