This book presents an up-to-date formalism of non-equilibrium Green's functions covering different applications ranging from solid state physics, plasma physics, cold atoms in optical lattices up to relativistic transport and heavy ion collisions. Within the Green's function formalism, the basic sets of equations for these diverse systems are similar, and approximations developed in one field can be adapted to another field. The central object is the self-energy which includes all non-trivial aspects of the system dynamics. The focus is therefore on microscopic processes starting from elementary principles for classical gases and the complementary picture of a single quantum particle in a random potential. This provides an intuitive picture of the interaction of a particle with the medium formed by other particles, on which the Green's function is built on.

This book brings the body and its passions back into a new theory of social interaction and social order. Building on innovative conceptions of order, change, and organization, Thomas Spence Smith dramatically expands the definition of human interactions that hold societies together. Here he examines the "strong interactions," such as love relationships, attachments, and addictive behaviors, that are inherently unstable—but are integral parts of any social order. Blending physiology and psychology with historical examples of social change and a sophisticated new model of social systems, this book contributes to our understanding how societies are possible.

The present publication is concerned with the study of thermodynamic properties of a quantum mechanical system composed of a small particle system (such as a spin chain) and several quantized massless boson fields (as photon gasses or phonon fields) at positive temperature. As the text at hand is a contribution to the area of mathematical physics it unites mathematical concepts of the thermodynamics of a quantum system with the mathematically rigorous treatment of problems in positive temperature quantum physics. The dissertation character of this publication is reflected by the fact that recent research work of the author is displayed along with a review of established results in the field of statistical quantum mechanics. An extended introductory part serves as thorough familiarization of non-experts with the field of studies. The required technical tools for the mathematical treatment of the system under consideration are carefully compiled apart from the main text.

As materials research focuses into finding ways to control the growth of atomic scale structures, there is correspondingly increasing emphasis on to the problem of surface diffusion. Clearly surface diffusion is the key process, which determines how atoms move on the surface. Controlling this motion can lead to the easy fabrication of well-controlled nanostructures broadening the present possibilities in nanotechnology. The paradigm of surface diffusion has outgrown its standard textbook description as a random walk on a rigid substrate. In real systems for more complex situations are encountered: interacting atoms are commonly present on the surface with their motions highly correlated, different phases form on the surface with different dynamics, large concentration gradients drive the system far away from the linear response regime, rich metastable structures form as a result of balanced interplay between different kinetic processes, substrate relaxation can change the energy landscape and the diffusion barriers, etc. The motivation behind this ARW was to bring together the international community working on these problems. We felt that the large number of researchers, new results, and well-formulated open questions in this area require some form of integration in a single forum. The ARW and the upcoming proceedings book with papers by the majority of the participants has provided this forum. The meeting was not planned as a continuation of the earlier NATO ASI in Rhodes in 1996, although several people have participated in both meetings.

Originally published in Italian in 1976, this book describes the methods scientists use to investigate the physical world. It is ideal for students and teachers of science and the philosophy of science. It is both a high-level popularization and a critical appraisal of these methods, describing important advances in physics and analyzing the historical development, value, reliability and philosophical implications of the way physicists approach the problems confronting them. The introductory chapter on the meaning of physical theories and the mathematical tools used to develop them is followed by a general discussion on the foundations of physics under four major headings: the physics of the reversible, the physics of the irreversible, microphysics, and cosmology. Throughout, the subject matter of physical theories is linked to discussion of the attendant philosophical and epistemological implications, such as the validity of the theories, inductive inference, causal explanation, probability, the role of observation and the reality of physical objects.

The first, second, and third editions of this book seem to occur at ten year intervals. The intent is to keep the book up-to-date. Many-body theory is a field which continually evolves in time. Journals only publish new results, conferences only invite speakers to report new phenomena, and agencies only fund scientists to do new physics. Today's physics is old hat by tomorrow. Students want to learn new material, and textbooks must be modified to keep up with the times. The early chapters in this book teach the techniques of many-body theory. They are largely unchanged in format. The later chapters apply the techniques to specific problems. The third edition increases the number of applications. New sections have been added, while old sections have been modified to include recent applications. The previous editions were set in type using pre-computer technology. No computer file existed of the prior editions. The publisher scanned the second edition and gave me a disk with the contents. This scan recorded the words accurately and scrambled the equations into unintelligible form. So I retyped the equations using LaTeX. Although tedious, it allowed me to correct the infinite numbers of typographical errors in the previous edition. The earlier typesetting methods did not permit such corrections. The entire book was edited sentence-by sentence. Most old sections of the book were shortened by editing sentences and paragraphs.