Henk van Beijeren - Böcker

Kinetic theory provides a microscopic description of many observable, macroscopic processes and has a wide range of important applications in physics, astronomy, chemistry, and engineering. This powerful, theoretical framework allows a quantitative treatment of many non-equilibrium phenomena such as transport processes in classical and quantum fluids. This book describes in detail the Boltzmann equation theory, obtained in both traditional and modern ways. Applications and generalizations describing non-equilibrium processes in a variety of systems are also covered, including dilute and moderately dense gases, particles in random media, hard sphere crystals, condensed Bose-Einstein gases, and granular materials. Fluctuation phenomena in non-equilibrium fluids, and related non-analyticities in the hydrodynamic equations are also discussed in some detail. A thorough examination of many topics concerning time dependent phenomena in material systems, this book describes both current knowledge as well as future directions of the field.