by Helmut Hofmann, OUP Series: Oxford Studies in Nuclear Physics, Volume 25. Hardback ISBN 9780198504016 £65 ($130).
This book offers a comprehensive survey of basic elements of nuclear dynamics at low energies and discusses their similarities to mesoscopic systems. It addresses systems with finite excitations of their internal degrees of freedom so that their collective motion exhibits features typical of transport processes in small and isolated systems. The importance of quantum aspects is examined with respect to both the microscopic damping mechanism and the nature of the transport equations, and a critical discussion of the use of thermal concepts is included. The book is considerably self-contained and presents existing models, theories and theoretical tools, from both nuclear physics and other fields, which are relevant to an understanding of the observed physical phenomena.
