Transport Theories for Strongly-Interacting Systems

This book provides an overview on transport theories, focusing on applications and the relativistic off-shell transport theory which are of particular interest for physicists working in the field of relativistic strong-interaction physics, e.g. relativistic or ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions or the evolution of the early universe. In this regard, a thorough derivation of the transport equations and a careful analysis of the approximations employed is given. The text is enriched with a multitude of Appendices that partly recall elements of quantum mechanics and field theory or present examples for specific models. Specific exercises are given throughout the chapters. As a basic knowledge the reader should be familiar with quantum mechanics and its principles as well as some basic concepts of the quantum many-body physics and field theory. All chapters close with a short summary and numerical calculations are provided to master and illustrate the subject.

• Quantum kinetic theory for strongly interacting systems
• Nonlinear dynamics of heavy-ion reactions
• Off-shell transport equations
• Kadanoff-Baym dynamics and solutions
• Spectral functions for scalar field theory
• Quantum many-body transitions in dense hadronic systems
• N-body correlation functions
• Density-dependent relativistic mean-field theory
• Ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Electromagnetic fields from relativistic heavy-ion collisions

• Theoretical Physics, University of Gießen, Gießen, Germany

  Wolfgang Cassing

Wolfgang Cassing is a retired professor of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Giessen, Germany. He obtained his diploma degree in physics at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Münster in 1977, a Ph.D. degree in philosophy in 1978 and a Ph.D. degree in physics in 1980 at the University of Münster. During the period 1980-1984 he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the GSI in Darmstadt, Germany, on the dynamics of low-energy heavy-ion reactions and obtained a permanent position in theoretical physics at the University of Giessen starting from 1985. In spring 1986 he finished his habilitation at the Technical University of Darmstadt and received a call as a professor in theoretical physics at the University of Giessen in 1991. Since spring 1992 he is professor for theoretical heavy-ion physics at the University of Giessen, served repeatedly as a director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics, as a dean of studies for the facultyof mathematics and informatics, physics and geography as well as senator for the University of Giessen until retirement in spring 2019. His research interests include nonrelativistic and relativistic many-body theory, transport theories for heavy-ion collisions, field theories as well as computational physics.

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