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QUANTUM STATISTICAL MECHANICS
Many-body theory stands at the foundation of modern quantum statistical mechan-
ics. It is introduced here to graduate students in physics, chemistry, engineering
and biology. The book provides a contemporary understanding of irreversibil-
ity, particularly in quantum systems. It explains entropy production in quantum
ic theory and in the master equation formulation of non-equilibrium statistical
mechanics.
The first half of the book focuses on the foundations of non-equilibrium statisti-
cal mechanics with emphasis on quantum mechanics. The second half of the book
contains alternative views of quantum statistical mechanics, and topics of current
interest for advanced graduate level study and research.
Uniquely among textbooks on modern quantum statistical mechanics, this work
contains a discussion of the fundamental Gleason theorem, presents quantum
entanglements in application to putation and the difficulties arising
from decoherence, and derives the relativistic generalization of the Boltzmann
equation. Applications of statistical mechanics to reservoir ballistic transport are
developed.
W ILLIAM C. S CHIEVE is Professor Emeritus in the Physics Department and
Center plex Quantum Systems at the University of Texas, Austin. His
research interests lie in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and its applications
to areas such as quantum optics, relativistic statistical mechanics, dynamical mod-
els in biophysics, and chaos theory.
L AWRENCE P. H ORWITZ is Professor of Physics Emeritus in the School of
Physics at Tel Aviv University. He is also Professor of Physics at Bar Ilan Univer-
sity, and Research Director in Theoretical Physics at Ariel University. His research
interests lie in the theory of unstable systems, foundations of quantum theory,
quantum field theory, particle physics, relativistic mechanics and general relativity,
quantum and classical dynamical systems, and