Quantum Many-Body Dynamics

The dynamics of atomic nuclei is amongst the most challenging problem to treat theoretically. The richness of phenomena occurring in heavy-ion collisions can only be studied within microscopic approaches where each nucleon is treated quantum mechanically. Our goal is to present recent advances on microscopic descriptions of low energy heavy-ion collisions. We present both formal aspects and practical applications of the time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) theory, giving a mean-field dynamics of the system. As an example, we study the fusion of nuclei and some competing processes. The TDHF theory has some intrinsic limitations: absence of tunneling below the Coulomb barrier, missing dissipative effects and quantum fluctuations. Mean-field theories should be improved to properly account for these effects. Several approaches are presented which account for pairing and/or direct nucleon-nucleon collisions. Finally, we discuss recent progresses in exact ab-initio methods based on the stochastic mean-field concept. This book is addressed to master and PhD students and/or researchers who want a general overview on microscopic approaches applied to nuclear dynamics.

D. Lacroix: GANIL, Caen (Fr.). B. Avez: CENBG, Bordeaux (Fr.). C. Simenel: CEA/Saclay (Fr.) and ANU, Canberra (Au.). Teaching nuclear theory at the University of Caen and nuclear and particle physics at ANU. The authors have a PhD in Nuclear Physics. They do their research in nuclear theory. Their collaboration started at MSU (USA).