Physicalkineticsisthe?nalsectionofthecourseoftheoreticalphysics in its standard presentation.
It stays at the boundary between g- eral theories and their applications (solid state theory
theory of gases plasma and so on) because the treatment of kinetic phenomena always depends
on speci?c structural features of materials. On the other hand the physical kinetics as a part
of the quantum theory of macroscopic systems is far from being complete. A number of its
fundamental - sues such as the problem of irreversibility and mechanisms of chaotic responses
are now attracting considerable attention. Other important sections for example kinetic
phenomena in disordered and or strongly non-equilibrium systems and in particular phase
transitions in these systems are currently under investigation. The quantum theory of m-
surements and quantum information processing actively developing in the last decade are based
on the quantum kinetic theory. Because a deductive theoretical exposition of the subject is not
c- venient the authors restrict themselves to a lecture-style presentation. Now the physical
kinetics seems to be at the stage of development when according to Newton studying examples
is more instructive than lea- ing rules. In view of these circumstances the methods of the
kinetic theory are presented here not in a general form but as applications for description of
speci?c systems and treatment of particular kinetic p- nomena. The quantum features of kinetic
phenomena can arise for several r- sons.
