A Few Methods for the Theory of Collective Motions and Collisions

Abstract

The title originally planned for this series of lectures was “Time-dependent Hartree Fock Theory of Nuclear Motions and Collisions”. In fact, in what follows, the TDHF method will be considered for collective motion only. This is because a new, more practical theory of collisions has recently emerged. These lectures thus contain two main and distinct chapters, the first dedicated to this new theory of collisions and the second to collective motion. As a distraction to the reader, a last and small chapter recalls elementary ideas about some conjectured mechanisms for the dynamics of a very special system with collective motions, namely a living organ in the nervous system. This Summer School being dedicated to the subject of order and chaos, it is hoped that the considerations which follow never go too far from that fascinating subject indeed.