1 Diffusion Processes.- 2 Kinetic Ising Models.- 3 An Overview of Phase Ordering Dynamics.- 4 Domain Growth in Systems with Quenched Disorder.- 5 Surface-Directed Spinodal Decomposition and Surface Enrichment.- 6 Phase Ordering Dynamics in the Complex Ginzburg-Landau Equation.- 7 Quantum Dissipative Systems.- 8 Dissipative Two-State Systems.- 9 Quantum Diffusion.- 10 Coherence and Decoherence.- References.

From the field of nonequilibrium statistical physics, this graduate- and research-level volume treats the modeling and characterization of dissipative phenomena. A variety of examples from diverse disciplines like condensed matter physics, materials science, metallurgy, chemical physics etc. are discussed. Dattagupta employs the broad framework of stochastic processes and master equation techniques to obtain models for a wide range of experimentally relevant phenomena such as classical and quantum Brownian motion, spin dynamics, kinetics of phase ordering, relaxation in glasses, dissipative tunneling. It provides a pedagogical exposition of current research material and will be useful to experimentalists, computational physicists and theorists.