The contents of this book are the result of work performed in the past three years to provide some answers to questions raised by several colleagues wo- inginastrophysics. Examiningseveraltransportprocessesinplasmasrelated to dissipative e?ects in phenomena such as cooling ?ows, propagation of sound waves, thermal conduction in the presence of magnetic ?elds, an- lar momentum transfer in accretion disks, among many, one ?nds a rather common pattern. Indeed when values for transport coe?cients are required the overwhelming majority of authors refer to the classical results obtained by L. Spitzer and S. Braginski over forty years ago. Further, it is also often mentioned that under the prescribed working conditions the values of such coe?cients are usually insu?cient to provide agreement with observations. The methodology followed by these authors is based upon Landau's - oneering idea that collisions in plasmas may be substantially accounted for when viewed as a di?usive process. Consequently the ensuing basic kinetic equation is the Fokker-Planck version of Boltzmann's equation as essentially proposed by Landau himself nearly 70 years ago. Curiously enough the magni?cent work of the late R. Balescu in both Classical and Non-Classical transport in plasmas published in 1988 and also based on the Fokker-Planck equation is hardly known in the astrophysical audience. The previous work of Spitzer and Braginski is analyzed with much more rigorous vision in his two books on the subject.

The contents of this book are the result of work performed in the past three years to provide some answers to questions raised by several colleagues wo- inginastrophysics. Examiningseveraltransportprocessesinplasmasrelated to dissipative e?ects in phenomena such as cooling ?ows, propagation of sound waves, thermal conduction in the presence of magnetic ?elds, an- lar momentum transfer in accretion disks, among many, one ?nds a rather common pattern. Indeed when values for transport coe?cients are required the overwhelming majority of authors refer to the classical results obtained by L. Spitzer and S. Braginski over forty years ago. Further, it is also often mentioned that under the prescribed working conditions the values of such coe?cients are usually insu?cient to provide agreement with observations. The methodology followed by these authors is based upon Landau's - oneering idea that collisions in plasmas may be substantially accounted for when viewed as a di?usive process. Consequently the ensuing basic kinetic equation is the Fokker-Planck version of Boltzmann's equation as essentially proposed by Landau himself nearly 70 years ago. Curiously enough the magni?cent work of the late R. Balescu in both Classical and Non-Classical transport in plasmas published in 1988 and also based on the Fokker-Planck equation is hardly known in the astrophysical audience. The previous work of Spitzer and Braginski is analyzed with much more rigorous vision in his two books on the subject.

This volume presents a collection of original and peer-reviewed articles related with the applications of Statistical Physics dedicated to Professor Dr Leopoldo Garcia-Colin, in commemoration of his 80th birthday in 2010. Professor Garcia-Colin has worked in many different fields of statistical physics, and has applied it to biological physics, solid state physics, relativity and cosmology. These are pioneering works of Prof Garcia-Colin involved in all various fields which have their roots in Mexico. His influence is found in each of these works that cover a wide range of topics including thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and kinetic theory applied to biological systems, cosmology and condensed matter, among others.Papers contributed by important experts in the field, such as J Lebowitz, as well as the latest classical applications of statistical physics can be found in this volume.