Newcomers to the field of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) often have difficulty establishing a clear picture of the overall field. The reason for this is because, while there are many books devoted to special topics within the field, there is none that provides an overview of the field as a whole. An Introduction to Inertial Confinement Fusion fills this gap with an overview of the processes involved in ICF presented at an accessible level. After a broad overview, the book follows the processes from the driver technology to burn physics in chronological order. As each topic appears, the author details the physical concepts and obstacles. The book concludes with a look to the future prospects of the field.

Studying the dynamics of a large number of particles interacting through long-range forces, commonly referred to as the 'N-body problem', is a central aspect of many different branches of physics. In recent years, significant advances have been made in the development of fast N-body algorithms to deal efficiently with such complex problems. This book is the first to give a thorough introduction to these so-called 'tree methods', setting out the basic principles and giving many practical examples of their use. No prior specialist knowledge is assumed, and the techniques are illustrated throughout with reference to a broad range of applications. The book will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers working on the modelling of systems in astrophysics, plasma physics, nuclear and particle physics, condensed matter physics and materials science.

The"4thCologne-Bonn-ZermattSymposium: TheDenseInterstellarMedium in Galaxies" took place in Zermatt, Switzerland, from September 22nd to 26th, 2003. This symposium continued the series of conferences on the dense interstellar medium which has been organized every 5 years since 1988 by the I. Physikalisches Institut der Unversit] at ] zuKoln. ] Re?ecting the by now well established and fruitful collaboration between the MPI ffur ] ] Radioastronomie, the Radioastronomisches Institut der Universit] at ] Bonn and the I. Physikal- ches Institut der Universit] at ] zu Koln ] in the context of the Sonderforschun- bereich 494 "The Evolution of Interstellar Matter: THz-Spectroscopy in the Laboratory and in Space," the symposium is now organized jointly by these three institutes. The conference covered a wide range of topics: starting at the largest scales and earliest times in the history of the Universe, it focussed next on galaxy evolution and their structure and dynamics. New and very exciting results on the black hole in the center of the Milky Way and the violent ISM in its immediate vicinity were presented. It continued on the cosmic cycle of star formation and evolution, and reached down to the microphysical p- cesses determining the physical and chemical conditions of the interstellar matter as the important agent for this cosmic cycle."

Studying the dynamics of a large number of particles interacting through long-range forces, commonly referred to as the 'N-body problem', is a central aspect of many different branches of physics. In recent years, significant advances have been made in the development of fast N-body algorithms to deal efficiently with such complex problems. This book is the first to give a thorough introduction to these so-called 'tree methods', setting out the basic principles and giving many practical examples of their use. No prior specialist knowledge is assumed, and the techniques are illustrated throughout with reference to a broad range of applications. The book will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers working on the modelling of systems in astrophysics, plasma physics, nuclear and particle physics, condensed matter physics and materials science.