Methods of moments and collective motion of nuclei

Studies in which a new method for describing the collective motion of nuclei based on the phase-space moments of the Wigner function was proposed and developed are reviewed. The results of calculations made in the framework of this method are given for the equilibrium shapes of rotating nuclei, the energies and excitation probabilities of isoscalar and isovector resonances and low-lying 0+, 1+, 2+, 3+, 4+ and 1-, 2-, 3- collective states, and their widths. These results are discussed and compared with experimental data and calculations of other authors