A clear and accessible introduction to quantum mechanical methods used to calculate properties of atoms exposed to strong magnetic fields in both laboratory and stellar environments, with the emphasis on hydrogen and helium and their isoelectronic sequences. The results of the detailed calculations are listed in tables, making it a useful handbook for astrophysicists and atomic physicists alike.
Papers written during the last 40 years by Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and his collaborators on various physical effects which can be observed on atoms interacting with electromagnetic fields.
Atomic physics and its underlying quantum theory are the point of departure for many modern areas of physics, astrophysics, chemistry, biology, and even electrical engineering. This textbook provides a careful and eminently readable introduction to the results and methods of empirical atomic physics. The student will acquire the tools of quantum physics and at the same time learn about the interplay between experiment and theory. A chapter on the quantum theory of the chemical bond provides the reader with an introduction to molecular physics. Plenty of problems are given to elucidate the material. The authors also discuss laser physics and nonlinear spectroscopy, incorporating latest experimental results and showing their relevance to basic research. Extra items in the second edition include solutions to the exercises, derivations of the relativistic Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations, a detailed theoretical derivation of the Lamb shift, a discussion of new developments in the spectroscopy of inner shells, and new applications of NMR spectroscopy, for instance tomography.
This book contains contributions to the 172. WE-Heraeus-Seminar “Atoms and Molecules in Strong External Fields,” which took place April 7–11 1997 at the Phys- zentrum Bad Honnef (Germany). The designation “strong fields” applies to external static magnetic, and/or electric fields that are sufficiently intense to cause alterations in the atomic or molecular str- ture and dynamics. The specific topics treated are the behavior and properties of atoms in strong static fields, the fundamental aspects and electronic structure of molecules in strong magnetic fields, the dynamics and aspects of chaos in highly excited R- berg atoms in external fields, matter in the atmosphere of astrophysical objects (white dwarfs, neutron stars), and quantum nanostructures in strong magnetic fields. It is obvious that the elaboration of the corresponding properties in these regimes causes the greatest difficulties, and is incomplete even today. Present-day technology has made it possible for many research groups to study the behavior of matter in strong external fields, both experimentally and theore- cally, where the phrase “experimentally” includes the astronomical observations. - derstanding these systems requires the development of modern theories and powerful computational techniques. Interdisciplinary collaborations will be helpful and useful in developing more efficient methods to understand these important systems. Hence the idea was to bring together people from different fields like atomic and molecular physics, theoretical chemistry, astrophysics and all those colleagues interested in aspects of few-body systems in external fields.
The rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full Ecclesiastes What is quantum chemistry? The straightforward answer is that it is what quan tum chemists do. But it must be admitted, that in contrast to physicists and chemists, "quantum chemists" seem to be a rather ill-defined category of scientists. Quantum chemists are more or less physicists (basically theoreticians), more or less chemists, and by large, computationists. But first and foremost, we, quantum chemists, are conscious beings. We may safely guess that quantum chemistry was one of the first areas in the natural sciences to lie on the boundaries of many disciplines. We may certainly claim that quantum chemists were the first to use computers for really large scale calculations. The scope of the problems which quantum chemistry wishes to answer and which, by its unique nature, only quantum chemistry can only answer is growing daily. Retrospectively we may guess that many of those problems meet a daily need, or are say, technical in some sense. The rest are fundamental or conceptual. The daily life of most quantum chemists is usually filled with grasping the more or less technical problems. But it is at least as important to devote some time to the other kind of problems whose solution will open up new perspectives for both quantum chemistry itself and for the natural sciences in general.
This book collects the lectures given at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Atoms in Strong Fields", which took place on the island of Kos, Greece, during the two weeks of October 9-21,1988. The designation "strong field" applies here to an external electromagnetic field that is sufficiently strong to cause highly nonlinear alterations in atomic or molecular struc ture and dynamics. The specific topics treated in this volume fall into two general cater gories, which are those for which strong field effects can be studied in detail in terrestrial laboratories: the dynamics of excited states in static or quasi-static electric and magnetic fields; and the interaction of atoms and molecules with intense laser radiation. In both areas there exist promising opportunities for research of a fundamental nature. An electric field of even a few volts per centimeter can be very strong on the atom ic scale, if it acts upon a weakly bound state. The study of Rydberg states with high reso lution laser spectroscopic techniques has made it possible to follow the transition from weak-field to strong-field behavior in remarkable detail, using static fields of modest lab oratory strength; in the course of this transition the atomic system evolves from one which can be thoroughly understood in terms of field-free quantum numbers, to one which cannot be meaningfully associated at all with the zero-field states of the atom.
This book presents and describes a series of unusual and striking strong-field phenomena concerning atoms and free electrons. Some of these phenomena are: multiphoton stimulated bremsstrahlung, free-electron lasers, wave-packet physics, above-threshold ionization, and strong-field stabilization in Rydberg atoms. The theoretical foundations and causes of the phenomena are described in detail, with all the approximations and derivations discussed. All the known and relevant experiments are described too, and their results are compared with those of the existing theoretical models.An extensive general theoretical introduction gives a good basis for subsequent parts of the book and is an independent and self-sufficient description of the most efficient theoretical methods of the strong-field and multiphoton physics. This book can serve as a textbook for graduate students.
The first edition of "The Stability of Matter: From Atoms to Stars" was sold out after a time unusually short for a selecta collection and we thought it ap propriate not just to make a reprinting but to include eight new contributionso They demonstrate that this field is still lively and keeps revealing unexpected featureso Of course, we restricted ourselves to developments in which Elliott Lieb participated and thus the heroic struggle in Thomas-Fermi theory where 7 3 5 3 the accuracy has been pushed from Z 1 to Z 1 is not includedo A rich landscape opened up after Jakob Yngvason's observation that atoms in magnetic fields also are described in suitable limits by a Thomas-Fermi-type theoryo Together with Elliott Lieb and Jan Philip Solovej it was eventually worked out that one has to distinguish 5 regionso If one takes as a dimensionless measure of the magnetic field strength B the ratio Larmor radius/Bohr radius one can compare it with N "' Z and for each of the domains 4 3 (i) B « N 1 , 4 3 (ii) B "' N 1 , 4 3 3 (iii) N 1« B « N , 3 (iv) B "' N , 3 (v) B » N a different version ofmagnetic Thomas-Fermi theory becomes exact in the limit N --+ ooo In two dimensions and a confining potential ("quantum dots") the situation is somewhat simpler, one has to distinguish only (i) B « N, (ii) B "'N,
The Committee to Assess the Current Status and Future Direction of High Magnetic Field Science in the United States was convened by the National Research Council in response to a request by the National Science Foundation. This report answers three questions: (1) What is the current state of high-field magnet science, engineering, and technology in the United States, and are there any conspicuous needs to be addressed? (2) What are the current science drivers and which scientific opportunities and challenges can be anticipated over the next ten years? (3) What are the principal existing and planned high magnetic field facilities outside of the United States, what roles have U.S. high field magnet development efforts played in developing those facilities, and what potentials exist for further international collaboration in this area? A magnetic field is produced by an electrical current in a metal coil. This current exerts an expansive force on the coil, and a magnetic field is "high" if it challenges the strength and current-carrying capacity of the materials that create the field. Although lower magnetic fields can be achieved using commercially available magnets, research in the highest achievable fields has been, and will continue to be, most often performed in large research centers that possess the materials and systems know-how for forefront research. Only a few high field centers exist around the world; in the United States, the principal center is the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL). High Magnetic Field Science and Its Application in the United States considers continued support for a centralized high-field facility such as NHFML to be the highest priority. This report contains a recommendation for the funding and siting of several new high field nuclear magnetic resonance magnets at user facilities in different regions of the United States. Continued advancement in high-magnetic field science requires substantial investments in magnets with enhanced capabilities. High Magnetic Field Science and Its Application in the United States contains recommendations for the further development of all-superconducting, hybrid, and higher field pulsed magnets that meet ambitious but achievable goals.
Lecture notes from a Summer School on Quantum Probability held at the University of Grenoble are collected in these two volumes of the QP-PQ series. The articles have been refereed and extensively revised for publication. It is hoped that both current and future students of quantum probability will be engaged, informed and inspired by the contents of these two volumes. An extensive bibliography containing the references from all the lectures is included in Volume 12. Contents: .: Extensions of Quantum Stochastic Calculus (S Attal); Quantum It; Algebras: Axioms, Representations, Decompositions (V Belavkin); Free Probability for Probabilists (P Biane); Conditional Expectations on von Neumann Algebras (C Cecchini); Classical Probability Theory: An Outline of Stochastic Integrals and Diffusions (M emery); Quantum Stochastic Differential Equations (F Fagnola); Canonical Commutation and Anticommutation Relations (M Fannes); Quantum and Classical Stochastic Calculus (A Holevo); An Introduction to Quantum Stochastic Calculus and Some of Its Applications (R Hudson); Stationary Processes in Quantum Probability (B Kmmerer). Readership: Mathematicians, probabilists and mathematical physicists."
