Introduction. Part I: Theoretical Methods. Relativistic Kinematics. Fields of Moving Charges. Relativistic Electron Motion. Ion-Atom Collisions. Part II: Elementary Atomic Processes. Excitation and Ionization. Ionization-Many Electrons. Charge Exchange. Radiative Electron Capture. Electron-Positron Pair Production. Part III: Experimental Methods. Charge-State Preparation. Target Arrangements. Cross Section Determination. Appendix. Bibliography. Index.

During the last two decades the explorations of di?erent processes accom- nyingion–atom collisions athigh-impactenergieshavebeenasubjectofmuch interest. This interest was generated not only by the advent of accelerators of relativistic heavy ions which enabled one to investigate these collisions in an experiment and possible applications of obtained results in other ?elds of physics, but also by the variety of physical mechanisms underlying the atomic collisional phenomena at high impact energies. Often highly charged projectiles produced at accelerators of heavy ions are not fully stripped ions but carry one or more very tightly bound el- trons. In collisions with atomic targets, these electrons can be excited or lost and this may occur simultaneously with electronic transitions in the target. The present book concentrates on, and may serve as an introduction to, th- retical methods which are used to describe the projectile–electron transitions occurringinhigh-energycollisionsbetweenionsandneutralatoms.Special- tention is given to relativistic impact energies and highly charged projectiles. Experimental results are used merely as illustrations and tests for theory. This book will be useful to graduate students and professional scientists who are interested in studying atomic collisions occurring at high-impact - ergies. It assumes that the reader possesses the basic knowledge in classical electrodynamics and nonrelativistic and relativistic quantum mechanics.

Atomic collisions offer some unique opportunities to study atomic structure and reaction mechanisms in experiment and theory, especially for projectiles of high atomic number provided by modern accelerators. The book is meant as an introduction into the field and provides some basic theoretical understanding of the atomic processes occurring when a projectile hits another atom. It also furnishes the tools for a mathematical description, however, without going deeper into the technical details, which can be found in the literature given. With this aim, the focus is on reactions, in which only a single active electron participates. Collisional excitation, ionization and charge transfer are discussed for collision velocities ranging from slow to comparable to the speed of light. For the highest projectile velocities, energy can be converted into mass, so that electron-positron pairs are created. In addition to the systematic treatment, a theoretical section specializes on electron-electron correlations and three chapters are devoted to selected highlights bordering to surface science and to physics with antiprotons. * Simple access to the theory of collisions between ions and atoms * Systematic treatment of basic features needed for an understanding * Mathematical details are omitted and referred to references * In order to bear out the essential ideas most clearly, a single active electron is assumed in most cases * In selected examples, theoretical results are confronted with experiment * Discussion supported by a large number of illustrations * Selected highlights in borderline fields are presented

Atomic Collisions and Spectra provides an overview of the state of knowledge on atomic collision physics. The book grew out of lecture notes for a succession of courses at the University of Chicago in 1967-1979, which reported the new material as it was taking a definite form. It has been enriched since 1980, as the subject matured and continued to expand. The book is organized into four parts. Part A deals briefly with rather elementary items of general information. Part B then takes up in considerable detail those aspects of single-electron scattering whose mastery is essential for treating multielectron processes. Part C deals with multielectron processes with a residual—if often realistic—restriction, namely, that the multielectron interactions remain confined within a core region from which only a single electron escapes into alternative channels of a long-range field. Part D surveys studies of double (or multiple) escape of electrons from a core. The book is intended for multiple use as a graduate school text, a tool for independent study, or a reference for particular topics.

An understanding of the collisions between micro particles is of great importance for the number of fields belonging to physics, chemistry, astrophysics, biophysics etc. The present book, a theory for electron-atom and molecule collisions is developed using non-relativistic quantum mechanics in a systematic and lucid manner. The scattering theory is an essential part of the quantum mechanics course of all universities. During the last 30 years, the author has lectured on the topics presented in this book (collisions physics, photon-atom collisions, electron-atom and electron-molecule collisions, "electron-photon delayed coincidence technique", etc.) at many institutions including Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, The University of Western Ontario, Canada, and The Meerut University, India. The present book is the outcome of those lectures and is written to serve as a textbook for post-graduate and pre-PhD students and as a reference book for researchers.

Electron collisions with atoms, ions, and molecules have been investigated since the earliest years of the last century because of their pervasiveness and importance in fields ranging from astrophysics and plasma physics to atmospheric and condensed matter physics. Written in an accessible yet rigorous style, this book introduces the theory of electron-atom scattering in a quantum-relativistic framework.

This book is intended for physicists and chemists who need to understand the theory of atomic and molecular structure and processes, and who wish to apply the theory to practical problems. As far as practicable, the book provides a self-contained account of the theory of relativistic atomic and molecular structure, based on the accepted formalism of bound-state Quantum Electrodynamics. The author was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1992.

In recent years, the impact of new experimental techniques (e.g., nuclear physics methods, availability of high-intensity light sources) as well as an increasing demand for atomic collision data in other fields of physics (e.g., plasma physics, astrophysics, laser physics, surface physics, etc.) have stimulated a renewed, strong interest in atomic collision research. Due to the explosive development of the various fields, scientists often even have dif ficulty in keeping up with their own area of research; as a result, the overlap between different fields tends to remain rather limited. Instead of having access to the full knowledge accumulated in other fields, one uses only the small fraction which at the moment seems to be of immediate importance to one's own area of interest. Clearly, many fruitful and stimulating ideas are lost in this way, causing progress to be made much more slowly than it could be. Atomic col lision physics is no exception to this rule. Although it is of basic interest to many other areas, it is mostly regarded merely as a (nonetheless important) tool by which to gain additional information.

This is the first paperback edition of a classic, enduring work. Volume I describes various aspects of the one-body collision problem. Volume II covers many-body problems and applications of theory to electron collisions with atoms, collisions between atomic systems, nuclear collisions, and two-body collisions under relativistic conditions. The use of time-dependent perturbation theory is also discussed.