Quantum Dynamics of Molecules: The New Experimental Challenge to Theorists (Nato ASI Subseries B:, 57)

The Advanced Study Institute on "Quantum Dynamics of Molecules: The New Experimental Challenge to Theorists," which was sponsored by the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO, was held at Trinity Hall, Ca~bridge, England from September 15th till September 29th, 1979. In all, a total of 79 lecturers and students attended the meeting: they had diverse backgrounds in chemistry, physics and mathematics. In my proposal to NATO requesting financial support for an Advanced Study Institute, I suggested that molecular physics was facing a qualitatively new experimental situation in which the exploration of previously inaccessible dynamical phenomena would become of increasing importance. At the same time I was aware that in recent years powerful theoretical techniques, that might prove crucial tools for the interpretation of the new experiments, have been developed in mathematics and theoretical physics. The aim of the ASI was to review at an advanced level these recent developments, juxtaposing new theory with new experimental pos sibilities in the hope that the participants in the-Institute would through their subsequent work increase the awareness of the whole molecular theory community of the changing nature of chemical physics. The recent developments in laser spectroscopy, particle scatter ing experiments and molecular beam technology imply that an entirely new class of phenomena involving molecules in gasses and liquids can now be investigated.