Case Studies in Atomic Collision Physics II focuses on studies on the role of atomic collision processes in astrophysical plasmas, including ionic recombination, electron transport, and position scattering. The book first discusses three-body recombination of positive and negative ions, as well as introduction to ionic recombination, calculation of the recombination coefficient, ions recombining in their parent gas, and three-body recombination at moderate and high gas-densities. The manuscript also takes a look at precision measurements of electron transport coefficients and differential cross sections in electron impact ionization. The publication examines the interpretation of spectral intensities from laboratory and astrophysical plasmas, atomic processes in astrophysical plasmas, and polarized orbital approximations. Discussions focus on collision rate experiments, line spectrum, collisional excitation and ionization, polarized target wave function, and application to positron scattering and annihilation. The text also ponders on cross sections and electron affinities and the role of metastable particles in collision processes. The selection is a valuable source of data for physicists and readers interested in atomic collision.

Case Studies in Atomic Physics IV presents a collection of six case studies in atomic physics. The first study deals with the correspondence identities associated with the Coulomb potential: the Rutherford scattering identity, the Bohr-Sommerfeld identity, and the Fock identity. The second paper reviews advances in recombination. This is followed by a three-part study on relativistic self-consistent field (SCF) calculations. The first part considers relativistic SCF calculations in general, and in particular discusses different configurational averaging techniques and various statistical exchange approximations. The second part reviews the relativistic theory of hyperfine structure. The third part makes a number of comparisons between experimental results and values obtained in different SCF schemes, with exact as well as approximate exchange. The next case study on pseudopotentials compares the results of model potential and pseudopotential calculations. The final study reviews, on a kinetic basis, the behavior of low density ion swarms in a neutral gas.

Applied Atomic Collision Physics, Volume 1: Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry focuses on the applications of atomic collision physics in atmospheric physics and chemistry. The emphasis is on the physics of the upper atmospheres of the earth and planets as well as astrophysics, including solar physics, the physics of planetary nebulae, and reactions in interstellar space. Comprised of 12 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the structure of the earth's atmosphere and its environment in interplanetary space, along with the structure of the terrestrial atmosphere at middle latitudes. The discussion then turns to the photochemistry of the midlatitude ionosphere; the thermal balance in the thermosphere at middle latitudes; atomic collisions in the lower ionosphere at midlatitudes; and airglow and auroras. Subsequent chapters explore the high latitude ionosphere, the exosphere, and the magnetosphere; the ionospheres of the planets and other bodies of the solar system; atmospheric processes involved in the stratospheric ozone problem; and solar physics. The final two chapters are concerned with applications to the physics of planetary nebulae and interstellar space. This book will be of interest to physicists and chemists.

The theory of atom-molecule collisions is one of the basic fields in chemi cal physics. Its most challenging part - the dynamics of chemical reactions - is as yet unresolved, but is developing very quickly. It is here a great help to have an analysis of those parts of collision theory which are already complete, a good example being the theory of atomic collisions in process es specific to chemical physics. It has long been observed that many notions of this theory can also be applied successfully to reactive and unreactive molecular collisions. More over, atomic collisions often represent a touchstone in testing approaches proposed for the solution of more complicated problems. Research on the theory of slow atomic collisions carried out at the Moscow Institute of Chemical Physics has been based on just these ideas. A general viewpoint concerning the setting up and representation of the theory came out of these studies, and appeared to be useful in studying complicated systems as well. It underlies the representation of the theory of slow atomic colli sions in this book.

The investigation of scattering phenomena is a major theme of modern physics. A scattered particle provides a dynamical probe of the target system. The practical problem of interest here is the scattering of a low energy electron by an N-electron atom. It has been difficult in this area of study to achieve theoretical results that are even qualitatively correct, yet quantitative accuracy is often needed as an adjunct to experiment. The present book describes a quantitative theoretical method, or class of methods, that has been applied effectively to this problem. Quantum mechanical theory relevant to the scattering of an electron by an N-electron atom, which may gain or lose energy in the process, is summarized in Chapter 1. The variational theory itself is presented in Chapter 2, both as currently used and in forms that may facilitate future applications. The theory of multichannel resonance and threshold effects, which provide a rich structure to observed electron-atom scattering data, is presented in Chapter 3. Practical details of the computational implementation of the variational theory are given in Chapter 4. Chapters 5 and 6 summarize recent appli cations of the variational theory to problems of experimental interest, with many examples of the successful interpretation of complex structural fea tures observed in scattering experiments, and of the quantitative prediction of details of electron-atom scattering phenomena.