This book offers a comprehensive and cohesive overview of transport processes associated with all kinds of charged particles, including electrons, ions, positrons, and muons, in both gases and condensed matter. The emphasis is on fundamental physics, linking experiment, theory and applications. In particular, the authors discuss: The kinetic theory of gases, from the traditional Boltzmann equation to modern generalizations A complementary approach: Maxwell’s equations of change and fluid modeling Calculation of ion-atom scattering cross sections Extension to soft condensed matter, amorphous materials Applications: drift tube experiments, including the Franck-Hertz experiment, modeling plasma processing devices, muon catalysed fusion, positron emission tomography, gaseous radiation detectors Straightforward, physically-based arguments are used wherever possible to complement mathematical rigor. Robert Robson has held professorial positions in Japan, the USA and Australia, and was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at several universities in Germany. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Ronald White is Professor of Physics and Head of Physical Sciences at James Cook University, Australia. Malte Hildebrandt is Head of the Detector Group in the Laboratory of Particle Physics at the Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland.

This book offers a comprehensive and cohesive overview of transport processes associated with all kinds of charged particles, including electrons, ions, positrons, and muons, in both gases and condensed matter. The emphasis is on fundamental physics, linking experiment, theory and applications. In particular, the authors discuss: The kinetic theory of gases, from the traditional Boltzmann equation to modern generalizations A complementary approach: Maxwell’s equations of change and fluid modeling Calculation of ion-atom scattering cross sections Extension to soft condensed matter, amorphous materials Applications: drift tube experiments, including the Franck-Hertz experiment, modeling plasma processing devices, muon catalysed fusion, positron emission tomography, gaseous radiation detectors Straightforward, physically-based arguments are used wherever possible to complement mathematical rigor. Robert Robson has held professorial positions in Japan, the USA and Australia, and was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at several universities in Germany. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Ronald White is Professor of Physics and Head of Physical Sciences at James Cook University, Australia. Malte Hildebrandt is Head of the Detector Group in the Laboratory of Particle Physics at the Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland.

This book is about the drift, diffusion, and reaction of ions moving through gases under the influence of an external electric field, the gas temperature, and the number density. While this field was established late in the 19th century, experimental and theoretical studies of ion and electron swarms continue to be important in such varied fields as atomic and molecular physics, aeronomy and atmospheric chemistry, gaseous electronics, plasma processing, and laser physics. This book follows in the rigorous tradition of well-known older books on the subject, while at the same time providing a much-needed overview of modern developments with a focus on theory. Graduate students and researchers new to this field will find this book an indispensable guide, particularly those involved with ion mobility spectrometry and the use of ion transport coefficients to test and improve ab initio ion-neutral interaction potentials. Established researchers and academics will find in this book a modern companion to the classic references.

Early in 1989, while most of us were gathered in the Mediterranean five-centuries-old city of Alacant, the idea of a school on stopping and particle penetration phenomena came to our minds. Later that year when discussing this plan with some of the participants in the 13th International Conference on Atomic Collisions in Solids in Aarhus, we were pleased to note that the proposal was warmly welcomed indeed by the community. An Advanced Study Institute on this or a related subject had not been organized in the last decade. Because of the progress made particularly in the interaction of high energy beams with matter, and the many applications which the general subject of the stopping of charged particles (ions and electrons) in matter enjoys, a Study Institute appeared a worthy enterprise. Even though several international conference series cover developments in these areas, they miss tutorial introductions to the field. The title chosen was Interaction of Charged Particles with Solids and Surfaces, and the objectives were stated as follows: "to cover theory and experiments, including selected applications and hot topics, of the stopping of charged particles (ions and electrons) in matter. The emphasis will be on outlining the areas where further effort is needed, and on specifying the basic needs in applications. Fundamental concepts will prevail over applications, and the character of the Institute as a school will be stressed. " The school was directed by Fernando Flores (Spain), Herbert M. Urbassek (Germany), Nestor R.

This primer is aimed at elevating graduate students of condensed matter theory to a level where they can engage in independent research. Topics covered include second quantisation, path and functional field integration, mean-field theory and collective phenomena.

Over the last quarter of this century, revolutionary advances have been made both in kind and in precision in the application of particle traps to the study of thephysics of charged particles, leading to intensi?ed interest in, and wide proliferation of, this topic. This book is intended as a timely addition to the literature, providing a systematic uni?ed treatment of the subject, from the point of view of the application of these devices to fundamental atomic and particle physics. Thetechniqueofusingelectromagnetic?eldstocon?neandisolateatomic particles in vacuo, rather than by material walls of a container, was initially conceivedbyW.Paulintheformofa3Dversionoftheoriginalrfquadrupole mass ?lter, for which he shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in physics [1], whereas H.G. Dehmelt who also shared the 1989 Nobel Prize [2] saw these devices (including the Penning trap) as a way of isolating electrons and ions, for the purposes of high resolution spectroscopy. These two broad areas of appli- tion have developed more or less independently, each attaining a remarkable degree of sophistication and generating widespread interest and experimental activity.