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.

Inhalt

Summary: Nice Problems in Atomic Physics.- Summary: Nice Problems in Atomic Physics.- Atoms in Electric and Magnetic Fields.- Atoms in Static Electric and Magnetic Fields: The Experimental Aspect.- Theory of the Zeeman Effect in Highly Excited Atoms.- Theory of the Stark Effect in Highly Excited Atoms.- Hydrogen Atom in a Strong Uniform Electric Field.- Hydrogen in Strong DC and Low Frequency Fields.- Elliptic Atomic States.- Diamagnetism of the Hydrogen Atom in the Quasi-Landau-Regime.- Magneto-Optical Spectroscopy in Strong Fields.- The Single Atom Maser, Chaos and Order of Ions in a Trap and Rydberg Atoms in Crossed Electric and Magnetic Fields.- Chaos.- Chaos in Quantum Dynamics: An Overview.- Hydrogen Atom in a Uniform Magnetic Field - A Hamiltonian System Exhibiting Chaos.- Classical Chaos in One Dimensional Hydrogen in Strong DC and AC Electric Fields.- Phenomena in very Strong Fields.- Resonant Pair Production in Strong Electric Fields.- Research on Strong-Field Processes in the Ultraviolet Region.- Large-Order Perturbation Theory.- High-Order Perturbation Theory and its Application to Atoms in Strong Fields.- Energies and Widths of the Ground and Excited States of Hydrogen in a DC Field via Variationally-Based Large-Order Perturbation Theory.- Nonperturbative Theory.- Nonperturbative Treatment of Molecule-Radiation Interactions - A Coupled Equations Approach.- Many-Electron, Many-Photon Theory of Atoms in Strong Fields.- Lasers and Final State Effects.- to the High Intensity Physics of Atoms and Free Electrons.- Unified Theory of Above Threshold Ionization, Multi-Harmonic Radiation and Radiative Electron Scattering in Strong Laser Fields.- The Keldysh Theory of Strong Field Ionization and its Extensions.- Treatment of Continuum-Continuum Coupling in the Theoretical Study of Above-Threshold Ionization.- Final State Interaction and Field Polarization Effects in the Multiphoton Ionization of Atoms.- Multiply Excited States.- Laser Experiments on the Alkaline-Earths.- Highly Excited Double-Rydberg States in Barium.- Autoionising 4dnf States and Multiphoton Ionisation Studies in Strontium.- Properties of Multiply Excited States.- Molecules in Intense Lasers Fields.- Molecules in Intense Laser Fields.- Laser - Molecule Interactions at High Intensities.- Multiphoton Fragmentation of H2 in Intense UV Radiation.