Synopses & Reviews
In the two decades since the discovery of elementary reactions at low temperatures, numerous specialized reviews of separate lines of research into these phenomena have emerged. A substantial body of experimental data has enabled the development of models that shed light on the multidimensional character of tunneling and the effects of non-tunneling intra- and inter-molecular vibrational modes. Theoretical work concerning similar ideas in the quantum transition state theory has been applied to gasphase reactions in the region below the energy threshold. Supersonic jet cooling and high-resolution spectroscopy have revealed multidimensional tunneling in isolated molecules and dimers. As a consequence of this rapid proliferation of research data, the need has never been greater for a survey of the entire field. Offering an examination of multidimensional tunneling and its manifestations in the various branches of chemical physics, Chemical Dynamics at Low Temperatures fulfills that need. It presents a comprehensive overview of the subject, including developmental history; formulation of general problems and the main approximations used to solve them; specific features of tunneling chemical dynamics; one-dimensional tunneling in the path integral formalism; special problems of two- and multidimensional tunneling; and an extended presentation of pertinent experimental results. The purpose of this book is to stimulate further research, as well as to provide a graduate level introduction to low-temperature chemistry. All topics are treated in sufficient detail for researchers to identify promising areas for new investigation. For chemical physicists there is an untamed wilderness of unsolved problems to which modern quantum mechanical methods can be applied. Experimentalists, meanwhile, will find deep analogies between seemingly unrelated tunneling phenomena being discovered by researchers working in a variety of fields.
Synopsis
The first unified treatment of experimental and theoretical advances in low-temperature chemistry Chemical Dynamics at Low Temperatures is a landmark publication. For the first time, the cumulative results of twenty years of experimental and theoretical research into low-temperature chemistry have been collected and presented in a unified treatment. The result is a text/reference that both offers an overview of the subject and contains sufficient detail to guide practicing researchers toward fertile ground for future research. Topics covered include:
- Developmental history
- Formulation of general problems and the main approximations used to solve them
- Specific features of tunneling chemical dynamics
- One-dimensional tunneling in the path integral formalism
- Special problems of two- and multidimensional tunneling
- An extended presentation of pertinent experimental results
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 341-358) and indexes.
About the Author
About the authors VICTOR A. BENDERSKII was born in 1938 in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). He graduated from Moscow State University in 1959 with a degree in chemistry and earned a PhD from the Institute of Chemical Physics in 1972. He is currently Professor of Chemistry at Moscow State University and the Director of the Department of Photoelectrochemistry and Cryochemistry at the Institute for Chemical Physics in Chernogolovka, Russia. In 1989 he was the winner of the State Prize of the USSR. DMITRII E. MAKAROV was born in 1968. He graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1990 and earned a Candidate of Sciences degree in theoretical physics from the Institute of Chemical Physics in 1993. He is currently a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. CHARLES A. WIGHT is Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City A recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1990-1992), he received his PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 1982, and was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Colorado from 1982 to 1984.
Table of Contents
From Thermal Activation to Tunneling.
One-Dimensional Models.
Two-Dimensional Tunneling.
Chemical Dynamics in the Presence of a Heat Bath.
Hydrogen Transfer.
Tunneling Rotation.
Vibration--Rotation Tunneling Spectroscopy of Molecules and Dimers.
Heavy Particle Transfer.
Conclusion.
References.
Indexes.