Large-Scale Molecular Systems, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1991 Quantum and Stochastic Aspects—Beyond the Simple Molecular Picture NATO Science Series B: Series, Vol. 258

This NATO Advanced Study Institute centered on large-scale molecular systems: Quantum mechanics, although providing a general framework for the description of matter, is not easily applicable to many concrete systems of interest; classical statistical methods, on the other hand, allow only a partial picture of the behaviour of large systems. The aim of the ASI was to present both aspects of the subject matter and to foster interaction between the scientists working in these important areas of theoretical physics and theoretical chemistry. The quantum-mechanical part was mostly based on the operator-algebraic formulation of quantum mechanics and comprised quantum statistics of infinite systems with special em­ phasis on macroscopic observables, equilibrium conditions, irreversibility on the one hand, symmetry breaking for molecules in the radiation field and macroscopic quantum phenomena in the theory of superconductivity (BCS-theory) on the other hand. In addition, phase-space methods for many-body systems were also presented. Statistical physics was the main topic in the other lectures of the School; much emphasis was put on the statistical features of macros­ copic ("large") systems, the lectures dealt with mass and energy transport im polymers, in gels and in microemulsions, with aggregation and growth phenomena, with relaxation in complex, correlated systems, with conduction and optical properties of polymers, and with the means of describing disordered systems, above all fractals and related hierarchical models.

A. The Course.- Molecules Coupled to Their Environment.- Theories of Molecular Chirality: A Short Review.- Condensed Cooper Pairs and Macroscopic Quantum Phenomena.- Non-Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics: Dynamics of Macroscopic Observables.- Quantum Brownian Motion.- Localization Critical Exponents.- Stochastic Models of Population and Phase Relaxation.- Classical and Quantum, Lattice and Continuum Percolation.- Tunneling and Relaxation in Low Temperature Systems.- Dynamics of Quantum Particles: Coupled Coherent and Incoherent Motion.- Chaotic Motion of Molecular Chains.- Complex Surface Geometry in Nano-Structure Solids: Fractal versus Bernal-Type Models.- Aggregation Phenomena.- Electrodeposition: Phenomenology and Theory.- Screening in Electrolytes and in Polymer Solutions: The Charge Structure Function.- In Search of Scaling Laws in Porous Silica Gels.- Stochastic Aspects in Reaction Kinetics.- B. The Seminars.- I Quantum Theory of Large Systems.- Coherence and Quantum Mechanics.- The Dynamical Generation of Macroscopic Coherent Light.- Macroscopically Inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein Condensation.- Generalized Squeezing of Boson States.- Equilibrium States of Long-Range Interacting Quantum Lattice Systems.- Environment and Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Field Theory.- Gauge Chemistry.- II Localized and Extended States.- Coherence Effects in Excitation Transfer: Application to Hexagonal Photosynthetic Unit.- Random Matrix Theory and Anderson Localisation.- Local Moments and the Localization of Electrons in Liquids.- How Universal is the Scaling Theory of Localization?.- Dimers, Repulsions, and the Absence of Localisation.- III Transport and Reactions.- Electronic Excitations in Polysilanes: Frenkel Excitons of a Disordered Chain.- The Study of Energy Change in Radical Systems.- Decay From an Initial Unstable State in a Chemical Reaction Model.- The Effects of Static Disorder on Polaron Transport.- Diffusion in a Disordered Line.- Bimolecular Diffuion-Limited Reaction Kinetics at Steady State.- Dynamic Percolation Theory for Diffusion of Interacting Particles: Tracer Diffusion in a Multi-Component Lattice Gas.- Crossover from Dispersive to Diffusive Energy Transport.- The Coupling Scheme for Relaxations in Complex Correlated Systems.- Simulation of Excitation Transport in Disordered Media.- Dynamical Exponents for 1-D Random-Random Directed Walks.- IV Polymers.- Interactions between Poly(styrene-co-styrene Sulfonic Acid) and Poly(methylmethacrylate-co-4-vinyl Pyridine) in Dimethyl Sulfoxide Solution by Photon Correlation Spectroscopy.- Interactions of Sigma Conjugated Polymers With Strong Optical Fields.- Randomly Branched Polymers.- Multi-Particle Relaxation in Electronically Excited Polymers: Distribution of Transition Rates from Fluorescence Data - A Numerical Approach.- Understanding Heat Conduction in Oriented Polymers.- Static Correlations of Polymer Chains in Networks.- Theory of Polymers on Fractal Lattices.- V Disordered and Low-Dimensional Systems.- Self-Consistent Interpretation of Percolation in a Microemulsion.- Experimental Evidence of Fractal Aggregates in Dense Microemulsions.- Fractal Dynamics of the Catalytic CO-Oxydation - Application of Fractal Cellular Automata Models.- Electrodeposition: Fractal and Multifractal Measures.- High Resolution Spectroscopy of Langmuir-Blodgett Films.- Molecular Dynamics Simulation of the Transport of Small Molecules Across a Polymer Membrane.- Reactions in Microemulsions: Fractal Modeling.- Enhanced Membrane Rigidity in Charged Lamellar Phases.- VI Words of thanks.- Lecturers.- Participants.