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level, and a good understanding of the links to classical mechanics is almost always helpful. The aim ofTheoretical Atomic Physics remains to provide the reader with a solid foundation of this sort of advanced quantum mechanics. In preparing the third edition I have again tried to do justice to the rapid development of the ?eld. I have included references to important new work whenever this seemed appropriate and easy to do. Chapter 1 now includes a section on processes involving (wave packets of) continuum states and also an expanded treatment of the semiclassical approximation. Chapter 3 begins with a section illuminating the characteristic di?erences in the near-threshold properties of long-ranged and shorter-ranged potentials, and the ?rst section of Chap. 4 contains a more elaborate discussion of scattering lengths. As a further "special topic" in Chap. 5 there is a section describing some aspects of atom optics, including discusions of the interactions of atoms with material surfacesandwithlight?elds. Theappendixonspecialmathematicalfunctions has been slightly expanded to accommodate a few results that I repeatedly found to be useful. I am grateful to many colleagues who continue to inspire me with num- ous discussions involving atomic physics, quantum mechanics and semiclas- cal connections, in particular Robin Cot ´ e at the University of Connecticut, Manfred Kleber at the Technical University Munich and Jan-Michael Rost at the Max-Planck-Institute for Complex Systems in Dresden.
List of contents
Review of Quantum Mechanics.- Atoms and Ions.- Atomic Spectra.- Simple Reactions.- Special Topics.
Summary
This established text and reference contains an advanced presentation of quantum mechanics adapted to the requirements of modern atomic physics. It includes topics of great current interest such as semiclassical theory, chaos and Bose-Einstein condensation in atomic gases. The third edition of Theoretical Atomic Physics extends the successful second edition with a detailed treatment of the wave motion of atoms near the anticlassical or extreme quantum regime, and it also contains an introduction to some aspects of atom optics that are relevant for current and future experiments involving ultra-cold atoms. Various problems are included together with complete solutions. Because it has more emphasis on theory, this book enables the reader to appreciate the fundamental assumptions underlying standard theoretical constructs and to embark on independent research projects.
