Theoretical aspects of electron correlations in electron collisions

Electron-correlation effects manifest themselves in diverse facets of electron collisions with an atom or molecule. A fast incident electron acts largely as an external agent, and its inelastic collisions probe the structure, including correlations within the target (in both the initial state and the final state), nearly in the same way as photoionization processes do. In inelastic collisions of a slow electron, the central object of study is the correlated motion of the incident electron and an electron excited out of the target core. This elementary observation is illustrated in the lecture by many examples and is elaborated by remarks on some current theoretical methods