Theoretical atomic and molecular physics: Progress report, July 1, 1987-June 30,1988

In this first year of the grant, emphasis has been placed on theoretical investigations of: differential elastic and charge-transfer scattering and alignment and orientation of the excited electron cloud in ion-atom, atom-atom and ion-molecule collisions, using a molecular-orbital representation; quenching of low-lying Rydberg states of a Na atom in a collision with a ground-state He atom, using a semiclassical representation; chemiionization and ion-pair formation in a collision of a Li atom with a metastable He atom at intermediate collision energies, using a combination of quantal and semi-classical methods; Penning ionization of alkali atoms K and Rb, using advanced Cl and Stieltjes imaging methods; radiative and nonradiative charge-transfer in He+ + H collisions at ultra-low collision energies, using quantal methods; charge-transfer in ion-atom, ion-molecule, and ion-surface-atom collisions at intermediate energies, using semi-classical methods; and elastic and inelastic processes in electron-molecule collisions, using the continuum-multiple-scattering (CMS) method. Selected highlights of the research progress are briefly summarized in the following sections