Advances in Chemical Physics – Instability and Irreversibility V99

In Resonances, Instability, and Irreversibility: The LiouvilleSpace Extension of Quantum Mechanics



T. Petrosky and I. Prigogine



Unstable Systems in Generalized Quantum Theory



E. C. G. Sudarshan, Charles B. Chiu, and G. Bhamathi



Resonances and Dilatation Analyticity in Liouville Space



Erkki J. Brandas



Time, Irreversibility, and Unstable Systems in QuantumPhysics



E. Eisenberg and L. P. Horwitz



Quantum Systems with Diagonal Singularity



I. Antoniou and Z. Suchanecki



Nonadiabatic Crossing of Decaying Levels



V. V. and Vl. V. Kocharovsky and S. Tasaki



Can We Observe Microscopic Chaos in the Laboratory?



Pierre Gaspard



Proton Nonlocality and Decoherence in Condensed Matter --Predictions and Experimental Results



C. A. Chatzidimitriou-Dreismann



"We are at a most interesting moment in the history of science.Classical science emphasized equilibrium, stability, and timereversibility. Now we see instabilities, fluctuations, evolution onall levels of observations. This change of perspective requires newtools, new concepts. This volume invites the reader not to anenumeration of final achievements of contemporary science, but toan excursion to science in the making." --from the Foreword by I.Prigogine



What are the dynamical roots of irreversibility? How can past andfuture be distinguished on the fundamental level of description?Are human beings the children of time --or its progenitors? Inrecent years, a growing number of chemists and physicists haveagreed that the solution to the problem of irreversibility requiresan extension of classical and quantum mechanics. There is, however,no consensus on which direction this extension should take toinclude the dynamical description of irreversible processes.



Resonances, Instability, and Irreversibility surveys recentattempts --both direct and indirect --to address the problem ofirreversibility. Internationally recognized researchers report ontheir recent studies, which run the gamut from experimental tohighly mathematical. The subject matter of these papers falls intothree categories: classical systems with emphasis on chaos anddynamical instability, resonances and unstable quantum systems, andthe general problem of irreversibility.



Presenting the cutting edge of research into some of the mostcompelling questions that face contemporary chemical physics,Resonances, Instability, and Irreversibility is fascinating readingfor professionals and students in every area of the discipline.