Preface

Dynamics and Structure of Critically Stable Quantum Few-Body Systems

was held at Les Houches, France, on October 8–12, 2001. The idea of the workshop originates in the observation that almost all subfields of physics have interesting problems using very similar methods to study few-body problems at the edge of stability. The usual meetings do not often appeal to the interdisciplinary aspects of the common concepts and techniques. A similar workshop was held at Trento in February 1997. The present workshop stretched from nano-scales over quantum chemistry, atomic, molecular, and nuclear to mathematical physics. The main theme was the properties of weakly bound quantum states and resonances near threshold. Explicitly emphasized topics in the announcement were:

1. Electron and positron-molecular systems.

2. Halos in atomic, molecular, and nuclear physics.

3. Coulomb breakup above threshold.

4. The four-body problem.

5. Few-body correlations in N-body systems: nuclei or Bose condensates.

6. Complex rotations to study resonances.

7. The use of zero-range interactions.

8. Inequalities confining properties like binding energy and radius.

9. Two-dimensional systems.

10. Time-dependent problems near instability.

The current interest was highlighted during the workshop when the Nobel prize in physics for 2001 was awarded for making Bose-Einstein condensates. The topics are rather practical although they at first sight may appear to be rather theoretical. This was confirmed during the workshop with abundant application on realistic examples and direct discussions of experimental results.

Adequate representation of the many subfields and topics requires a minimum number of participants but on the other hand this number must be small enough to avoid fragmentation into subfields. We estimate that maximum information is exchanged with between 30 and 45 participants. Including the organizers there were 34 participants, all invited, from Brazil, USA, and 12 different European countries. Essentially all presented oral contributions on topics of their own choice within the main theme. This left the emphasis of the workshop to the latest interests of the participants. One page abstracts were available at the beginning of the workshop.

We are indebted to a number of sponsors for their support:

European Science Foundation (ESF),

Conseil Régional de la Région Rhône-Alpes (for the Proceedings),

Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et Physique des Particules (IN2P3),

Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (CEA),

Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble (UJF),

Institut des Sciences Nucléaires Grenoble (ISN),

Centre de Physique Théorique, CNRS, Marseille (CPT).

We also acknowledge the help from the Les Houches organization. The intimate atmosphere, the modern accommodation, and the beautiful surroundings provided a perfect framework.

We appraise the help by Anne-Marie Guglielmini for the secretariat and Jocelyne Riffault for the web pages, both from ISN, Grenoble.

We want to thank the unusually enthusiastic participants. Their engagement made the workshop both very enjoyable and scientifically beneficial. We can recommend more of this type of cross disciplinary communication and collaboration.

We greatly appreciate the privilege of having these proceedings published by Few-Body Systems, this providing a rapid and widespread diffusion. We thank Prof. W. Plessas and Mrs. S. Schilgerius for their efficient help.

The Organizers:

J. Carbonell, P. Duclos, A. S. Jensen, J.-M. Richard