Resonances, Instability, and Irreversibility, Volume 99

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.

About the editors

I. PRIGOGINE is Director of the International Solvay Institutes,Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. One of the foremost figuresin his field, Professor Prigogine is the Ashbel Smith Professor ofPhysics at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is alsoDirector of the Ilya Prigogine Center for Studies in StatisticalMechanics and Complex Systems. He is the holder of 40 honorarydegrees, and many scientific prizes, special chairs, and visitingprofessorships. In 1977 he was awarded the Nobel Prize inchemistry. Professor Prigogine is a member of many nationalacademies, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, theNational Academy of Sciences, and the Russian National Academy ofSciences. In 1989 he was given the title of viscount by the King ofBelgium.

STUART A. RICE is the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished ServiceProfessor at the James Franck Institute and the Department ofChemistry of the University of Chicago. A former dean of theuniversity's Division of Physical Sciences, Professor Rice is aworld-renowned authority on chemical physics and has receivedscores of awards and honors. A former Alfred P. Sloan Fellow andGuggenheim Fellow, Professor Rice is also a Fellow of the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, andthe American Philosophical Society.