"Advances in the Theory of Quantum Systems in Chemistry and Physics" is a collection of 32 selected papers from the scientific contributions presented at the 15th International Workshop on Quantum Systems in Chemistry and Physics (QSCP-XV), held at Magdalene College, Cambridge, UK, from August 31st to September 5th, 2010.
This volume discusses the state of the art, new trends, and the future of methods in molecular quantum mechanics and their applications to a wide range of problems in chemistry, physics, and biology. The breadth and depth of the scientific topics discussed during QSCP-XV are gathered in seven sections:
I.Fundamental Theory;
II.Model Atoms;
III.Atoms and Molecules with Exponential-Type Orbitals;
IV.Density-Oriented Methods;
V.Dynamics and Quantum Monte-Carlo Methodology;
VI.Structure and Reactivity;
VII.Complex Systems, Solids, Biophysics.
"Advances in the Theory of Quantum Systems in Chemistry and Physics" is written for research students and professionals in Quantum systems of chemistry and physics. It also constitutes and invaluable guide for those wishing to familiarize themselves with research perspectives in the domain of quantum systems for thematic conversion or simply to gain insight into the methodological developments and applications to physics chemistry and biology that have actually become feasible by the end of 2010."

Foldable Flex and Thinned Silicon Multichip Packaging Technology presents newly emerging methods used to make stacked chip packages in the so-called 2-1/2 D technology (3-D in physical format, but interconnected only through the circuits on folded flex). It is also being used in single chip packages where the thinness of the chips and the flex substrate made packages significantly thinner than through any other means.

The concepts of the Jahn-Teller effect and vibronic coupling are being applied to more and more systems in both chemistry and physics. Aspects of structural chemistry such as the distortion of the nuclear framework to a lower-symmetry conformation have received an increasing attention, as well as the dynamics on the coupled potential energy surfaces.
The Jahn-Teller intersections are now recognized as prototype cases of conical intersections where the nuclear motion is known to be inherently nonadiabatic in nature and interchanges freely between the different potential energy surfaces. In the condensed phase especially, the significance of the Jahn-Teller effect has been increasingly appreciated, following the discovery of superconductivity in the fullerides and of very large ("colossal") magnetoresistance in the manganite perovskites. Indeed, these materials are particularly challenging since the Jahn-Teller interaction competes with electronic correlation effects.
"Vibronic Interactions and the Jahn-Teller Effect: Theory and Applications" provides an in-depth discussion of the Jahn-Teller effect and vibronic interactions as reflected by the contributions presented at the XX International Conference on the Jahn-Teller effect, Fribourg, Switzerland, 2010. The following topics have been treated in a clear and concise way:
Complex topologies of Jahn-Teller effect and conical intersections
Multi-state vibronic interactions on strongly coupled potential energy surfaces
Interplay of vibronic and spin-orbit coupling
Strain in Jahn-Teller systems and cooperative Jahn-Teller effect
Orbital ordering and its relation to ferromagnetism, ferroelectricity and molecular magnets
The Jahn-Teller effect in icosahedral systems
The Jahn-Teller effect and high temperature superconductivity
This book is of interest to a wide audience including academic and industrial theoretical and experimental physicists, chemists, spectroscopists, and crystallographers.
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A broad range of state-of-the-art methods to determine properties of clusters are presented. The experimental setup and underlying physical concepts of these experiments are described.
Furthermore, existing theoretical models to explain the experimental observations are introduced and the possibility to deduce structural information from measurements of dielectric properties is discussed.
Additional case studies are presented in the book to emphasize the possibilities but also drawbacks of the methods.

In this volume, Prof. Zhang reviews the systematic theoretical studies in his group on the growth mechanisms and properties of silicon quantum dots, nanotubes and nanowires, including: mechanisms of oxide-assisted growth of silicon nanowires, energetic stability of pristine silicon nanowires and nanotubes, thermal stability of hydrogen terminated silicon nanostructures, size-dependent oxidation of hydrogen terminated silicon nanostructures, excited-state relaxation of hydrogen terminated silicon nanodots, and direct-indirect energy band transitions of silicon nanowires and sheets by surface engineering and straining. He also discusses the potential applications of these findings. This book will mainly benefit those members of the scientific and research community working in nanoscience, surface science, nanomaterials and related fields.

"Imagination and shrewd guesswork are powerful instruments for acquiring scientific knowledge . . . " 1. H. van't Hoff The last decades have witnessed a rapid growth of quantum chemistry and a tremendous increase in the number of very accurate ab initio calculations of the electronic structure of molecules yielding results of admirable accuracy. This dramatic progress has opened a new stage in the quantum mechanical description of matter at the molecular level. In the first place, highly accurate results provide severe tests of the quantum mecha nics. Secondly, modern quantitative computational ab initio methods can be synergetically combined with various experimen tal techniques thus enabling precise numerical characterization of molecular properties better than ever anticipated earlier. However, the role of theory is not exhausted in disclosing the fundamental laws of Nature and production of ever increasing sets of data of high accuracy. It has to provide additionally a means of systematization, recognition of regularities, and ratio nalization of the myriads of established facts avoiding in this way complete chaos. Additional problems are represented by molecular wavefunctions provided by the modern high-level computational quantum chemistry methods. They involve, in principle, all the information on molecular system, but they are so immensely complex that can not be immediately understood in simple and physically meaningful terms. Both of these aspects, categorization and interpretation, call for conceptual models which should be preferably pictorial, transparent, intuitively appealing and well-founded, being sometimes useful for semi quantitative purposes."

The Sixth International Conference on Miniaturized Chemical and Biochemical Analysis Systems, known as /JTAS2002, will be fully dedicated to the latest scientific and technological developments in the field of miniaturized devices and systems for realizing not only chemical and biochemical analysis but also synthesis. The first /JTAS meeting was held in Enschede in 1994 with approximately 160 participants, bringing together the scientists with background in analytical and biochemistry with those with Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) in one workshop. We are grateful to Piet Bergveld and Albert van den Berg of MESA Research Institute of the University of Twente for their great efforts to arrange this exciting first meeting. The policy of the meeting was succeeded by late Prof. Dr. Michael Widmer in the second meeting, /JTAS'96 held in Basel with 275 participants. The first two meetings were held as informal workshops. From the third workshop, /JTAS'98 (420 participants) held in Banff, the workshop had become a worldwide conference. Participants continued to increase in /JTAS2000 (about 500 participants) held in Enschede and /JTAS2001 (about 700 participants) held in Monterey. The number of submitted papers also dramatically increased in this period from 130 in 1998, 230 in 2000 to nearly 400 in 2001. From 2001, /JTAS became an annual symposium. The steering committee meeting held in Monterey, confrrmed the policy of former /JTAS that quality rather than quantity would be the key-point and that the parallel-session format throughout the 3.

Two Symposia on speciation in insects held at the Fourteenth International Congress of Entomology (Canberra, Australia, August 22-30, 1972) are included in this volume. The first, on the more general topic of Genetic Analysis of Speciation Mechanisms, includes four papers on speciation in various groups of Diptera and Orthopteroid insects. The second symposium was devoted to the topic of Evolution in the Hawaiian Drosophilidae; it deals with the explosive speciation of a group of flies with specialized ecological requirements in the complex ecolOgical habitats provided by a recent tropical volcanic archipelago. The Hawaiian Symposium, organized by Professor D. Elmo Hardy, is the latest outcome of a major collaborative research project involving over 20 scientists and about 125 technical assistants over a period of ten years. Some recent books on evolution have taken the standpoint that the funda mental genetic mechanism of speciation is relatively uniform and stereotyped and, in particular, that the 'allopatric' model of its geographic component is universally valid. Certainly, this has been a rather generally accepted viewpoint on the part of students of vertebrate speciation. Workers on speciation in insects have tended, in general, to be less dogmatic and more willing to consider a variety of alternative models of speciation. Thus, in the present volume, several contributions adopt viewpoints which are unorthodox or novel. Only time will tell whether their conclusions will turn out to have been soundly based."

A New-Generation Density Functional: Towards Chemical Accuracy for Chemistry of Main Group Elements covers the most recent progress in the development of a new generation of density functional theory (DFT) for accurate descriptions of thermochemistry, thermochemical kinetics, and nonbonded interactions of main group molecules. In this book, the authors present the doubly hybrid density functionals (DHDFs), which dramatically improve the accuracy for predictions of critical properties by including the role of the virtual (unoccupied) orbitals. The authors not only discuss the theoretical bases of three classes of DHDFs but also demonstrate their performance using some well-established benchmarking data sets.

First-Principles-Based Multiscale, Multiparadigm Molecular Mechanics and Dynamics Methods for Describing Complex Chemical Processes, by A. Jaramillo-Botero, R. Nielsen, R. Abrol, J. Su, T. Pascal, J. Mueller and W. A. Goddard.- Dynamic QM/MM: A Hybrid Approach to Simulating Gas Liquid Interactions, by S. Yockel and G. C. Schatz.- Multiscale Modelling in Computational Heterogeneous Catalysis, by F. J. Keil.- Real-World Predictions from Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Simulations, by B. Kirchner, P. J. di Dio and J. Hutter.- Nanoscale Wetting Under Electric Field from Molecular Simulations, by C. D. Daub, D. Bratko and A. Luzar.- Molecular Simulations of Retention in Chromatographic Systems: Use of Biased Monte Carlo Techniques to Access Multiple Time and Length Scales, by J. L. Rafferty, J. I. Siepmann, M. R. Schure.- Thermodynamic Properties for Applications in Chemical Industry via Classical Force Fields, by G. Guevara-Carrion, H. Hasse and J. Vrabec.- Multiscale Approaches and Perspectives to Modeling Aqueous Electrolytes and Polyelectrolytes, by L. Delle Site, C. Holm and N. F. A. van der Vegt.- Coarse-Grained Modeling for Macromolecular Chemistry, by H. A. Karimi-Varzaneh and F. Muller-Plathe.-"

The liquid crystalline state may be identified as a distinct and unique state of matter which is characterised by properties which resemble those of both solids and liquids. It was first recognised in the middle of the last century through the study of nerve myelin and derivatives of cholesterol. The research in the area really gathered momentum, however, when as a result of the pioneering work of Gray in the early 1970's organic compounds exhibiting liquid crystalline properties were shown to be suitable to form the basis of display devices in the electronic products. The study of liquid crystals is truly multidisciplinary and has attached the attention of physicists, biologists, chemists, mathematicians and electronics engineers. It is therefore impossible to cover all these aspects fully in two small volumes and therefore it was decided in view of the overall title of the series to concentrate on the structural and bonding aspects of the subject. The Chapters presented in these two volumes have been organised to cover the following fundamental aspects of the subiect. The calculation of the structures of liquid crystals, an account of their dynamical properties and a discussion of computer simulations of liquid crystalline phases formed by Gay Berne mesogens. The relationships between molecular conformation and packing are analysed in some detail. The crystal structures of liquid crystal mesogens and the importance of their X ray scattering properties for characterisational purposes are discussed.

This book presents the most comprehensive analysis of bonding in polyoxometalates and related oxides based on classical bonding concepts and the bond valence model. Numerous tables and figures underline and illuminate the results, making it a valuable resource.

The French chemist Marcelin Berthelot put forward a classical and by now an often cited sentence revealing the quintessence of the chemical science: "La Chimie cree son objet." This is certainly true because the largest number of molecular compounds were and are continuously synthesized by chemists themselves. However, modern computational quantum chemistry has reached a state of maturity that one can safely say: "La Chimie Theorique cree son objet" as well. Indeed, modern theoretical chemistry is able today to provide reliable results on elusive systems such as short living species, reactive intermediates and molecules which will perhaps never be synthesized because of one or another type of instability. It is capable of yielding precious information on the nature of the transition states, reaction paths etc. Additionally, computational chemistry gives some details of the electronic and geometric structure of molecules which remain hidden in experimental examinations. Hence, it follows that powerful numerical techniques have substantially enlarged the domain of classical chemistry. On the other hand, interpretive quantum chemistry has provided a conceptual framework which enabled rationalization and understanding of the precise data offered either by experiment or theory. It is modelling which gives a penetrating insight into the chemical phenomena and provides order in raw experimental results which would otherwise represent just a large catalogue of unrelated facts.