This book contains contributions to the 172. WE-Heraeus-Seminar "Atoms and Molecules in Strong External Fields," which took place April 7-11 1997 at the Phys- zentrum Bad Honnef (Germany). The designation "strong fields" applies to external static magnetic, and/or electric fields that are sufficiently intense to cause alterations in the atomic or molecular str- ture and dynamics. The specific topics treated are the behavior and properties of atoms in strong static fields, the fundamental aspects and electronic structure of molecules in strong magnetic fields, the dynamics and aspects of chaos in highly excited R- berg atoms in external fields, matter in the atmosphere of astrophysical objects (white dwarfs, neutron stars), and quantum nanostructures in strong magnetic fields. It is obvious that the elaboration of the corresponding properties in these regimes causes the greatest difficulties, and is incomplete even today. Present-day technology has made it possible for many research groups to study the behavior of matter in strong external fields, both experimentally and theore- cally, where the phrase "experimentally" includes the astronomical observations. - derstanding these systems requires the development of modern theories and powerful computational techniques. Interdisciplinary collaborations will be helpful and useful in developing more efficient methods to understand these important systems. Hence the idea was to bring together people from different fields like atomic and molecular physics, theoretical chemistry, astrophysics and all those colleagues interested in aspects of few-body systems in external fields.

The Seven Years War has been described as the first global conflict in history. It engulfed the Euro-Atlantic world from 1756 to 1763, and engaged the energies of European cabinets as never before. More than previous conflicts, the Seven Years War involved a variety of approaches to war, and taxed the military, material and moral resources of the powers involved. Drawing on a diverse array of archival, printed primary and secondary sources, The Seven Years War: A Transatlantic History covers the war's origins, its conduct on land and at sea, its effects on logistics and finance, its interactions with domestic politics, its influence on international relations and its approach to peace. The book highlights the role of personality, alongside the enduring importance of communication, misperception and understanding. In so doing, it endeavours not merely to chronicle the war's events, but to situate them in the context of mid-eighteenth century warfare, finance, politics and diplomacy. The Seven Years War will be of great interest to students of the European history, American history, maritime history, diplomatic and military history.

Based on hitherto unused manuscript material, War, Politics and Diplomacy examines the origin, development and collapse of the Anglo-Prussian alliance against the complex backdrop of European politics during the Seven Years War (1756-63). Unlike earlier books in the field, this study views the alliance not as a static entity but as a flexible, dynamic instrument of statecraft ever responsive to military and diplomatic shifts. By examining, for the first time, the disintegration of the alliance in a light of preceding intra-alliance relations, Karl W. Schweizer demonstrates that its failure was certain from the conditions of its formation, the progress of the war, and above all, from the disparate aims and interests of the two partners, England and Prussia. This new approach to the history of the alliance produces a fundamentally different interpretation of its overall development, a disbelief in its prospect of survival after the war and hence a modified evaluation of the role played by the principal statesmen involved.

In 1716, the French diplomat and author Francois de CalliEres published the treatise "De la Maniere de negocier avec les souverainsoan outstandingly successful manual of advice for diplomats, perhaps the best of its kind ever written. It has become the classic text, highly regarded by 18th century statesmen, who considered it essential reading for prospective diplomats, and by modern historians who have praised its insights into the conventions and techniques that remained a distinctive feature of European statecraft for almost 300 years. This book is the first, complete critical edition of Callieres' work based on an accurate but virtually unknown English translation of 1716. It also includes a biographical introduction, based on French manuscript sources, which provides an account of Callieres' life as writer and diplomat, a discussion of the origin of the work and an assessment of the intellectual and historical background to which the treatise belongs. In addition, the book includes appendixes on the French political academy, Callieres' library and a list of his publications as well as those of his father, Jacques, also a notable author in his day. The volume concludes with a bibliography of works on diplomatic theory covering the period 1648 to 1815. This reprint of the 1983 edition by Leicester University Press makes available once again this historical work of enduring value."

This book describes computational methods used in quantum dynamics with emphasis on small quantum systems. Computational physics is a fundamental physical discipline at the forefront of physical research. Thus it is an indisputable fact that computational physics form part of the essential landscape of physical science and education. In the present state of scientific knowledge the importance of quantum dynamics is commonplace. Computational quantum dynamics involves the use of computer calculations and simulations to solve quantum physical problems. Following a brief introduction to quantum dynamics the book revisits approximation techniques based on perturbational theory and variationalmethods. This discussion includes Hartree-Fock and density functional theory and quantum Monte Carlo methods. The next chapter presents the concepts of finite differences. Central in this chapter is the discretization in time and space. Later chapters concentrate on discrete variable techniques based on orthogonal polynomials, finite element and B-splinemethods for both time-independent and time-dependent problems and the combination of different computational techniques. The final chapter contains a list of useful sources for computational software and program codes. This book is primarily aimed at advanced students and graduates and researchers in theoretical and computational physics or chemistry and bridges the gap between quantum textbooks and computational research. Although not essential, the reader should have a basic background in quantum physics and some knowledge of numerical analysis would be helpful in reading this book.

This book contains contributions to the 172. WE-Heraeus-Seminar "Atoms and Molecules in Strong External Fields," which took place April 7-11 1997 at the Phys- zentrum Bad Honnef (Germany). The designation "strong fields" applies to external static magnetic, and/or electric fields that are sufficiently intense to cause alterations in the atomic or molecular str- ture and dynamics. The specific topics treated are the behavior and properties of atoms in strong static fields, the fundamental aspects and electronic structure of molecules in strong magnetic fields, the dynamics and aspects of chaos in highly excited R- berg atoms in external fields, matter in the atmosphere of astrophysical objects (white dwarfs, neutron stars), and quantum nanostructures in strong magnetic fields. It is obvious that the elaboration of the corresponding properties in these regimes causes the greatest difficulties, and is incomplete even today. Present-day technology has made it possible for many research groups to study the behavior of matter in strong external fields, both experimentally and theore- cally, where the phrase "experimentally" includes the astronomical observations. - derstanding these systems requires the development of modern theories and powerful computational techniques. Interdisciplinary collaborations will be helpful and useful in developing more efficient methods to understand these important systems. Hence the idea was to bring together people from different fields like atomic and molecular physics, theoretical chemistry, astrophysics and all those colleagues interested in aspects of few-body systems in external fields.

It is an indisputable fact that computational physics form part of the essential landscape of physical science and physical education. When writing such a book, one is faced with numerous decisions, e. g. : Which topics should be included? What should be assumed about the readers' prior knowledge? How should balance be achieved between numerical theory and physical application? This book is not elementary. The reader should have a background in qu- tum physics and computing. On the other way the topics discussed are not addressed to the specialist. This work bridges hopefully the gap between - vanced students, graduates and researchers looking for computational ideas beyond their fence and the specialist working on a special topic. Many imp- tant topics and applications are not considered in this book. The selection is of course a personal one and by no way exhaustive and the material presented obviously reflects my own interest. What is Computational Physics? During the past two decades computational physics became the third fun- mental physical discipline. Like the 'traditional partners' experimental physics and theoretical physics, computational physics is not restricted to a special area, e. g. , atomic physics or solid state physics. Computational physics is a meth- ical ansatz useful in all subareas and not necessarily restricted to physics. Of course this methods are related to computational aspects, which means nume- cal and algebraic methods, but also the interpretation and visualization of huge amounts of data.

This is the first comprehensive one-volume overview of the diplomatic, military and maritime history of the causes and conduct of the Seven Years' War and its American manifestation, the French and Indian War (1753-63).

The Seven Years' War was the first global conflict in history and a precursor to the American War of Independence. The authors summarize both older and more recent scholarship on these subjects, and synthesize them in a complete annotated bibliography. The book also includes biographical sketches and critical reappraisals of some of the major figures of the period

The Seven Years War will be of great interest to students of the Seven Years War, American history, diplomatic and military history.

Der Leser wird mit Recht erwarten, daB ihm die Verfasser zunachst sagen, warum sie dieses Buch geschrieben haben -in einer Zeit, wo die Informa- tionsflut tiber aIle Ufer tritt -, und er wird ferner die Frage stell en, wer das Buch lesen kann oder lesen soIl. Nun, der Hergang der Dinge war folgender: Gelegentlich eines unserer regelmaBigen Fachgesprache auBerte ein Kollege, Herr Beitz, Mitverfasser des Buches "Konstruktionslehre", er habe bei seinen Tatigkeiten in der Praxis immer wieder das GefUhl, daB es im Konstruktionsbereich so man- chen "weiBen Fleck" im Hinblick auf die zu wahlenden Fertigungsverfah- ren gebe. In der Tat befanden sich ja viele neue Technologien lange Zeit im Laborstadium, und es gelang ihnen erst in den letzten Jahren, sich ei- nen festen Platz in der industriellen Fertigung zu erobern. Trotz ihrer enormen Bedeutung haben sie jedoch weit geringeren Bekanntheitsgrad erlangt als jene, die man - zu Recht oder zu Unrecht - die "klassischen Fertigungsverfahren" nennt. Die Verfasser wollten also versuchen, diese neueren Technologien darzulegen. Dabei lieBen sie sich von drei Grundsatzen leiten: Erstens sollte das Ganze in Form eines konzentrierten Uberblicks geschrieben werden, also gewissermaBen zum Nachschlagen geeignet sein. Bei der Ftille des Stoffs war dies keine leichte Aufgabe, und so erklart sich denn auch der unge- wohnliche Umfang des zitierten Schrifttums. Es ist meist neueren Datums und moge nicht nur der Vertiefung dienen, sondern auch dort tiberall eine Brticke schlagen, wo der Stoff sich wegen der schnell fortschreitenden Ent- wicklung bereits phasenverschoben reprasentiert.