Theoretical AMO Physics in The 21st Century - What's Old, What's New, What's Still Unsol

Professor Kirchner of York University will be discussing current research being done on Theoretical AMO Physics in the 21st century. The talk will focus on examples drawn from the research area which is the study of laser- and collision-induced electron dynamics in atoms and small molecules. Theoretical atomic physics had its heydays in the first third of the last century culminating in the development of quantum mechanics in the 1920's and finding its formal completion with the formulation of quantum electrodynamics not long thereafter. In 1929, Paul Dirac, one of the key players of that era, famously remarked: "The fundamental laws necessary for the mathematical treatment of a large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely known, and the difficulty lies only in the fact that application of these laws leads to equations that are too complex to be solved." This turned out to be a fairly accurate characterization of theoretical AMO physics - except that the quote seems to suggest that the remaining problem was small or uninteresting. In Professor Kirchner's presentation he will argue that neither is true. Even though we haven't overturned any of the fundamental laws of physics, we have done more than developing algorithms to solve those complex equations Dirac referred to (but we have done that as well). Much of the progress has been accomplished in response to technological and experimental innovations (the laser!) which have allowed for measurements with ever-increasing accuracy and sophistication whose interpretation requires theoretical support. Professor Kirchner completed a Ph.D. from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany for theoretical work in the area of atomic collisions. He then completed postdoc work at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, before finally become a Professor at York University in 2009. More information about Professor Kirchner and his research can be found at the link here: http://www.yorku.ca/tomk/ When: Monday February 10, 2014 Time: 4:30 Where: PSE 317 www.facebook.com/groups/yorkuphysics/