Elementary Excitations in Solids, Molecules, and Atoms

The Advanced Study Institute on 'Elementary Excitations in Solids, Molecules, and Atoms' was held at the University of Antwerp (U.I.A.) from June 18th till June 30th 1973. The In- stitute was sponsored by NATO. Co-sponsors were: Agfa-Gevaert N.V. (Mortsel - Belgium), Bell Telephone Mfg. Co. (Antwerp- Belgium), the National Science Foundation (Washington D.C. - U.S.A.) and the University of Antwerp (U.I.A.). A total of 120 lecturers and participants attended the Institute. Over the last few years, substantial progress has been made in the description of the elementary excitations of the elec- tronic and vibrational systems and their interactions. Parallel with this, the experimentalists have obtained outstanding re- sults, partly as a result of availability of coherent light sour- ces from the far infrared through the visible region, and partly because of the availability of synchrotron radiation sources in the soft X-ray region. The results of today will lead to fur- ther progress over the next years. It was the purpose of this NATO Advanced Study Institute to present astate of the art, namely a survey of experiment and theory.