Professor David Farrelly of Utah State University is being supported by the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Program. The focus of this research is to investigate ultrahigh molecular Rydberg states that are typically excited in zero-electron kinetic-energy (ZEKE) spectroscopy. These Rydberg states might also be used to probe the dynamics of superfluid clusters containing impurity ions from seeding in beam experiments. Such states lie at the correspondence principle limit of quantum mechanics. This research will develop semiclassical theories to describe the coupling between molecular core and Rydberg electronic degrees of freedom. New adiabatic approximations will be developed to describe the dynamics of such systems as well as the interactions with external electric and or magnetic fields using complex coordinate methods. Studies of atoms and molecules in unusual situations, are of critical importance to the advancement of the chemical and physical sciences. The superfluid state in particular continues to have an enormous impact on technology and communications. Recently emphasis has been directed to `nanotechnology` in which devices are constructed that exploit the fact that the physics of very small structures can be dominated by quantum effects not visible in the bulk. This research will advance the understanding of such single (or few) electron spectroscopies in the context of elucidating the superfluid transition in finite size samples.
