The research undertaken is concerned with Rydberg atoms and molecules. Such systems occupy a special place in the physical sciences: their simplicity makes them vehicles for the discovery of new phenomena which they display with exceptional clarity. The PI will investigate three major open problems which were inspired by the dynamics of Rydberg states in external fields. Using and contrasting classical and quantum approaches, the PI will study sticky barriers to transport in atomic and molecular systems, chaotic scattering of Rydberg electrons, and the manipulation the ionization of Rydberg states by localized control theory. The research relies heavily on the onsiderable progress made recently in the theory of atomic and molecular Rydberg states perturbed by external fields especially in problems involving Coriolis forces, where reduced dimensionality models fail due to lack of angular momentum conservation
