Clusters and Small Particles

This book discusses clusters of atoms or molecules and chains or fractal aggregates of solid particles. Such systems contain too many particles to be analysed by the methods of particle dynamics, but too few to be amenable to standard statistical techniques. The goal is to analyse various aspects of the physics and chemistry of clusters and their behavior in gases and plasmas, and to investigate processes that involve clusters. The presentation is based on lectures and seminar problems for graduate students; the main part of the book thus includes more than 200 problems, each of them illustrating a specific aspect of finite systems of bound atoms and their behavior in gases and plasmas. Topics covered include: collisions, charge transfer, chemical reactions, condensed systems and their structures, kinetics of charging of clusters in ionised gases and kinetics of cluster growth, excited clusters, the transition from clusters to bulk particles, the behavior of chain and fractal aggregates, and the properties of cluster, dusty, and aerosol plasmas. Some reference data for analysing real systems are given in the problems and in the appendices. The book will be of interest to physicists, chemists, and astrophysicists.