Atoms, Clusters and Beyond

芝加哥大学化学系的R.Stephen Berry教授得到了美国国家科学基金会理论和计算化学项目的资助，用于原子和团簇的理论研究。这笔赠款支持的工作分为三组相关主题：(1)由团簇模拟的二级相变；(2)势能面的地形与特殊结构的形成之间的关系，如蛋白质折叠；以及(3)原子中的角电子关联。一个相关的主题是，理论研究与实验研究直接相关。团簇是一种特殊而独特的物质形式，它们位于孤立的原子和分子的一端，固态位于另一端。虽然星系团的属性本身很重要，但它们也很重要，因为它们连接了这两个极端。这项拨款支持的集群工作的一个长期目标是了解集群属性如何确定并最终与批量属性合并。支持的工作将分析理论、计算和计算机模拟整合为一种方法，具有三个主要目标：(1)加深对物质常见性质的理解；(2)在团簇和纳米粒子尺度上确定物质特有的新性质；以及(3)激发新的实验。

Professor R. Stephen Berry at the Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, is supported by a grant from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Program at NSF for theoretical studies of atoms and clusters. The work supported by this grant falls into three groups of related topics: (1) second-order phase transitions as modeled by clusters; (2) the relationship between the topography of potential energy surfaces and the formation of special structures, as in protein folding; and (3) angular electron correlation in atoms. A connecting theme is that the theoretical studies are directly related to experimental studies. Clusters are special and unique forms of matter that lie between isolated atoms and molecules at one extreme and the solid state at the other extreme. While the properties of clusters are important for their own sake, they are also important because they bridge these two extremes. A long term objective of the cluster work that this grant supports is to understand how cluster properties determine, and ultimately merge with, bulk properties. The supported work integrates analytic theory, computation, and computer simulation into an approach with three primary goals: (1) deepening the understanding of commonplace properties of matter; (2) identifying new properties specific to matter at the scale of clusters and nanoscale particles; and (3) stimulating new experiments.