The Advances in Chemical Physics series provides the chemical physics and physical chemistry fields with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. Filled with cutting-edge research reported in a cohesive manner not found elsewhere in the literature, each volume of the Advances in Chemical Physics series serves as the perfect supplement to any advanced graduate class devoted to the study of chemical physics.

This volume, the sixth in the series, concentrates on large ions. The production, detection and analysis of large ions are areas which have taken on great importance in recent years, in particular in the biomedical and biochemical fields. The understanding of large ions presents unique and formidable challenges which are very different to those associated with the study of small ions. This work focuses on some of the fundamental chemistry and physics associated with the behaviour of large ions, with the contributors addressing the issues in a quantitative fashion, in order to elucidate some...

As a result of many recent advances in both experimental techniques and theoretical methodologies, increasingly detailed and sophisticated studies can now be performed concerning the formation, structures, energetics, and reaction dynamics of state or energy-level selected molecular ions. Each volume in this series is dedicated to reviewing a specific topic, emphasizing experimental and theoretical developments in the study of ions.

Paul Adrian Maurice Dirac (1902-84) is one of the icons of modern physics. His work provided the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics. He also made key contributions to quantum field theory and quantum statistical mechanics. He is perhaps best known for formulating the Dirac equation, a relativistic wave equation which described the properties of the electron, and also predicted the existence of anti-matter. He was awarded the Nobel prize in Physics in 1933 along with Erwin Schreodinger for his contributions to quantum theory.The Dirac Centennial Symposium held commemorated the...