Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Patras, Greece, September 1993. A wide spectrum of elementary reactions directly or indirectly involving the generation, depletion, scattering, or transport of slow electrons in molecular systems in all three states of aggregation including tr

The Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on "Linking the Gaseous and Condensed Phases of Matter: The Behavior of Slow Electrons" was held at Patras, Greece, September 5-18, 1993. The organizers of the Patras ASI felt that the study of the electronic properties of matter in various states of aggregation has advanced to a point where further progress required the interfacing of the phases of matter in order to find out and to understand how the microscopic and macroscopic properties of materials and processes change as we go from low pressure gas to the condensed phase. This approach is of foremost...

Most of the matter in our solar system, and, probably, within the whole universe, exists in the form of ionized particles. On the other hand, in our natural environ ment, gaseous matter generally consists of neutral atoms and molecules. Only under certain conditions, such as within the path oflightning or in several technical devices (e. g. gas discharges, rocket engines, etc. ) will some of the atoms and molecules be ionized. It is also believed that the chemistry of the earth's troposphere predomi nantly proceeds via reactions between neutral particles. (The complex system of atmospheric...