It is widely recognized nowadays that conical intersections of molecular potential-energy surfaces play a key mechanistic role in the spectroscopy of polyatomic molecules, photochemistry and chemical kinetics. This invaluable book presents a systematic exposition of the current state of knowledge about conical intersections, which has been elaborated in research papers scattered throughout the chemical-physics literature. Section I of the book provides a comprehensive analysis of the electronic-structure aspects of conical intersections. Section II shows the importance of conical...

TheJahn Teller(JT)effectcontinuesto bea paradigmforstructuralinstabilitiesand dynamicalprocessesinmoleculesandin the condensedphase.While thebasic th- rem, rst published in 1937, had to await experimentalveri cation for 15 years, the intervening years saw rapid development, initially in the theoretical arena, followed increasingly by experimental work on molecules and crystals. The International Jahn Teller Symposiumwas established in the mid-1970s, to foster the exchangeof ideas between researchers in the eld. Among the many important developments in the eld, we mention cooperative phenomena...

The concept of adiabatic electronic potential-energy surfaces, defined by the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, is fundamental to our thinking about chemical processes. Recent computational as well as experimental studies have produced ample evidence that the so-called conical intersections of electronic energy surfaces, predicted by von Neumann and Wigner in 1929, are the rule rather than the exception in polyatomic molecules. It is nowadays increasingly recognized that conical intersections play a key mechanistic role in chemical reaction dynamics. This volume provides an up-to-date overview...