Atomic Physics 7

Atomic Physics 7 presents the manuscripts of the invited talks delivered at the Seventh International Conference of Atomic Physics, held at M.I.T. August 4-8, 1980. This conference continues the tradition of the earlier conferences by reviewing broad areas of fundamental atomic physics and related subjects. In addition to the invited talks, one hundred and ninety contributed papers were presented in poster sessions. Abstracts of the contributed papers have been printed separately in a small volume. Three hundred and fifty participants from thirteen nations attended the conference. One of the highlights of the conference was an historical talk by Professor Abraham Pais of Rockefeller University entitled "The Birth of the Quantum Theory: Planck". The manuscript of this talk will be published elsewhere. Dr. John Bailey presented a talk on the proton-antiproton system at low energy, but was unable to provide a manuscript for this volume. Also omitted from these Proceedings, but one of the highlights of the Conference, are the comments by Professor I. I. Rabi, an active participant who chaired one session and spent an evening discussing science, history and public policy with graduate students at the Conference.