Introduction:
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A chemical reaction can be regarded as the process in which reactants are transformed into products, after passing through a transition state. This basic idea extends beyond chemistry to several other fields, such as celestial mechanics, where objects may be captured by a planet after passing through a transition state; stellar physics, where the rate of escape of stars from a cluster is regulated by a transition state, and in atomic physics, where electrons are responsible of atomic ionization. All of these seemingly disparate problems can be reconciled using methods developed in the context of Dynamical Systems Theory.
The goal of this Minisymposium is to provide a forum for recent advances in the theory and application of transition state theory to be discussed with a view to mapping out fruitful future research directions. |
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