This Springer Handbook comprises a comprehensive reference source that unifies the entire fields of atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics, assembling the principal ideas, techniques, and results of the field. Its 90 chapters written by about 120 authors all leaders in their repsective disciplines, together with a guide to the primary research literature. It has been carefully edited to ensure a uniform coverage and style, with extensive cross-references. It is intended to be both a source of information and inspiration for graduate students and other researchers new to the field. Along with a summary of key ideas, techniques, and results, many chapters offer diagrams of apparatus, graphs, and tables of data. From atomic spectroscopy to applications in comets, one finds contributions from over 100 authors, all leaders in their respective disciplines. Substantially updated and expanded since the original 1996 edition, it now contains several entirely new chapters covering current areas of great research interest that barely existed in 1996, such as Bose-Einstein condensation, quantum information, and cosmological variations of the fundamental constants. A fully-searchable CD- ROM version of the contents accompanies the handbook.

Gordon W F Drake is a Professor of Physics at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He was awarded the 1994 Gold Medal for Achievement in Physics by the Canadian Association of Physicists and has chaired both the Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics of The American Physical Society, as well as the IUPAP Commission on Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics. Dr. Drake is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, The American Physical Society, and the British Institute of Physics.