WCI3 Statements of Science Issues that scientists outside

WCI-3 Statements of Science Issues that scientists outside our field should care about. All of these issues are old. While much has been written on all these issues, a) clear wisdom is not widely known and b) this wisdom has not been clearly presented to (or by? ) other communities. I have tried to present these issues in cross-disciplinary language. A. THINK OF THESE “ISSUES” AS DEPARTMENTAL SEMINAR TITLES: seminars titles designed to attract molecular/atomic/nuclear scientists B. THINK OF THESE AS BULLETS IN AN INTRODUCTION TO A BOOK: a book that has the potential to convince others our enterprise is of value. A. Thermodynamics B. Kinetics and Transport

A. Thermodynamics 1. How can S. M. describe the bizarre, finite time, “phase” or clustered behavior of small systems ? 2. Can one define a (nucleated) transition state for spinodal fragmentation ? 3. Constructing a DFT description of “Drop/cluster” density of states and FE. a) Medium correlations fxn(E*)? b) Value of a FE leptodermous expansion & term identification of: V, S, Cur, Coul, δ, Clus. 4. Extracting thermodynamics of mesoscopic One-Component Plasmas - OCPs ? 5. Mesoscopic thermometry: a) “Internal frag. ” vs “External frag. ” T’s, b) “fuse” thermometers, and c) consistency 6. The thermodynamics of event ensembles. (As opposed to Gibbs’ mathematical construct. ) a) Is “bimodality” a thermodynamic STATE descriptor ? b) What does T mean when the cost of transition between “phases” is so high that the transition is never caught and the PREPARAION creates the “phase” mix? c) Ergodic ? If so, how is the surface “sculpted” by preparation or data mining ? 7. What is required of a Hamiltonian (& initial cond. ? ) for “thermodynamic” behavior ?

B. Kinetics and Transport 1. “Atomic level” description of the “out-of-equilibrium effects” of nucleation and spinodal separation. 2. The limbo-land of kinetics with no time-scale separation but many DOF’s. Classical friction arguments (Kramers reduction of TS rates) are inappropriate. Dynamics provides a description of “happening” but insight extraction is difficult. “Transition-state sampling” can be done, but to what end? Can one extract a greater truth? 3. Influence of initial medium correlations (“clusters”) on kinetics. 4. a) Decay of non-collectively expanding hot nuclear drops and b) Decay of collectively expanding hot nuclear drops. 5. True quantum dynamics for Fermions. 6. Two-component fractionation/distillation in finite quantum systems.