Eric J. Heller
Harvard University
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Primary Section: 14, Chemistry Secondary Section: 33, Applied Physical Sciences Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2006)
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Research Interests
My research interests have largely been driven by a desire to understand the connections between classical and quantum mechanics, and by the applications of those relationships as intuitive and computational tools. Chemistry is a lively area for such connections, and understanding chemical processes such as molecular spectroscopy and tunneling has been aided by the ''semiclassical'' studies we have undertaken. The subject of classical chaos and its implications for quantum systems is a major theme, as is scattering theory in classical and quantum mechanics, and cold atoms and molecules. Semiconductor electron wave investigations and ocean wave physics are also strong interests; these also derive significant insight from classical-quantum (ray-wave) correspondence. Decoherence is often the agent of classical behavior of quantum systems, and this too is now a significant part of our efforts.
