Measurements of angular distributions of K-shell electrons photoejected from molecular nitrogen are reported which reveal large deviations at relatively low photon energies (Planck's omega < or = 500 eV) from emission patterns anticipated from the dipole approximation to interactions between radiation and matter. A concomitant theoretical analysis incorporating the effects of electromagnetic retardation attributes the observed large nondipole behaviors in N2 to bond-length-dependent terms in the E1 [multiply sign in circle] (E2,M1) photoelectron emission amplitudes which are indicative of a potentially universal nondipole behavior in molecular photoionization.

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We show that the time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) is the phenomenological dynamical law of evolution unraveled in the classical limit from a timeless formulation in terms of probability amplitudes conditioned by the values of suitably chosen internal clock variables, thereby unifying the conditional probability interpretation (CPI) and the semiclassical approach for the problem of time in quantum theory. Our formalism stems from an exact factorization of the Hamiltonian eigenfunction of the clock plus system composite, where the clock and system factors play the role of marginal and conditional probability amplitudes, respectively. Application of the Variation Principle leads to a pair of exact coupled pseudoeigenvalue equations for these amplitudes, whose solution requires an iterative self-consistent procedure. The equation for the conditional amplitude constitutes an effective "equation of motion" for the quantum state of the system with respect to the clock variables. These coupled equations also provide a convenient framework for treating the back-reaction of the system on the clock at various levels of approximation. At the lowest level, when the WKB approximation for the marginal amplitude is appropriate, in the classical limit of the clock variables the TDSE for the system emerges as a matter of course from the conditional equation. In this connection, we provide a discussion of the characteristics required by physical systems to serve as good clocks. This development is seen to be advantageous over the original CPI and semiclassical approach since it maintains the essence of the conventional formalism of quantum mechanics, admits a transparent interpretation, avoids the use of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, and resolves various objections raised about them.

We measure the current due to electrons tunneling through the ground state of hydrogenic Si donors placed in a GaAs quantum well in the presence of a magnetic field tilted at an angle to the plane of the well. The component of B parallel to the direction of current compresses the donor wave function. By measuring the current as a function of the perpendicular component of B, we probe how the magnetocompression affects the spatial form of the wave function and observe directly the transition from Coulombic to magnetic confinement at high fields.

For the S states of two-electron atoms, we introduce an exact and unique factorization of the internal eigenfunction in terms of a marginal amplitude, which depends functionally on the electronnucleus distances r1 and r2, and a conditional amplitude, which depends functionally on the interelectronic distance r12 and parametrically on r1 and r2. Applying the variational principle, we derive pseudoeigenvalue equations for these two amplitudes, which cast the internal Schrödinger equation in a form akin to the Born-Oppenheimer separation of nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom in molecules. The marginal equation involves an effective radial Hamiltonian, which contains a nonadiabatic potential energy surface that takes into account all interparticle correlations in an averaged way, and whose unique eigenvalue is the internal energy. At each point (r1, r2), such surface is, in turn, the unique eigenvalue in the conditional equation. Employing the ground state of He as prototype, we show that the nonadiabatic potential energy surface affords a molecularlike interpretation of the structure of the atom, and aids in the analysis of energetic and spatial aspects of the Coulomb correlation, in particular correlation-induced symmetry breaking and quantum phase transition.