The frontiers of beam research point to increasingly high energy, greater brightness and lower emittance beams with ever-increasing particle species. These demands in turn have triggered a rapidly growing number of beam phenomena that involve quantum effects. Concurrently, the violent accelerations which are becoming available through novel accelerator research may, perhaps, help to investigate fundamental physics associated with general relativity. In view of these exciting developments and the important role they may play in the next century, the world''s first conference on the ''Quantum Aspects of Beam Physics'', held at Monterey, California, in January 1998, attracted a broad spectrum of experts from beam physics, particle physics, laser science, astrophysics, condensed matter physics, nuclear and atomic physics. At the end of the meeting, a new term ''quantum beam physics'' was coined.This book collects together the excellent reviews and papers on new advances in the field which were presented during the workshop. It should be a valuable reference to all physicists interested in the frontiers of quantum beam physics.
