NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE STUDY OF ATOMIC AUTOIONIZING STATES

The Auger process, discovered by Auger in 1923, was for many years vie wed primarily as the end process of a nuclear reaction. However, in th e early 1960s, it became clear that basically there was no difference between the Auger process and autoionization, and that much could be l earned by a detailed study of these processes both experimentally and theoretically as atomic processes. Since that time such studies have p layed an important role in the evolution of our understanding of atomi c processes. This article will give a brief summary of these developme nts and will attempt to outline some promising directions for future w ork.