The Symposium on Electron and Ion Swarms, a satellite meeting of the XVIII International Conference on the Physics of
Electronic and Atomic Collisions (ICPEAC), was held at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in July 1993.
Traditionally, the Swarm Seminar deals with experimental and theoretical treatments of the behaviour of electrons and
ions in weakly ionized gases: ion and electron transport, electron attachment and ionization, recombination, ion-molecule
reactions, and boundary problems. The quantitative information that can be gained regarding cross sections and rate
coefficients is fundamental for modelling studies of gas discharges, in particular those of importance for many technological
processes and devices.
The meeting was attended by 32 delegates from 11 countries. The program contained seven invited review talks and 28
contributed papers, of which nine were presented as posters. The content of most of the invited talks and several of the
contributed papers are reproduced in this issue of the Physica Scripta. As usual, the scope of the meeting was broad. Two papers on clusters represented an addition to the traditional topics mentioned above.
The main contribution to the success of the meeting was the enthusiasm of the delegates. The seminar was made possible by organisational and financial support from the Norwegian Institute of Technology through its Department of Physics.
We use this opportunity to thank the other local organisers, Rolf Hegerberg and Þórarinn Stefánsson for their assistance, and the members of our International Advisory Board who assisted in putting together a successful programme. Finally, we would like to thank the Physica Scripta and its editor, Anders Bárány, for the publication of the proceedings.