The Jahn-Teller Effect

The Jahn-Teller effect continues to be a paradigm for structural instabilities and dynamical processes in molecules and in the condensed phase. While the basic theorem, first published in 1937, had to await experimental verification for 15 years, the intervening years have seen rapid development, initially in the theoretical arena, followed increasingly by experimental work on molecules and crystals. Among the many important developments in the field we mention cooperative phenomena in crystals, the general importance of pseudo-Jahn-Teller couplings for symmetry-lowering phenomena in molecular systems, nonadiabatic processes at conical intersections of potential energy surfaces and extensions of the basic theory in relation to the discovery of fullerenes and other icosahedral systems.