Focus on APS Topical Groups Group on Few Body Systems By Michael
Lucibella A notable moment for the APS Topical Group on Few Body
Systems (GFB) came at the 1989 APS meeting in Baltimore, where
the group sponsored a now famous symposium on cold fusion. The
subject was all over the media after Martin Fleischmann and
Stanley Pons controversially claimed to have produced fusion in
their lab. At the high profile meeting, eight of the nine
speakers refuted the Fleischmann-Pons claims, roundly rejecting
the recent cold fusion assertions. This year marks the 25th
anniversary of GFB. The Group’s main purpose has always been to
bring together a broad range of scientists who work on atomic
and subatomic systems involving three or more particles. By
taking this interdisciplinary approach to research, GFB may be
the most scientifically diverse of all topical groups. Few body
systems can yield some of the most fiendishly complex problems
to work with. Single and two body systems involve only a small
number of variables whi