Guenther Maier

Done—Memories of a PhD Supervisor GUENTHER MAIER, born in 1932, was fascinated early on by “impossible molecules”. Whether in Karlsruhe, Baltimore, Marburg, or Giessen, he always wanted to overcome new challenges. Tetrahedrane, molecule of the year 1978, became his trademark. The author employs short, chronological accounts to trace and reflect on his chemical pathways and detours, his role models, his collaboration with colleagues, and his life. He opens up a world of exotic molecules through experiments—photochemistry, flash pyrolysis, low-temperature matrix isolation—and theory. Curiosity, luck, and imagination, but also persistence, uncover many secrets.

Heavy exotic molecules

We briefly review the formation of pion-mediated heavy-light exotic molecules with both charm and bottom, under the general structures of chiral and heavy quark symmetries. The charm isosinglet exotic molecules with [Formula: see text] binds, which we identify as the reported neutral [Formula: see text]. The bottom isotriplet exotic with [Formula: see text] binds, and is identified as a mixed state of the reported charged exotics [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. The bound bottom isosinglet molecule with [Formula: see text] is a possible neutral [Formula: see text] to be observed.