Table of contents

This review is devoted to the development of the statistical model of matter over the last twenty years. The ranges of applicability of the model for electron-nuclear systems (atoms, solids, plasmas) are considered. Effects lying beyond the scope of statistical model (exchange, correlation, quantum and shell effects) are analyzed. The relative roles of the effects enumerated are estimated in different regions of temperature and pressure. The possibility of taking these effects into account as small corrections in the region of applicability of the statistical model is demonstrated. Here a procedure for expanding the physical quantities in series in the small parameters characterizing the corresponding effects is used. Allowance for the corrections considerably extends the possibilities of the statistical model in the study of the structure of matter and makes it possible to obtain new qualitative and quantitative results. It is found, e.g., that allowance for shell effects in the thermodynamics of highly-compressed matter leads to the existence of firstorder phase transitions associated with the "squeezing-out" of discrete shells into the continuous spectrum. The refinement of the statistical model at short distances from the nucleus, and other applications to atomic physics, are discussed. The application of the statistical model to the description of the dynamical properties of matter is also considered. In particular, the problem of the collective oscillations of the electron cloud of an atom is treated and the results of a numerical calculation of the corresponding frequencies and widths are given. The method of the density functional is briefly described.

The problem is outlined of how to approach the description of partially coherent multiple scattering of waves by ensembles of particles in terms of the photometric theory of radiation transport in a scattering medium. The treatment is carried out with the example of a scalar monochromatic wavefield. The apparatus of equations of the Dyson and Bethe-Salpeter types is used. This apparatus is shown to be adequate for the fundamental concepts of transport theory. In particular, correspondence is established between an effective inhomogeneity of an ensemble of correlated particles and the volume element of transport theory. It is shown that neglect of the effect of mutal illumination of correlation groups of particles within a given inhomogeneity leads to spatial localization of the inhomogeneities, while the additional hypothesis that the localized inhomogeneities lie close to one another in the Fraunhofer zone gives the transport equation. The contribution is estimated of the effect of mutual illumination of correlation groups of particles within a given inhomogeneity to the partially coherent scattering of waves by the volume of the medium. The role of the detector of the scattered radiation in making this estimate is discussed.

This article reviews the experimental and theoretical studies of the pinch effect in a solid-state plasma in the period 1958-1975. Different methods of observing the pinch effect and ways of initiating and suppressing this effect are described. Special attention is paid to the time evolution of this phenomenon. The fundamental features of the pinch effect in semiconductors under lattice-heating conditions are pointed out. The problems are discussed in detail of plasma stability in the pinch effect, as well as the mechanisms of breakdown of a pinch in a longitudinal magnetic field. The form of the recombination-radiation spectra in the pinch effect in a degenerate electron-hole plasma is analyzed. The fundamental experimental results from studying a θ-pinch in InSb and Ge are given and analyzed. The applied aspects of studying the pinch effect in a solid-state plasma are pointed out, and unsolved problems are noted. Analogies are pointed out in a number of cases with the corresponding gas-discharge developments.

This review is concerned with the experimental data on elastic scattering of mesons and nucleons by protons. Theoretical ideas about hadronic interactions at high energies are discussed. An exposition is given of the techniques for measuring differential cross sections in the region of very small momentum transfers. A summary is given of the information which has been obtained in various experiments on the total cross sections for π^±N, K^±N, NN, and N interactions, the real parts of the elastic scattering amplitudes at t = 0, the slopes of the diffraction peaks, large-angle scattering, and polarization effects in elastic scattering reactions. It is observed that the entire set of experimental data is consistent with dispersion relations and asymptotic theorems. The slope of the diffraction peak exhibits a systematic (approximately logarithmic) growth at high energies. This growth corresponds to a relatively small value for the slope of the Pomeranchuk trajectory, α_P'(0)≈0.3 GeV^–2. The experimental data in elastic scattering processes and charge-exchange reactions are in agreement with the predictions of complex angular momentum theory. A discussion is given of new phenomena which have been observed using the accelerators at Serpukhov and Batavia and the CERN intersecting storage rings: a growth of the total cross sections for hadronic interactions, a change of sign of the real part of the zero-angle elastic scattering amplitude, and other effects which show up at energies 100 GeV.