Table of contents

Mechanisms for three-body electron attachment to a molecule are examined. Methods for studying this process experimentally are described. The measurements of the characteristics of the process and their dependence on the parameters of the molecule and the energy of the electron are presented. It is shown that electron attachment to a molecule in a gas and a liquid are related. It is shown that three-body attachment is important in the low-temperature plasma of the upper atmosphere, high-pressure discharges, and gaseous dielectrics.

A review is given of the history of one of the most interesting phenomena in high-energy physics, namely, diffraction dissociation (DD) of hadrons. It was predicted more than 50 years ago by Pomeranchuk and Feĭnberg and has for many years occupied an important place in experimental high-energy studies on major accelerators across the world. This review presents a reasonably complete account of the main experimental results and of the more "settled" theoretical models of DD. Although the discussion is mostly restricted to single nucleon DD, it nevertheless provides a basis for a relatively complete description of this phenomenon. The historical approach adopted in this review to experimental studies of DD is emphasized by numerous references to pioneering work. The last part of the review is devoted to the leading experimental results on DD, obtained during the last five years and not covered by previously published reviews. The new experimental data reveal sufficiently clear evidence for the parton structure of the excited system and of the pomeron. It is emphasized that an understanding of the DD mechanism is crucial to the solution of the confinement problem in the theory of strong interactions, and requires further experimental and theoretical investigation.

The views of Niels Bohr on complementarity are examined, both in physics and in other fields. N. Bohr's opinions on the relationship between physics and biology are discussed in detail. It is shown that, over a number of years, Bohr viewed as complementary the study of organisms as atomic-molecular and as integral systems. Subsequently, owing to the development of molecular biology, Bohr rejected the idea of the complementarity in principle of the stated two types of studies. The current status of the physical theory of biological phenomena is examined, and the role of synergetics in this field is noted. The so-called antireductionism is criticized. It is shown that the views of contemporary eminent theoretical biologists reveal them to be unfamiliar with physics. The very important role of physics in the further development of biology and its practical applications is emphasized.

The question of a canonical quantization of the electromagnetic field as a system with two primary constraints is analyzed. Attention is focused on the following aspects of the problem: 1) the conditions on physical states; 2) the "old" and "new" Gupta formalisms; 3) the interpretation of the operators , ; 4) the vacuum in quantum electrodynamics. The starting point for the analysis is Dirac's quantization recipe for systems with constraints. It is shown that the Fermi formalism with a condition on the physical states is completely correct.

The relationship between magnetic properties of rare-earth metals and the electron structure of the f shell is considered. Simple concepts are used to show how many-electron quantum numbers of the spin, orbital and total angular momenta of the f shell are related to the Curie temperature, magnetic moment, magnetic anisotropy, and other properties of a rare-earth metal and how modern mathematical apparatus for the addition of angular momenta and specifically the Racah algebra can be used to calculate these characteristics. The differences in respect of the nature of magnetism between rare earths and metals in the iron group with partly filled d shells are discussed. A clear interpretation is given of the periodic dependence (with a period of 1/4) on the number of the f electrons exhibited by magnetic properties (particularly in the case of the magnetic anisotropy) within the rare-earth series. A brief discussion is given of magnetic properties of alloys in relationship to the local anisotropy.