Table of contents

Methods and results of searching for stellar mass black holes in binary systems and for supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei of different types are described. As of now (June 2002), a total of 100 black hole candidates are known. All the necessary conditions Einstein's General Relativity imposes on the observational properties of black holes are satisfied for candidate objects available, thus further assuring the existence of black holes in the Universe. Prospects for obtaining sufficient criteria for reliably distinguishing candidate black holes from real black holes are discussed.

Experimental results on, and theoretical fundamentals of, the electronic Raman scattering in high-temperature superconductors are discussed. The effects of temperature, impurity scattering, and resonance conditions on electronic Raman spectra in the superconducting state are analyzed. The primary objective of the review is to establish how different peculiarities of the inelastic light scattering spectra are related to fundamental properties of the fundamental superconducting state, such as the superconducting gap and the symmetry of pairing.

This review is dedicated to the dynamics of the rattleback, a phenomenon with curious physical properties that is studied in nonholonomic mechanics. All known analytical results are collected here, and some results of our numerical simulation are presented. In particular, three-dimensional Poincare maps associated with dynamical systems are systematically investigated for the first time. It is shown that the loss of stability of periodic and quasiperiodic solutions, which gives rise to strange attractors, is typical of the three-dimensional maps related to rattleback dynamics. This explains some newly discovered properties of the rattleback related to the transition from regular to chaotic solutions at certain values of the physical parameters.

The history of designing wind tunnels, an isolated wing, as well as both flying and non-flying machines, is reviewed. An analysis is made of those remarkable aerodynamic ideas which have been practically implemented, as well as of those, no less remarkable, ideas which have — so far — remained unfulfilled. The history of theoretical fluid dynamics in Russia is represented as the history of four scientific schools: those of Zhukovsky, Friedmann, Kolmogorov, and TsAGI.