Table of contents

Although the spectacular experimental achievements of particle physics in the last decade have strengthened the Standard Model (SM) as an adequate description of nature, they have also revealed that the SM matter represents a mere 5% or so of the energy density of the Universe, which clearly points to some physics beyond the SM despite the desperate lack of direct experimental evidence. The sector responsible for the spontaneous breaking of the SM electroweak symmetry is likely to be the first to provide experimental hints at this new physics. The aim of this review is, after briefly introducing SM physics and the conventional Higgs mechanism, to give a survey of recent ideas on how the dynamics of electroweak symmetry breaking can be explained.

Electromagnetic wave tunneling through photonic barriers and effects of frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR) are considered for waves of different spectral regions. The discovered effects of nonlocal dispersion of gradient dielectric barriers, wherein the spatial permittivity profile ε(z) determines the cutoff frequency that depends on the shape and geometric parameters of this profile are shown to play the decisive role in wave tunneling through nonuniform barriers. Special emphasis is placed on the effects of total wave transmission at frequencies lower than the cutoff frequency in the FTIR mode (reflection-free tunneling) characteristic of gradient media. The generality of these effects for a broad wave spectrum is illustrated using exact analytic solutions of the Maxwell equations describing wave tunneling through nonuniform transparent dielectrics. Also discussed are controversial issues surrounding the FTIR theory and the prospects for using gradient photonic barriers for the development of thin-film filters and polarizers, efficient reflectors, and reflection-free coatings.

The ionization of polyatomic molecules on tungsten and tungsten oxide surfaces is considered for quasiequilibrium or essentially nonequilibrium conditions (in the latter case, the term nonequilibrium surface ionization is used for adsorbate ionization). Heterogeneous reactions are supposed to proceed through monomolecular decay of polyatomic molecules or fragments of multimolecular complexes. The nonequilibrium nature of these reactions is established. The dependences of the current density of disordered ions on the surface temperature, electric field strength, and ionized particle energy distribution are obtained in analytical form. Heterogeneous dissociation energies, the ionization potentials of radicals, and the magnitude of reaction departure from equilibrium are determined from experimental data, as are energy exchange times between reaction products and surfaces, the number of molecules in molecular complexes, and the number of effective degrees of freedom in molecules and complexes. In collecting the data a new technique relying on surface-ionization field mass-spectrometry was applied.

A very simple mathematical model of blood coagulation is considered, consisting of a set of three partial differential equations that treat blood as an active (excitable) medium. Many well-known phenomena (running pulses, trigger waves, and dissipative structures) can be observed in such a medium. Recent analytic and numerical results obtained by the authors using this model are presented. The following aspects of the formation of dynamic and static structures in this medium are discussed: (1) three scenarios of the formation of spatially localized standing structures (peaks) observed in the model, (2) complex dynamical modes induced by unstable trigger waves, some of the modes leading to unattenuated activity (dynamical chaos) in the entire space, and (3) a new type of excitation propagation in active media — stable multihumped peaks due to trigger wave bifurcation — predicted by the model.

An account is given of the Wigner concept of particle spin and velocity rotations and of the variation of the angle between them under Lorentz transformations with noncollinear velocities. It is shown that Møller's description of spin rotation can be reduced to the Wigner rotation, and Møller's formula for the angle of spin rotation in the curvilinear motion of a particle is corrected. The permutation asymmetry of the relativistic velocity addition law distinguishes the Wigner sequence of Lorentzian boosts by its applicability to the description of spin and velocity rotations in curvilinear motion.

Arguments are advanced to show that bubbles with a charge e/2 cannot exist in liquid helium.