The field of laser-matter interaction traditionally deals with the response of atoms, molecules, and plasmas to an external light wave. However, the recent sustained technological progress is opening up the possibility of employing intense laser radiation to trigger or substantially influence physical processes beyond atomic-physics energy scales. Available optical laser intensities exceeding ${10}^{22}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{W}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$ can push the fundamental light-electron interaction to the extreme limit where radiation-reaction effects dominate the electron dynamics, can shed light on the structure of the quantum vacuum, and can trigger the creation of particles such as electrons, muons, and pions and their corresponding antiparticles. Also, novel sources of intense coherent high-energy photons and laser-based particle colliders can pave the way to nuclear quantum optics and may even allow for the potential discovery of new particles beyond the standard model. These are the main topics of this article, which is devoted to a review of recent investigations on high-energy processes within the realm of relativistic quantum dynamics, quantum electrodynamics, and nuclear and particle physics, occurring in extremely intense laser fields.

Extremely high-intensity laser interactions with fundamental quantum systems

Have you ever felt that the very title, Progress in Optics, conjured an image in your mind? Don’t you see a row of handsomely printed books, bearing the editorial stamp of one of the most brilliant members of the optics community, and chronicling the field of optics since the invention of the laser? If so, you are certain to move the bookend to make room for Volume 16, the latest of this series. It contains seven chapters on widely diverging topics, written by well-known authorities in their fields. These are: 1) Laser Selective Photophysics and Photochemistry by V. S. Letokhov, 2) Recent Advances in Phase Profiles (sic) Generation by J. J. Clair and C. I. Abitbol, 3 ) Computer-Generated Holograms: Techniques and Applications by W.-H. Lee, 4) Speckle Interferometry by A. E. Ennos, 5 ) Deformation  Invariant, Space-Variant Optical  Pattern Recognition by D. Casasent and D. Psaltis, 6) Light Emission from High-Current Surface-Spark Discharges by R. E. Beverly, and 7) Semiclassical Radiation  Theory within a  QuantumMechanical Framework by I. R. Senitzkt. The  breadth of topic  matter  spanned  by  these  chapters makes it impossible, for this reviewer at least, to pass judgement on the comprehensiveness, relevance, and completeness of every chapter. With an editorial board as prominent as that of Progress in Optics, however, it seems hardly likely that such comments should be necessary. It should certainly be possible to take the authority of each author as credible. The only remaining judgment to be  made on these chapters is their readability. In short, what are they like to read? The first sentence of the first chapter greets the eye with an obvious typographical error: “The creation of coherent laser light source, that have tunable radiation, opened the . . . .” Two pages later we find: “When two types of atoms or molecules of different isotopic composition ( A and B ) have even one spectral line that does not overlap with others, it is pos-

Progress in optics

We present 9 new tunes of the p{sub perpendicular}-ordered shower and underlying-event model in Pythia 6.4. These 'Perugia' tunes update and supersede the older 'S0' family. The data sets used to constrain the models include hadronic Z{sup 0} decays at LEP, Tevatron min-bias data at 630, 1800, and 1960 GeV, Tevatron Drell-Yan data at 1800 and 1960 GeV, and SPS min-bias data at 200, 546, and 900 GeV. In addition to the central parameter set, called 'Perugia 0', we introduce a set of 8 related 'Perugia variations' that attempt to systematically explore soft, hard, parton density, and color structure variations in the theoretical parameters. Based on these variations, a best-guess prediction of the charged track multiplicity in inelastic, nondiffractive minimum-bias events at the LHC is made. Note that these tunes can only be used with Pythia 6, not with Pythia 8.

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Tuning Monte Carlo Generators: The Perugia Tunes

EPOS is a Monte-Carlo event generator for minimum bias hadronic interac- tions, used for both heavy ion interactions and cosmic ray air shower simulations. Since the last public release in 2009, the LHC experiments have provided a number of very inter- esting data sets comprising minimum bias p-p, p-Pb and Pb-Pb interactions. We describe the changes required to the model to reproduce in detail the new data available from LHC and the consequences in the interpretation of these data. In particular we discuss the effect of the collective hadronization in p-p scattering. A different parametrization of flow has been introduced in the case of a small volume with high density of thermalized matter (core) reached in p-p compared to large volume produced in heavy ion collisions. Both parametrizations depend only on the geometry and the amount of secondary particles en- tering in the core and not on the beam mass or energy. The transition between the two flow regimes can be tested with p-Pb data. EPOS LHC is able to reproduce all minimum bias results for all particles with transverse momentum from pt = 0 to a few GeV/c.

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EPOS LHC: Test of collective hadronization with data measured at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

Transport of electrons in a single molecule junction is the simplest problem in the general subject area of molecular electronics. In the past few years, this area has been extended to probe beyond the simple tunnelling associated with large energy gaps between electrode Fermi level and molecular levels, to deal with smaller gaps, with near-resonance tunnelling and, particularly, with effects due to interaction of electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom. This overview is devoted to the theoretical and computational approaches that have been taken to understanding transport in molecular junctions when these vibronic interactions are involved. After a short experimental overview, and discussion of different test beds and measurements, we define a particular microscopic model Hamiltonian. That overall Hamiltonian can be used to discuss all of the phenomena dealt with subsequently. These include transition from coherent to incoherent transport as electron/vibration interaction increases in strength, inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy and its interpretation and measurement, affects of interelectronic repulsion treated at the Hubbard level, noise in molecular transport junctions, non-linear conductance phenomena, heating and heat conduction in molecular transport junctions and current-induced chemical reactions. In each of these areas, we use the same simple model Hamiltonian to analyse energetics and dynamics. While this overview does not attempt survey the literature exhaustively, it does provide appropriate references to the current literature (both experimental and theoretical). We also attempt to point out directions in which further research is required to answer cardinal questions concerning the behaviour and understanding of vibrational effects in molecular transport junctions. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)

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Molecular transport junctions: vibrational effects

We calculate the cross sections for dissociation of $J/\ensuremath{\psi}$ by pions and \ensuremath{\rho} mesons within the framework of a meson exchange model. We find that these cross sections are small at center-of-mass energies less than 1 GeV above threshold, and that dissociation rates are less than $0.01\mathrm{fm}/c$ in a thermal meson gas at temperatures where such a description makes sense.

Model of charmonium absorption by light mesons

The role of double parton collisions in soft hadron interactions

Lasers as a bridge between atomic and nuclear physics

We investigate thermalization processes occurring at different time scales in the Yang-Mills-Higgs system at high temperatures. We determine the largest Lyapunov exponent associated with the gauge fields and verify its relation to the perturbatively calculated damping rate of a static gauge boson.

Thermalization and Lyapunov exponents in Yang-Mills-Higgs theory

We discuss the multiplicity distribution for the highest accessible energies of {ital pp} and {bar p}p interactions from the point of view of multiparton collisions. The inelastic cross sections for single {sigma}{sub 1} and multiple (double and, presumably, triple) {sigma}{sub 2} parton collisions are calculated from the analysis of experimental data on the multiplicity distribution up to Fermilab Tevatron energies. It is found that {sigma}{sub 1} becomes energy independent while {sigma}{sub 2} increases with {radical} (s) for {radical} (s) {ge}200 GeV. The observed growth of {l_angle}p{sub {perpendicular}}{r_angle} with multiplicity is attributed to the increasing role of multiparton collisions for the high-energy {bar p}p(pp)-inelastic interactions. {sigma}{sub 2+3} reproduces quite well the cross section for minijet production. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}

S. G. Matinyan

Papers

Model of charmonium absorption by light mesons

The role of double parton collisions in soft hadron interactions

Lasers as a bridge between atomic and nuclear physics

Thermalization and Lyapunov exponents in Yang-Mills-Higgs theory

Multiplicity distribution and mechanisms of the high-energy hadron collisions