Table of contents

The current understanding of mass exchange processes between close binary system (CBS) components is reviewed, with particular attention on the mass flow structure and accretion disk physics. Using 3D MHD calculation results, the variation of key accretion disk characteristics with the accretor magnetic field is studied and the magnetic field generation process is analyzed. In particular, it is shown that the quasi-periodic process of toroidal magnetic field generation in disks results in alternating accretion and decretion regimes in the inner regions of the disk. By treating MHD flows in CBSs self-consistently, disk formation conditions are established and a separation criterion between intermediate-polar and polar flows is found. The possibility of using MHD simulation results for explaining observations is discussed.

The breaking up of comets into separate pieces, each with its own tail, was seen many times by astronomers of the past. The phenomenon was in sharp contrast to the idea of the eternal and unchangeable celestial firmament and was commonly believed to be an omen of impending disaster, especially for comets with tails stretching across half the sky. It is only now that we have efficient enough space exploration tools to see comet nuclei and even – in the particular case of small comet Hartley-2 in 2010 – to watch their disintegration stage. There are also other suspected candidates for disintegration in the vast family of comet nuclei and other Solar System bodies.

Linear coupling of electromagnetic waves in weakly inhomogeneous non-one-dimensional media is considered as a manifestation of the polarization degeneracy of the Maxwell equations. It is shown that the presence of two polarization-degenerate normal waves imposes strong constraints on the dielectric tensor components near the interaction region. As a result, the possible types of linear wave coupling and the corresponding wave equations admit a universal classification, which is independent of the way in which the linear medium is modeled.

The functional Pais equation for scattering phases with nonzero orbital momenta is solved in the case of low-energy particles. For short-range screened potentials, in particular, Yukawa or Thomas-Fermi potentials, the Pais equation is shown to reduce to transcendental equations. For the potentials varying , , simple algebraic equations are obtained for determining the phases , . Possible applications of the Pais approximation to the problem of finding resonance regimes in the scattering of low-energy particles with nonzero orbital momenta are discussed.

On 25 May 2011, the scientific session of the Physical Sciences Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), devoted to the 90th anniversary of Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov's birthday, was held at the conference hall of the Lebedev Physical Institute, RAS. The agenda of the session announced on the website www.gpad.ac.ru of the PSD RAS contains the following reports:

(1) Mesyats G A (Lebedev Physical Institute, RAS, Moscow) "Introduction. Greetings";

(2) Ritus V I (Lebedev Physical Institute, RAS, Moscow) "A D Sakharov: personality and fate";

(3) Altshuler B L (Lebedev Physical Institute, RAS, Moscow) "Scientific and public legacy of A D Sakharov today";

(4) Ilkaev R I (Russian Federal Nuclear Center 'All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics', Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod region) "The path of a genius: Sakharov at KB-11";

(5) Novikov I D (Astrocosmic Center, Lebedev Physical Institute, RAS, Moscow) "Wormholes and the multielement Universe";

(6) Azizov E A (National Research Centre 'Kurchatov Institute', Moscow) "Tokamaks: 60 years later";

(7) Kardashev N S (Astrocosmic Center, Lebedev Physical Institute, RAS, Moscow) "Cosmic interferometers";

(8) Lukash V I (Lebedev Physical Institute, RAS, Moscow) "From the cosmological model to the Hubble flux formation";

(9) Grishchuk L P (Shternberg State Astronomical Institute, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow; School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom) "Cosmological Sakharov oscillations and quantum mechanics of the early Universe".

Articles based on reports 2-4, 6, 8, and 9 are published below. The content of report 5 is close to papers "Multicomponent Universe and astrophysics of wormholes" by I D Novikov, N S Kardashev, A A Shatskii [Phys. Usp. 50 965 (2007)] and "Dynamic model of a wormhole and the Multiuniverse model" by A A Shatskii, I D Novikov, N S Kardashev [Phys. Usp.51 457 (2008)]. The content of report 7 is close to the paper "Radioastron – a radio telescope much larger than the Earth: scientific program" by N S Kardashev [Phys. Usp.52 1127 (2009)]. • A D Sakharov: personality and fate, V I Ritus Physics-Uspekhi, 2012, Volume 55, Number 2, Pages 170–175 • Andrei Sakharov today: lasting impact on science and society, B L Altshuler Physics-Uspekhi, 2012, Volume 55, Number 2, Pages 176–182 • Sakharov at KB-11. The path of a genius, R I Ilkaev Physics-Uspekhi, 2012, Volume 55, Number 2, Pages 183–189 • Tokamaks: from A D Sakharov to the present (the 60-year history of tokamaks), E A Azizov Physics-Uspekhi, 2012, Volume 55, Number 2, Pages 190–203 • From the Cosmological Model to the generation of the Hubble flow, V N Lukash, E V Mikheeva, V N Strokov Physics-Uspekhi, 2012, Volume 55, Number 2, Pages 204–209 • Cosmological Sakharov oscillations and quantum mechanics of the early Universe, L P Grishchuk Physics-Uspekhi, 2012, Volume 55, Number 2, Pages 210–216

A D Sakharov was an amazingly gifted person for whom, with his combined talents as a physicist and inventor, "physical laws and the relation among phenomena were directly visualized and tangible in all their inherent simplicity" (I E Tamm). The author of the key ideas involved in the hydrogen weapons and fusion reactor programs, and well aware of his scientific and public status, Sakharov was, nevertheless, a modest and highly decent man, always trustful of people in discussing their or his problems. Although his greatest satisfaction lay in successfully solving fundamental problems in physics and cosmology, fate and duty made him turn to matters of universal human significance, particularly human rights, to the gruelling struggle to which he devoted many years of his life.

The 20-year period of 1948-1968, during which Andrei D Sakharov crucially contributed to the creation of the Soviet nuclear shield, was followed by the same length of time from 1969 to 1989, when he was no less patriotic in his human rights activities and in his efforts to save humankind from self-destruction in a thermonuclear war. When free of these commitments, Sakharov always turned to his favorite pastime, theoretical physics, where, working on the 'roadside' (to use his own words), he obtained a number of results of continuing importance. Some of these are described in this talk, as are Sakharov's actions and approaches, highly nontrivial and still relevant today, to solving the problems of major public concern.

21 May 2011 would have marked the 90th birthday of Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, a towering 20th-century figure in science and human thought, whose ideas, research contributions, and life example exerted enormous influence on the history of the second half of the 20th century and, in particular, on the history of Russia. Whether as a scientist or a private person (including his public activities and exceptional attitude to human personality), he always displayed creativity and a freedom of spirit, thought, and action. Sakharov's life and creative work make him a model scientist and citizen for many and undoubtedly provide a legacy for the development of science and society in the 21st century. In this paper, some of Sakharov's key ideas and achievements relating to his KB-11 period are exemplified, and how they influence present day research and technology, notably as employed for affording national security, is examined.

The paper is prepared on the basis of the report presented at the session of the Physical Sciences Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) at the Lebedev Physical Institute, RAS on 25 May 2011, devoted to the 90-year jubilee of Academician Andrei D Sakharov – the initiator of controlled nuclear fusion research in the USSR. The 60-year history of plasma research work in toroidal devices with a longitudinal magnetic field suggested by Andrei D Sakharov and Igor E Tamm in 1950 for the confinement of fusion plasma and known at present as tokamaks is described in brief. The recent (2006) agreement among Russia, the EU, the USA, Japan, China, the Republic of Korea, and India on the joint construction of the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) in France based on the tokamak concept is discussed. Prospects for using the tokamak as a thermonuclear (14 MeV) neutron source are examined.

This paper reviews various approaches to the question (pioneered by Sakharov) of how the observed Hubble flow forms. By extrapolating the Cosmological Standard Model to the past, the geometrical properties of and conditions in the early Universe are determined. A new cosmogenesis paradigm based on geodesically complete black/white hole geometries with an integrable singularity is discussed.

This is a brief summary of a talk delivered at the Special Session of the Physical Sciences Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 25 May 2011. The meeting was devoted to the 90th anniversary of the birth of A D Sakharov. The focus of this contribution is on the standing-wave pattern of quantum-mechanically generated metric (gravitational field) perturbations as the origin of subsequent Sakharov oscillations in the matter power spectrum. Other related phenomena, particularly in the area of gravitational waves, and their observational significance are also discussed.

Gennady Nikolaevich Kulipanov, Deputy Director of Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and Director of the Siberian Synchrotron and Terahertz Radiation Centre, Full Member of the RAS, celebrated his 70th birthday on January 25, 2012.