Table of contents

Feasible searches for anomalous processes involving New Physics in rare decays of K-mesons are considered. Discussed are searches for lepton flavor nonconservation in kaon decays, searches for anomalous scalar, pseudoscalar, and tensor interactions, and searches for nonstandard processes violating T- (or CP-) invariance in the decays of charged K-mesons. Considered also are searches for new light particles (the P-sgoldstino) in kaon decays and studies involving 'tagged' π⁰-mesons produced in K⁰_L→3π⁰ and K⁺→ π⁺π⁰ decays, as well as a number of other phenomena. The prospects of future experiments in this field being carried out at new experimental facilities are discussed.

Various conceptions on the structure of water are reviewed and different intermolecular interaction models underlying its description are discussed. To describe the structure of water, the method of integral equations for correlation functions borrowed from the theory of liquids is applied. Some numerical simulation results obtained with the Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics methods are also discussed in the context of water structural peculiarities.

It is argued that the most important result of applying the Born–Oppenheimer approximation to intramolecular dynamics is not the separation of electron and nuclear motions but the transition to the problem formulation in which the symmetry properties of the point group transformations characterizing a molecule in a chosen electron state can be correctly taken into account. It is shown that this group should be used as a rigorous symmetry group of total (electron–vibration–rotational) motion in this state.

The physical meaning of the Lorentz transformations is explained by deriving them (and the corresponding pseudo-Euclidean geometry) as transformations on a set of physical observables (or 'information space') obtained by observers in inertial reference frames equipped with frequency (i.e., unified time–length) standards.

A wealth of different expressions for the frequency of the Thomas precession (TP) can be found in the literature, with the consequence that this issue has been discussed over a long period of time. It is shown that the correct result was obtained in the works of several authors, which were published more than forty years ago but remained unnoticed against the background of numerous erroneous works. Several TP-related physical paradoxes formulated primarily to disprove the special relativity theory are shown to be fallacious. Different techniques for deriving the correct expression are considered and the reasons for the emergence of the main incorrect expressions for the TP frequency are analyzed.

A scientific session of the Physical Sciences Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) was held in the Conference Hall of the Lebedev Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, on 29 March 2006. The following reports were presented at the session:

(1) Bunkin A F, Nurmatov A A, Pershin S M (Wave Research Center at the Prokhorov General Physics Institute, RAS, Moscow) "Coherent four-photon spectroscopy of low- frequency molecular librations in a liquid"; (2) Simonenko V A (Russian Federal Nuclear Center — Zababakhin All-Russia Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics, Snezhinsk, Chelyabinsk region) "Nuclear explosions as a probing tool for high-intensity processes and extreme states of matter: some applications of results"; (3) Buchelnikov V D, Taskaev S V (Chelyabinsk State University), Vasiliev A N (Lomonosov Moscow State University), Koledov V V, Khovaylo V V, Shavrov V G (Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics, RAS, Moscow) "Magnetic shape-memory alloys: phase transitions and functional properties."

A brief presentation of the reports is given below. • Coherent four-photon spectroscopy of low-frequency molecular librations in a liquid, A F Bunkin, A A Nurmatov, S M Pershin Physics-Uspekhi, 2006, Volume 49, Number 8, • Nuclear explosions as a probing tool for high-intensity processes and extreme states of matter: some applications of results , V A Simonenko Physics-Uspekhi, 2006, Volume 49, Number 8, • Magnetic shape-memory alloys: phase transitions and functional properties, V D Buchel'nikov, A N Vasiliev, V V Koledov, S V Taskaev, V V Khovaylo, V G Shavrov Physics-Uspekhi, 2006, Volume 49, Number 8,