This book is devoted to one of the most active domains of atomic physic-
atomic physics of heavy positive ions. During the last 30 years, this
terrain has attracted enormous attention from both experimentalists and
theoreti- cians. On the one hand, this interest is stimulated by rapid
progress in the development of laboratory ion sources, storage rings,
ion traps and methods for ion cooling. In many laboratories, a
considerable number of complex and accurate experiments have been
initiated, challenging new frontiers. Highly charged ions are used for
investigations related to fundamental research and to more applied
fields such as controlled nuclear fusion driven by heavy ions and its
diagnostics, ion-surface interaction, physics of hollow atoms, x-ray
lasers, x-ray spectroscopy, spectrometry of ions in storage rings and
ion traps, biology, and medical therapy. On the other hand, the new
technologies have stimulated elaborate theo- retical investigations,
especially in developing QED theory, relativistic many- body techniques,
plasma-kinetic modeling based on the Coulomb interactions of highly
charged ions with photons and various atomic particles - electrons,
atoms, molecules and ions. The idea of assembling this book matured
while the editors were writ- ing another book, X-Ray Radiation of Highly
Charged Ions by H. F. Beyer, H. -J. Kluge and V. P. Shevelko (Springer,
Berlin, Heidelberg 1997) covering a broad range of x-ray and other
radiative phenomena central to atomic physics with heavy ions.