The project is aimed at the investigation of femtosecond collisional and radiative phenomena during the interaction of atomic systems with particle beams and intense laser pulses, respectively. Short-time dynamics of atomic systems interacting with non-stationary perturbers are intensively studied presently in atomic collision physics and spectroscopy of multi-photon ionisation of atoms.

The research activity includes the following directions:
Experimental and theoretical studies of single- and multi-electron rearrangement processes in ion-ion collisions.
Experimental and theoretical studies of electron correlations in electron-ion collisions.
Studies of rearrangement processes in molecular and quasi-molecular systems: associative ionisation and dissociative recombination
Theoretical and experimental investigation of the interaction of intense laser pulses with atoms and molecules .

Qualitatively, the analogy in the behaviour of atomic systems in external fields created by strong laser pulses and in atomic collisions, respectively, is well understood. However, there is an obvious gap in the understanding of the femtosecond dynamics of the processes specified above. The aim of the project is to bridge this interdisciplinary gap by detailed experimental studies in each of the specified directions and by developing novel theoretical approaches powerful enough to cover both areas. This activity will extend the knowledge in each of the fields by obtaining new and important experimental data for a wide class of atomic and molecular processes. The present project will result in the creation of a unified physical picture of electron correlations and rearrangements in atomic and molecular systems strongly interacting with non-stationary perturbers.

The results to be obtained will significantly extend the existing national and international atomic, molecular and optical databases. The analysis of the interaction of ultra-short and ultra-intense laser pulses with matter on the level of atomic processes is urgently needed in laser physics and related technologies.