Structural and Relativistic Effects in the Theory of Energy Losses and Other Atomic Scattering Processes.

Some relativistic effects in the theory of energy losses and other atomic ionization processes are investigated in this thesis. A general formula for the scattering cross section incorporating the charge and magnetic moment distributions as well as the arbitrary polarization of the incident particle is obtained. For the energy losses of extreme relativistic (alpha)-particles in matter, the structural effects amount to a reduction of about 6 - 8% in the value of the stopping power. For the K electron ionization process by protons, both the structural and the polarization effects are found to be completely negligible; however, the transverse and spin-flip effects are quite significant in calculations of the stopping power for high energy projectiles and very heavy targets. In addition, in the course of investigation of the energy losses of stellar neutrinos, an error in an old result by Bethe has been discovered and corrected. Some possible future investigations are discussed in the concluding part of the thesis.