Current topics in high-energy ion-atom collisions

In a large number of laboratories, ion-atom collisions can now be investigated experimentally at high collision energies. By high energy it is usually understood that the projectile velocity considerably exceeds all electronic orbital velocities occurring in either projectile or target. In a few cases experimental investigations have even been carried into the relativistic velocity regime. From the theoretical point of view, high-energy collisions are simpler to describe in some respects, because many of the finer details of atomic structure do not contribute or are currently not measurable. The author summarizes some of the results that have recently been obtained