Coherence effects in atomic impact processes

The author considers excitation of target atoms by projectile particles and the coincident detection of the scattered projectiles and the photons emitted in the subsequent decay by the target atoms. The observation is restricted to radiation emitted by those atoms only which 'scattered' the projectiles with a given energy in a given direction defined by the particle detector. Thus, a certain subensemble of atoms is selected in the experiment. The author reviews the theoretical scheme used for the description of the excited subensemble with the emphasis on the coherence properties. The author reviews developments of the Fano-Macek theory concerning the description of coherently excited states with different angular momenta and parities. A comprehensive expression for the angular distribution of the emitted radiation, including all possible interference terms is given. (Auth.)