Directions of heavy ion research at low and intermediate energies

Recent developments and advances in heavy ion research at low and intermediate energies are reviewed. Emphasis is layed on the progress of accelerator technology, especially in producing high phase space density heavy ion beams in cooler-storage rings. A report is presented on some selected topics of current interest in nuclear structure research such as the production of super-heavy elements, the excitation of multi-phonon vibrational states and giant-dipole resonances. Nuclear dynamics studies from the Coulomb barrier to relativistic energies will be addressed including the production of dense heated and excited nuclear matter and the study of the properties of hadrons in such a medium. Finally, some atomic physics experiments with heavy ions will be presented with emphasis on quasi-atomic e+e- pair production. (orig.)