[en] The author, the discoverer of the Cherenkov radiation, recalls some interesting circumstances of his discoery 50 years ago and puts it into the context of the knowledge of the period. The discovery of Cherenkov radiation which today is in practice used especially for the detection of charged particles, was correctly understood and appreciated somewhat belatedly. At first the discovery was met with distrust and the original article announcing it was rejected by the magazine Nature. In effect, the discovery was not the result of any planned experiment but was the by-product of another research. It was, of course, allowed by previous achievements in various fields of physics, namely progress reached in the study of luminescence by S.I. Vavilov and his pupils. The discovery was made during an experimental study of luminescence induced in liquids by the β and γ radiations of uranyl salts. During his attempts to suppress the background radiation from vessel walls the autor found a ''background'' from pure solvent which differed from luminescence by being independent of the concentration, temperature and viscosity of the liquid. A closer examination of the phenomenon more or less by accident revealed its marked spatial asymmetry which had major importance for the development of the theory of the new phenomenon by I.V. Tamm and I.M. Frank. (A.K.)

[en] Now approved and funded is the Japanese Super-Kamiokande project for a greatly enlarged underground neutrino detector. Costing 8.7 billion yen ($62 million), construction is getting underway now and will continue until early 1996

[en] The history of the discovery of the Vavilov-Cherenkov effect is outlined. Several important applications of the effect are discussed. (conferences and symposia)

[en] An analysis of spectral-angular characteristics of diffraction radiation, both incoherent and coherent, has been performed. It is shown that radiation processes can be interpreted as Cherenkov radiation, which is produced by a region of dynamic polarization moving along a target edge with superluminal velocity v_SL. Such radiation is generated if the condition v_SL > c is fulfilled, which is the conventional ‘threshold’ Cherenkov condition. (methodological notes)

No abstract available

No abstract available

[en] A new type of multi needle counter is described. Some main characteristics observed on prototypes are recalled. Its high multiplication factor associated with a photosensitive gas mixture made this detector a photon counter. The detection of a Cerenkov ring image produced by a single proton is related and demonstrates the ability of multi needle counter to solve imaging problems for simultaneous events. Development of a modular construction is suggested for large area detectors

[en] The attenuation of extensive air showers has been studied using atmospheric Cerenkov techniques. Observations over a range of zenith angles are correlated and an attenuation length of 234 +- 30 g cm^-2 obtained for showers with sea-level sizes of about 10⁶

No abstract available

No abstract available