“Atomic Bremsstrahlung”: Retrospectives, current status and perspectives

We describe here the “Atomic bremsstrahlung” (AB)-emission of continuous spectrum electromagnetic radiation, which is generated in collisions of particles that have internal deformable structure that includes positively and negatively charged constituents. The deformation of one or both colliding partners induces multiple, mainly dipole, time-dependent electrical moments that become a source of radiation. The history of AB invention is presented and its unusual in comparison to ordinary bremsstrahlung (OB) properties, are discussed. As examples, fast electron atom, non-relativistic and relativistic collisions are considered. Attention is given to ion-atom and atom-atom collisions. Specifics of “elastic” and “inelastic” (i.e. radiation accompanied by destruction of collision partners) AB will be mentioned. Attention will be given to possible manifestation of AB in nature and in some exotic systems, for instance scattering of electrons upon muonic hydrogen. Some cooperative effects connected to AB will be considered. New classical schemes similar to AB will be presented.