Head of the chair - academician A.V. Gurevich Dear friends! We invite you to the Chair of Problems of physics and astrophysics DGAP MIPT. It was established in 1968 by the academician Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg, the foreign member of Academies of the USA, Denmark, India, Sweden and a number of other countries. He is the author of classical works on the theory of superconductivity and thermonuclear reactions, the theory of propagation of radiowaves in ionosphere and ferroelectric phenomena, the theory of an origin of cosmic rays, optics and theory of radiation. So, awarding the Nobel Prize for 2003 to him was perceived by all as the long time expected though also overdue recognition of his merits. During these years the Chair was graduated by more than 200 men, many of which in the present time work in the largest research centers of Russia, more than 40 of them have academic degree of the doctor of physics and mathematics. One can meet our graduates in a lot of leading universities of Europe and America. Having chosen our Chair, you'll be able to touch the surprising world of theoretical physics, which has literally played one of the most appreciable roles in the history of the 20th century. Indeed, all course of the last century has shown convincingly exclusive fruitfulness of a theoretical method of researches. Rapid development of aircraft and cosmonautics, modern developments in the field of electronics and communication facilities, creation of nuclear and hydrogen weapon - all these directions substantially started with purely theoretical researches and only then have found practical application and were lead to engineering computation. On the other hand, the doubtless success of the deductive theories, such as Einstein's general theory of relativity, has resulted in an essential reconsideration of foundations of the theoretical method. Basing only on the most general principles, which a consecutive theory should satisfy to, instead of an observational analysis, a possibility to receive answers to key questions has resulted in the appearance of absolutely new, frequently extremely abstract areas of theoretical physics using the advanced branches of mathematics. However, it has appeared (and it is that one more lesson of the last century) theory allowed to explain only a part of the observable phenomena. As soon as it began to seem we approach the complete consecutive description of the nature, new experiments, connected with rapid development of engineering, once again moved away an ultimate aim over the horizon of our knowledge of the environmental world. In other words, actually theory and experiment constantly were traded places offering each other newer and newer tasks. So was on the boundary of the 19th and the 20th centuries when an impossibility to explain some properties of thermal radiation, propagation of light and movement of planets resulted in creation of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity. Probably, even now we live in similar epoch, as literally during the last years new astrophysical observations have made a revolution in our understanding of foundations of the modern natural science. It turned out, that a density of the visible (baryon) matter amount to only some percent from the complete density of substance in the Universe. At the same time, the nature of an invisible substance itself, properties of which must differ fundamentally from properties of the usual one, is completely unknown now. Thus, now, as well as in the beginning of the 20th century, theorists are thrown down the next serious challenge. And new young generation (i.e. simply you) should accept it, since the young people make basic discoveries in theoretical physics, as experience shows. The Chair is based in I.E. Tamm Theory Department of P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, which has already been more than 70 years one of the leading world centers of theoretical physics. It is enough to tell that besides V.L. Ginzburg two Nobel Prize winners worked in the Department - its founder I.E. Tamm and A.D. Sakharov. Now 4 academicians (V.L. Ginzburg, A.V. Gurevich, L.V. Keldysh and E.L. Feinberg), 2 corresponding members (V.I. Ritus and V.Ya. Fainberg), about 30 doctors and 30 candidates of sciences work here. By the way, 20 employees of the Department, including the present director M.A. Vasiliev, finished our Chair. The uniqueness of the Department is that almost all directions of theoretical physics are produced here, beginning from classical ones (physics of solids, superconductivity, physics of elementary particles) and finishing in directions finally formed only during the last decades (theoretical astrophysics, quantum cosmology, biophysics, modern areas of the theory of fundamental interactions and quantum field theory). In particular, it also defines an extremely wide circle of areas, which students entering our Chair can specialize in. Our basic researches are: Relativistic astrophysics Astrophysics of compact objects Physics of pulsars and active galactic nuclei Electrodynamics of neutron stars and black holes Puzzle of magnitaurs and sources of gamma-bursts Modern problems of cosmology Dark matter, dark energy, its influence on dynamics of the Universe Formation of the large-scale structure of the Universe Microlensing and its connection with the existence of dark matter Cosmic rays Problem of an origin and propagation of cosmic rays X-ray and gamma-astronomy Modern problems of the theory of condensed matter Problem of high-temperature superconductivity Superconductors with heavy fermions Coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity Mesoscopic superconductivity Theory of strongly correlated systems Theory of semiconductor heterostructures Density functional: accounts of properties of solids Wavelets and its use for the analysis of physical processes Quantum field theory General principles of quantization of gauge theories Non-local quantum field theories Quantum electrodynamics in intensive external fields Quantum gravity and cosmology Unified theories of interaction of elementary particles Higher spins theory Non-commutative geometries and field theories String theory and precisely solvable models of quantum field theory Quantum chromodynamics and interaction of high-energy particles Another extremely important feature of the Department is the surprising atmosphere of creativity and mutual respect, which the students from the very beginning of study on base chair get in. Incorporated by the founding fathers of the Department, this atmosphere is carefully supported up to the present. From the 4th course each student already has a research manager – a leading expert in his area. Research work is the basic criterion of an assessment of the student's work. Therefore it's not surprisingly that very often the 1st printed work of the students of our Chair occurs already on the 4th course and by end of the 6th course students, having already some printed works, actively participate in the work of all-Russia and international conferences. Thus, at our Chair the basic principle of the MIPT education system is realized in the most complete measure, it allows to proceed smoothly to the real research work when the education process is over. At last, it is not out of place to note that all the students advanced in study and post-graduate students of the chair receive an additional scholarship, essentially exceeding university one. Nowadays there are two basic ways to get at the Chair. First of all, it is possible to choose our Chair at once, entering the Department of General and Applied Physics. Besides, it is possible to pass an entrance exam, which is carried out in spring semester (in March or April) for the students of all departments of MIPT. It is carried out basically for the 2nd year students, but there exist an entrance possibility for the 4th and even the 5th year students. So, we wait for you at the Chair of Problems of physics and astrophysics DGAP MIPT. We heartily wish you successes! The information about the Theory Department is on the page  www.tamm.lpi.ru Our address: 119991, Moscow, Leninsky prospect, 53 Deputy head of the Chair - Vasily Semenovich Beskin (: 132-6426,  *: beskin@lpi.ru