Collective Phenonema in the Interaction of Radiation with Matter

The aim of this communication is to present in a concentrated form the main ideas of a method, developed by the author, for treating strongly nonequilibrium collective phenomena typical of the interaction of radiation with matter, as well as to give a survey of several applications of the method. The latter is called the Scale Separation Approach since its basic techniques rely on the possibility of separating different space-time scales in nonequilibrium statistical systems. This approach is rather general and can be applied to diverse physical problems, several of which are discussed here. These problems are: Superradiance of nuclear spins, filamentation in resonant media, semiconfinement of neutral atoms, negative electric current, and collective liberation of light.