Applied Physics and Mathematics Annotation << Back Cascade degradation processes Part 1. Cascade degradation processes: the energy aspects V.A. Nikerov The energy aspects of the theory of cascade degradation processes, which describe the highly non-equilibrium phenomena, characterized by the particles power energy distributions, are considered and summarized. First of all the consideration concerns the processes associated with the streams and beams of electrons and other electrically charged and neutral particles, the nuclear and chemical reactions, the plasma processes, phenomena on the cleavages, etc. Cascade degradation processes play an important role in medical and environmental physics, nanoelectronics and nanotechnology, physics of low-dimensional systems, plasma physics and chemistry, high-energy chemistry, physics and chemistry of laser systems, molecular and nuclear physics, astrophysics, physics of the upper atmosphere, solid state physics and microelectronics. The degradation equation for asymmetric flows in the energy space is formulated. The relationship and differences of degradation equation from the kinetic equation are shown. The general characteristic solutions for a wide range of applications and the corresponding particle energy distribution functions are obtained. The advantages of degradation equation compared with the kinetic equation that appear when considering highly non-equilibrium processes are shown. The main advantage is the consideration possibility of the particles multiplication or disappearance, as well as transformation of one particle to another. Another useful feature of the degradation equation compared with the kinetic equation is the smooth shape of its solutions, which opens wide opportunities for optimization and analytical solutions of the complex problems. As an example of such opportunities, the smart classical degradation problem concerning the fast electrons ionization cascade in a various media is considered. The problem is analytically solved with the help of consequent consideration of primary, secondary, etc. electrons energy degradation in cascade. Keywords: cascade processes, degradation processes, degradation spectrum, particle energy distribution function, kinetic equation, power and exponential distributions Contacts: E-mail: Vnikerov@hse.ru Pp. 26-46.