Modern theory of plasma-cathode interaction in high-pressure arc discharges and perspectives of its application to cathode spots in vacuum arcs

Understanding of cathode phenomena in high-pressure arc discharges has considerably improved during the last decade due to effort invested by researchers from several countries. This talk is concerned with a review of present understanding of cathodes of high-pressure arcs, with an emphasis on theoretical and modeling aspects and on perspectives of transfer of the results to vacuum arcs.