Vector meson dominance -- Signs of vector meson dominance in the total photoabsorption cross section -- The shadowing effect in the compton scattering cross section -- The shadowing effect in deep inelastic lepton scattering -- The electromagnetic interaction of rhos -- Vector meson dominance and pointlike coupling of the photon in soft and hard processes -- Probing the short range behavior of nuclei with high PT photo- and electro-nuclear reactions -- Point-like interactions of photons in high PT photoproduction -- The Coulomb field of relativistic nuclei: An intense source of (almost) real photons -- Photon scattering as a tool for study of nucleon and nucleus structure -- Photon and pion scattering on the basis of quark models -- Pion photoproduction and Compton scattering in quark models -- Compton scattering off nucleons near threshold -- Eta photoproduction from nuclei -- Photonuclear reactions at intermediate energies -- Photonuclear reactions at intermediate energies by self-consistent RPA-SK3 continuum theory: The mean-field quasideuteron effect -- Dipole sum rule enhancement in nuclei.

The topics treated in this volume are intermediate and high-energy nuclear physics with real and virtual photons and the interplay between nuclear and particle physics. The first part, devoted to vector mesons, is also intended to explore the scientific perspectives of a new generation of electron accelerators. The second part is devoted to physics currently under study at intermediate-energy real-photon facilities with some emphasis on the Compton effect and its relation to quark models.