The nature of third continua in rare gases

The studies on third continua in rare gases carried out over the last decad e are considered. The comprehensive analysis of the available experimental data confirms our earlier interpretation of the nature of third continua: w hen dense rare gases (at a pressure on the order of and higher than one atm osphere) are excited with a hard ionizer (electron or ion beams or short-wa velength photons), the dominant contribution to the emission of third conti nua comes from transitions of singly charged dimer ions from the first elec tronically excited bound states to repulsive states correlated with the gro und electronic states of ions and atoms.