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With the advent of space observatories and modern developments in ground based astronomy and concurrent progress in the theoretical understanding of these observations it has become clear that accretion of material on to compact objects is an ubiquitous mechanism powering very diverse astrophysical sources ranging in size and luminosity by many orders of magnitude. A problem common to these systems is that the material accreted must in general get rid of its angular momentum and this leads to the formation of an Accretion Disk which allows angular momentum re-distribution and converts potential energy into radiation with an efficiency which can be higher than the nuclear burning yield. These...
As a result of significant research over the past 20 years, black holes are now linked to some of the most spectacular and exciting phenomena in the Universe, ranging in size from those that have the same mass as stars to the super-massive objects that lie at the heart of most galaxies, including our own Milky Way. This book first introduces the properties of simple isolated holes, then adds in complications like rotation, accretion, radiation, and magnetic fields, finally arriving at a basic understanding of how these immense engines work. Black Hole Astrophysics • reviews our current knowledge of cosmic black holes and how they generate the most powerful observed pheonomena in the Universe; • highlights the latest, most up-to-date theories and discoveries in this very active area of astrophysical research; • demonstrates why we believe that black holes are responsible for important phenomena such as quasars, microquasars and gammaray bursts; • explains to the reader the nature of the violent and spectacular outfl ows (winds and jets) generated by black hole accretion.
Accretion disks in astrophysics represent the characteristic flow by which compact bodies accrete mass from their environment. Their intrinsically high luminosity, and recent progress in observational accessibility at all wavelength bands, have led to rapidly growing awareness of their importance and made them the object of intense research on widely different scales, ranging from binary stars to young stellar objects and active galactic nuclei. This book contains the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Workshop on `Theory of Accretion Disks 2' for which some of the most active researchers in the different fields came together at the Max-Planck-Institut for Astrophysics in Garching in March, 1993. Its reviews and contributions give an up-to-date account of the present status of our understanding and provide a stimulating challenge in discussions of open questions in a rapidly developing field.
In 1993 we began to consider the possibility of holding a conference on Catacysmic Variables (CVs) at Keele University. There have been several meetings in the area of CVs recently (e. g. Eilat, Abano-Padova, Capetown). However as preparations for the Keele meeting progressed we realized that, while there had been a number of IAU meetings devoted to related and to peripheral topics (such as IAU Colloquium 122 on Classical Novae in 1989, IAU Colloquium 129 on Accretion Disks in 1990), there had been no IAU-sponsored conferences in the area of cataclysmi/: variables (CVs) for a number of years. We felt therefore that the time was ripe to have an IAU meeting de voted to an overview of CVs and r...
In May 1986 a two-day workshop on Physical Processes in Comets, Stars and Active Galaxies was held at the Ringberg Castle near Lake Tegernsee, and this rather unusml. l collection of topics needs a few words of explanation. When we first thought of organizing a workshop on such a large variety of astrophysical objects our main motivation was to honor Rudolf Kippenhahn and Hermann Ulrich Schmidt on the occasion of their 60th birthdays, and we planned to cover at least a fraction of their fields of active research. We then realized immediately that despite the fact that the objects are so different, the physical processes involved are very much the same, and that it is this aspect of astrophys...
The observational evidence for the existence of black holes has grown significantly over recent decades. Stellar-mass black holes are detected as X-ray sources in binary systems, while supermassive black holes, with masses more than a million times the mass of the Sun, lurk in the nuclei of galaxies. These proceedings provide a useful and up-to-date overview of the observations of black holes in binaries, in the center of the Milky Way, and in the nuclei of galaxies, presented by leading expert astronomers. Special attention is given to the formation (including the recent evidence from gamma-ray bursts), physical properties, and demographics of black holes.
Cataclysmic Variables (CVs) are well furnished laboratories in which one can investigate a number of important physical processes. These processes include: thermonuclear reactions, nebular physics, winds, mass accretion phenomena on compact objects, magnetohydrodynamics, plasmas, thermal and non thermal radiative processes, relativistic phenomena, dust forma tion, etc . . In the recent year the most exciting development in our opinion was that the small, cold and invisible secondary components of CV s were found to be the prime motors for the evolution of close binary systems, disclosing new scenarios for research. All branches of astronomy and as trophysics often take advantage of the new i...
This text presents numerous illustrations of the observed variability of cataclysmic variable stars. It provides a clear explanation and thorough up-to-date overview of this phenomena at a level accessible to the advanced amateur or undergraduate student.
Proceeding of the European Physical Society Study Conference, held in Noto (Sicily), Italy, June 16-20, 1988
The book reviews the present status of understanding the nature of the most luminous objects in the Universe, connected with supermassive black holes and supermassive stars, clusters of galaxies and ultraluminous galaxies, sources of gamma-ray bursts and relativistic jets. Leading experts give overviews of essential physical mechanisms involved, discuss formation and evolution of these objects as well as prospects for their use in cosmology, as probes of the intergalactic medium at high redshifts and as a tool to study the end of dark ages. The theoretical models are complemented by new exciting results from orbital and ground-based observatories such as Chandra, XMM-Newton, HST, SDSS, VLT, Keck, and many others.