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'Quasar Absorption Lines' is a comprehensive, detailed exposition on the science and analysis of quasar spectra in two volumes, for both aspiring and seasoned astronomers. This Volume 1: 'Introduction, Discoveries, and Methods' covers the evolution of the field of quasar spectroscopy over the six decades since quasars were discovered, including the development and application of observational methods and the knowledge gained from them. The broad treatment includes studies of the Ly α forest, Lyman limit systems, damped Ly α absorbers, deuterium (D/H), 21-cm absorbers, HI and HeII reionization, the warm/hot intergalactic medium, and the multiple ionization phases of metal lines. The connections between these absorbers and galaxies (the circumgalactic medium), galaxy groups (the intragroup medium), and clusters of galaxies (the intracluster medium) are treated in depth. Also covered are the taxonomy and classifications of AGN/quasar spectra, black hole accretion, broad and narrow associated absorption lines, and the quasar circumgalactic medium.
'Quasar Absorption Lines' is a comprehensive, detailed exposition on the science and analysis of quasar spectra in two volumes, for both aspiring and seasoned astronomers. This Volume 2: 'Astrophysics, Analysis, and Modeling' describes atomic transitions of hydrogenic and multi-electron ions, the theoretical foundation and practical application of the ΛCDM cosmological model, and radiative transfer from cosmological sources. The theory of spectrographs and the mathematical formalism and quantitative analysis of spectral absorption lines and ionization breaks are treated in detail, including column density measurements, line deblending, and Voigt profile fitting. The philosophies, methods, and techniques of large absorption line surveys are presented, including methods for correcting incompleteness and for measuring accurate absorber population statistics. Gas physics, heating/cooling, and ionization are also covered, followed by detailed methods for undertaking multi-component, multiphase chemical-ionization modeling.
Presenting a concise overview of astrophysical concepts, the second edition of this textbook bridges the gap between introductory astronomy books and advanced astrophysics texts. Designed for one-semester astrophysics courses, the textbook is aimed at science and engineering students with college-level calculus-based physics. The new edition features both revisions and additions, with the extension of topics such as luminosity distance and the inclusion of notable developments such as the James Webb and Roman Space Telescopes. As before, the chapters are organized into five parts, covering: stellar properties; stellar structure and evolution; the interstellar medium and star/planet formation; our Milky Way and other galaxies; and cosmology. The exposition guides students toward a comprehensive fundamental understanding, using 'Quick Questions' to spur practice in basic computations, and multi-part exercises that offer a greater challenge. The solutions to the questions are freely accessible online, with exercise solutions and lecture slides available for instructors.
The proceedings of IAU Symposium 393 bring together leading voices in planetary science, exoplanet research, and astrobiology, with a special focus on discoveries enabled by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Topics covered include atmospheric characterization of exoplanets, detection of biosignatures, the dynamics of protoplanetary disks, and studies of Solar System bodies such as comets and Kuiper Belt objects. This volume also highlights international initiatives in public engagement and education, demonstrating how planetary science is expanding globally and becoming more inclusive. Featuring insights from researchers and educators across multiple continents, this collection captures the multidisciplinary essence of planetary exploration and the search for life beyond Earth. It is a valuable resource for astronomers, planetary scientists, astrobiologists, and educators who wish to understand the scientific breakthroughs and collaborative spirit driving a new era of discovery.
Thirty years on from the discovery of the first exoplanets, our focus is now turning to the search for signs of possible life on these worlds through the detection of atmospheric biosignatures. In parallel, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and technosignatures is being revolutionised as the new era of time-domain survey astronomy gets underway. Together with new planetary science missions within the Solar System, the search for life beyond Earth is entering a new data-rich era. But, when the discoveries come, what will they mean and how should they be communicated to the scientific community and wider society in the era of social media and fake news? This volume distils the latest multi-disciplinary perspectives, encompassing the nature of life in a cosmic context, astronomical search methods and interpretative frameworks, as well as insights into the cultural and societal impacts of such a high-profile discovery.
Although the field of celestial dynamics – the application of Newtonian dynamics to systems with a relatively small number of celestial bodies – is centuries old, it has been reinvigorated by the discovery of thousands of exoplanetary systems orbiting other stars. This textbook uses the properties of planetary systems, including own Solar System, to illustrate the rich variety of behavior permitted by Newton's law of gravity. The textbook then expands its view to examine stellar dynamics – the study of systems containing a very large number of stars or other celestial bodies. The different techniques used for celestial dynamics and stellar dynamics are compared and contrasted. However, throughout the text, emphasis is placed on the underlying physics that applies on scales as small as the Earth–Moon system and as large as a cluster of galaxies. It is ideal for a 1-semester astrophysical dynamics course for upper-level undergraduates and starting graduate students.
The N-body problem has been investigated since Isaac Newton, however vast tracts of the problem remain open. Showcasing the vibrancy of the problem, this book describes four open questions and explores progress made over the last 20 years. After a comprehensive introduction, each chapter focuses on a different open question, highlighting how the stance taken and tools used vary greatly depending on the question. Progress on question one, 'Are the central configurations finite?', uses tools from algebraic geometry. Two, 'Are there any stable periodic orbits?', is dynamical and requires some understanding of the KAM theorem. The third, 'Is every braid realised?', requires topology and variational methods. The final question, 'Does a scattered beam have a dense image?', is quite new and formulating it precisely takes some effort. An excellent resource for students and researchers of mathematics, astronomy, and physics interested in exploring state-of-the-art techniques and perspectives on this classical problem.
Research applications of complex systems and nonlinear physics are rapidly expanding across various scientific disciplines. A common theme among them is the concept of “self-organized criticality systems”, which this volume presents in detail for observed astrophysical phenomena, such as solar flares, coronal mass ejections, solar energetic particles, solar wind, stellar flares, magnetospheric events, planetary systems, galactic and black-hole systems. The author explores fundamental questions: Why do power laws, the hallmarks of self-organized criticality, exist? What power law index is predicted for each astrophysical phenomenon? Which size distributions have universality? What can waiting time distributions tell us about random processes? This is the first monograph that tests comprehensively astrophysical observations of self-organized criticality systems for students, post-docs, and researchers. A highlight is a paradigm shift from microscopic concepts, such as the traditional cellular automaton algorithms, to macroscopic concepts formulated in terms of physical scaling laws.
Present-day elliptical, spiral and irregular galaxies are large systems made of stars, gas and dark matter. Their properties result from a variety of physical processes that have occurred during the nearly fourteen billion years since the Big Bang. This comprehensive textbook, which bridges the gap between introductory and specialized texts, explains the key physical processes of galaxy formation, from the cosmological recombination of primordial gas to the evolution of the different galaxies that we observe in the Universe today. In a logical sequence, the book introduces cosmology, illustrates the properties of galaxies in the present-day Universe, then explains the physical processes behind galaxy formation in the cosmological context, taking into account the most recent developments in this field. The text ends on how to find distant galaxies with multi-wavelength observations, and how to extract the physical and evolutionary properties based on imaging and spectroscopic data.
General relativity is a subject that most undergraduates in physics are particularly curious about, but it has a reputation for being very difficult. This book provides as gentle an introduction to general relativity as possible, leading you through the necessary mathematics in order to arrive at important results. Of course, you cannot avoid the mathematics of general relativity altogether, but, using this book, you can gain an appreciation of tensors and differential geometry at a pace you can keep up with. Early chapters build up to a complete derivation of Einstein's Equations, while the final chapters cover the key applications on black holes, cosmology and gravitational waves. It is designed as a coursebook with just enough material to cover in a one-semester undergraduate class, but it is also accessible to any numerate readers who wish to appreciate the power and beauty of Einstein's creation for themselves.
Stellar Structure and Evolution, the second volume in the Ohio State Astrophysics Series, takes advantage of our new era of stellar astrophysics, in which modern techniques allow us to map the interiors of stars in unprecedented detail. This textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students aims to develop a broad physical understanding of the fundamental principles that dictate stellar properties. The study of stellar evolution focuses on the 'life cycle' of stars: how they are born, how they live, and how they die. As elements ejected by one generation of stars are incorporated into the next generation, stellar evolution is intertwined with the chemical evolution of our galaxy. Focusing on key physical processes without going into encyclopedic depth, the authors present stellar evolution in a contemporary context, including phenomena such as pulsations, mass loss, binary interactions, and rotation, which contribute to our understanding of stars.
Case Studies in Star Formation offers an overview of our current observational and theoretical understanding in the molecular astronomy of star formation. The book is divided into six sections: the first introduces an overview of star formation and the essential language, concepts and tools specific to molecular astronomy studies. Each subsequent section focuses on individual sources, beginning with a description of large-scale surveys. The volume covers low- and high mass star formation, ionization and photodissociation regions, and concludes with the extragalactic perspective. Conventional textbooks begin with principles, ending with a few convenient examples. Through copious examples, Case Studies reflects the reality of research, which requires the creative matching of ongoing observations to theory and vice-versa, often raising as many questions as answers. This supplementary study guide enables graduate students and early researchers to bridge the gap between textbooks and the wealth of research literature.
This new graduate textbook adopts a pedagogical approach to contemporary cosmology that enables readers to build an intuitive understanding of theory and data, and of how they interact, which is where the greatest advances in the field are currently being made. Using analogies, intuitive explanations of complex topics, worked examples and computational problems, the book begins with the physics of the early universe, and goes on to cover key concepts such as inflation, dark matter and dark energy, large‑scale structure, and cosmic microwave background. Computational and data analysis techniques, and statistics, are integrated throughout the text, particularly in the chapters on late-universe cosmology, while another chapter is entirely devoted to the basics of statistical methods. A solutions manual for end-of-chapter problems is available to instructors, and suggested syllabi, based on different course lengths and emphasis, can be found in the Preface. Online computer code and datasets enhance the student learning experience.
Written by an international leader in the field, this is a coherent and accessible account of the concepts that are now vital for understanding cutting-edge work on supermassive black holes. These include accretion disc misalignment, disc breaking and tearing, chaotic accretion, the merging of binary supermassive holes, the demographics of supermassive black holes, and the defining effects of feedback on their host galaxies. The treatment is largely analytic and gives in-depth discussions of the underlying physics, including gas dynamics, ideal and non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics, force-free electrodynamics, accretion disc physics, and the properties of the Kerr metric. It stresses aspects where conventional assumptions may be inappropriate and encourages the reader to think critically about current models. This volume will be useful for graduate or Masters courses in astrophysics, and as a handbook for active researchers in the field. eBook formats include colour figures while print formats are greyscale only.
The mystery of gravity has captivated us for centuries. But what is gravity and how does it work? This engaging book delves into the bizarre and often counter-intuitive world of gravitational physics. Join distinguished astrophysicist Professor Luciano Rezzolla on this virtual journey into Einstein's world of gravity, with each milestone presenting ever more fascinating aspects of gravitation. Through gentle exposure to concepts such as spacetime curvature and general relativity, you will discover some of the most curious consequences of gravitational physics, such as black holes, neutron stars and gravitational waves. The author presents and explains one of the most impressive scientific achievements of recent times: the first image of a supermassive black hole. Written by one of the key scientists involved in producing these results, you'll get a behind-the-scenes view of how the image was captured and discover what happens to matter and light near a black hole.
This is a concise introduction to modern astrophysics for physicists, with a focus on galaxy dynamics and the discovery of dark matter halos in galaxies. Part I summarizes important discoveries in observational astronomy and astrophysics, in a manner accessible to those who are new to the topic. Building on this foundation, Part II describes the study of dark matter and provides more detail on galactic dynamics. Important physical concepts that form the basis of key astrophysical phenomena are explained, avoiding unnecessary technicalities and complex derivations. The approach is semi-empirical and emphasizes the importance of key measurements and observations in formulating fundamental theoretical questions and developing their solutions. Students are encouraged to develop a deep understanding of major discoveries and contemporary research topics, beyond the simple application of practical models and formulae, as a bridge to more advanced study in astrophysics.
After more than half a century since their unexpected discovery and identification as neutron stars, the observation and understanding of pulsars touches upon many areas of astronomy and astrophysics. The literature on pulsars is vast and the observational techniques used now cover the whole of the electromagnetic spectrum from radio to gamma-rays. Now in its fifth edition, this volume has been reorganised and features new material throughout. It provides an introduction in historical and physical terms to the many aspects of neutron stars, including condensed matter, physics of the magnetosphere, supernovae and the development of the pulsar population, propagation in the interstellar medium, binary stars, gravitation and general relativity. The current development of a new generation of powerful radio telescopes, designed with pulsar research in mind, makes this survey and guide essential reading for a growing body of students and astronomers.
This textbook describes the equipment, observational techniques, and analysis used in the investigation of stellar photospheres. Now in its fourth edition, the text has been thoroughly updated and revised to be more accessible to students. New figures have been added to illustrate key concepts, while diagrams have been redrawn and refreshed throughout. The book starts by developing the tools of analysis, and then demonstrates how they can be applied. Topics covered include radiation transfer, models of stellar photospheres, spectroscopic equipment, how to observe stellar spectra, and techniques for measuring stellar temperatures, radii, surface gravities, chemical composition, velocity fields, and rotation rates. Up-to-date results for real stars are included. Written for starting graduate students or advanced undergraduates, this textbook also includes a wealth of reference material useful to researchers. eBook formats include color imagery while print formats are greyscale only; a wide selection of the color images are available online.
Magnetic fields permeate space and affect many major astrophysical phenomena, but they are often ignored due to their perceived complexity. This self-contained introduction to astrophysical magnetic fields provides both a comprehensive review of the current state of the subject and a critical discussion of the latest research. It presents our knowledge of magnetic fields from the Early Universe, their evolution in cosmic time through to their roles in present-day galaxies, galaxy clusters and the wider intergalactic medium, with attention given to both theory and observations. This volume also contains an extensive introduction into magnetohydrodynamics, numerous worked examples, observational and mathematical techniques and interpretations of the observations. Its review of our current knowledge, with an emphasis on results that are likely to form the basis for future progress, benefits a broad audience of advanced students and active researchers, including those from fields such as cosmology and general relativity.
This concise textbook, designed specifically for a one-semester course in astrophysics, introduces astrophysical concepts to undergraduate science and engineering students with a background in college-level, calculus-based physics. The text is organized into five parts covering: stellar properties; stellar structure and evolution; the interstellar medium and star/planet formation; the Milky Way and other galaxies; and cosmology. Structured around short easily digestible chapters, instructors have flexibility to adjust their course's emphasis as it suits them. Exposition drawn from the author's decade of teaching his course guides students toward a basic but quantitative understanding, with 'quick questions' to spur practice in basic computations, together with more challenging multi-part exercises at the end of each chapter. Advanced concepts like the quantum nature of energy and radiation are developed as needed. The text's approach and level bridge the wide gap between introductory astronomy texts for non-science majors and advanced undergraduate texts for astrophysics majors.