Description
Book SynopsisHigh-energy astrophysics involves the study of exceedingly dynamic and energetic phenomena occurring near the most extreme celestial objects known to exist, such as black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, and supernova remnants. This title introduces topics at the forefront of research, including relativistic particles, and energetic radiation.
Trade ReviewWinner of the 2009 PROSE Award in Cosmology & Astronomy, Association of American Publishers "The well-written work provides an excellent balance between relevant graduate physics and observational summaries of key high-energy astrophysical phenomena, such as pulsars, black holes, and active galactic nuclei. The explanations are lucid and concise, and the mathematical detail is well suited to the intended audience, primarily graduate students in astrophysics."--Choice
Table of ContentsPreface ix Chapter 1: Introduction and Motivation 1 1.1 The Field of High-Energy Astrophysics 1 1.2 Energies, Luminosities, and Timescales 3 1.3 Atmospheric Absorption 8 1.4 Experimental Tools of High-Energy Astrophysics 12 1.5 High-Energy Telescopes 23 Chapter 2: The High-Energy Sky 31 2.1 X-ray Maps Up to 10 keV 32 2.2 The Sky Between 10 keV and 1MeV 34 2.3 Surveys up to 30MeV 36 2.4 The Highest Energy Maps Produced in Earth Orbit 36 Chapter 3: Relativity 39 3.1 Special Relativity 39 3.2 Relativistic Transformation of Physical Laws 48 3.3 General Relativity 51 3.4 Static Spacetimes 56 Chapter 4: Particle Acceleration 67 4.1 Gravity 67 4.2 Electromagnetic Fields 70 4.3 Fermi Acceleration 76 Chapter 5: Radiative Processes 84 5.1 The Radiation Field 84 5.2 Intensity 89 5.3 Thermal Bremsstrahlung 91 5.4 Single-Particle Synchrotron Emissivity 96 5.5 Thermal Synchrotron 107 5.6 Nonthermal Synchrotron 108 5.7 Compton Scattering 111 Chapter 6: Accretion of Plasma 118 6.1 Hydrodynamics 118 6.2 Bondi-Hoyle Accretion 123 6.3 Roche Lobe Geometry in Binaries and Accretion from a Companion Star 130 6.4 Formation of a Disk 134 Chapter 7: Accretion Disk Theory 137 7.1 Viscosity and Radial Disk Structure 137 7.2 Standard Thin-Disk Theory 139 7.3 Accretion Columns 153 7.4 Two-Temperature Thin Disks 158 Chapter 8: Thick Accretion Disks 164 8.1 Thick-Disk Structure 165 8.2 Radiatively Inefficient Flows 169 Chapter 9: Pulsing Sources 182 9.1 Radio Pulsars 182 9.2 X-ray Pulsars 195 9.3 Cataclysmic Variables 199 Chapter 10: Black Holes in Binaries 210 10.1 Early Discovery of Black Holes 211 10.2 The Archetypal HMXB Cygnus X-1 217 10.3 X-ray Novae 223 10.4 QPOs in Black-Hole Binaries 226 Chapter 11: Bursting Stars 233 11.1 X-ray Burst Sources 233 11.2 Gamma-Ray Burst Sources 240 Chapter 12: Supermassive Black Holes 259 12.1 Their Discovery and Identification 259 12.2 Nearby Objects 270 12.3 Supermassive Black Holes in AGNs 285 Chapter 13: The High-Energy Background 303 13.1 Cosmic Rays 303 13.2 Galaxy Clusters 312 13.3 Diffuse Emission 316 Bibliography 327 Index 351
