Springer Series in Astrophysics and Cosmology – serie

This book highlights the fundamental physics of orbit theory, dynamical models, methods of orbit determination, design, measurement, adjustment, and complete calculations for the position, tracking, and prediction of satellites and deep spacecraft.

This book highlights the fundamental physics of orbit theory, dynamical models, methods of orbit determination, design, measurement, adjustment, and complete calculations for the position, tracking, and prediction of satellites and deep spacecraft.

This book introduces various physical processes related to the formation and evolution of galaxies, such as gravitation, electromagnetism, statistical physics, condensed matter, non-equilibrium processes, and relativity. Real data are analyzed using statistical methods and theoretical understanding. These topics give students and researchers in other fields a cross-sectional, interdisciplinary review. In particular, the author puts a great emphasis on multi-wavelength observations and surveys, which are now fundamental to understand the physics of any kind of cosmological and galactic comprehensive study. This is the first book to look at multi-wavelength surveys from the view of both observation and theory.This book is intended to be a standard guide to the physics of galaxy formation and evolution, which is popular in astrophysics but is not dealt with in detail in other books for young graduate students and non-experts in physics. Physical processes related to the formation and evolution of stars in galaxies are particularly mentioned from the view of multi-wavelength observations, which leads to an understanding of how the current universe has developed.

This book highlights the state of the art of machine learning applied to the science of gravitational waves.

However, applying quantum field theory on a black hole background, Stephen Hawking showed that black holes are not completely black. A problem arises when we consider an initial system that collapses, forms a black hole, and eventually the black hole evaporates completely through Hawking radiation.

The book collects a series of articles to review the advances that have been made in the field of gravitational collapse in general relativity and alternative theories of gravity in the past few years.

The book collects a series of articles to review the advances that have been made in the field of gravitational collapse in general relativity and alternative theories of gravity in the past few years.

It includes the recent results of laboratory tests of gravity, solar system experiments, tests of gravity in the strong-field regime with astrophysical compact objects, and tests of gravity on large scales with cosmological observations.

Einstein's theory of general relativity is one of the pillars of modern physics and it is our standard framework for describing gravitational fields and the spacetime structure. So far, general relativity has passed all experimental tests and agrees with observations. However, the past few years have seen remarkable observational improvements and new techniques that continually challenge the theory's predictions: routinely detect the gravitational wave signals from the coalescence of black holes and neutron stars; can image the supermassive black holes at the center of our Galaxy and of the galaxy M87; can analyze the properties of the X-ray radiation emitted from the very inner part of the accretion disks of several black holes; and keep improving laboratory and Solar System experiments. This book offers an updated self-consistent overview, future perspectives, and challenges of experimental and observational tests of gravity, with both gravitational and electromagnetic spectra. It includes the recent results of laboratory tests of gravity, solar system experiments, tests of gravity in the strong-field regime with astrophysical compact objects, and tests of gravity on large scales with cosmological observations.

This book offers an updated comprehensive review of the rapidly expanding field of GRMHD simulations. In Part I, it reviews the basic equations for GRMHD simulations and for numerical relativity. Part II describes public codes for GRMHD simulations. Part IV reviews the state of the art of GRMHD simulations with self-gravitating fluids.

This book offers an updated comprehensive review of the rapidly expanding field of GRMHD simulations. In Part I, it reviews the basic equations for GRMHD simulations and for numerical relativity. Part II describes public codes for GRMHD simulations. Part III is devoted to accretion processes onto compact objects in the non-self-gravitating fluid approximation. Part IV reviews the state of the art of GRMHD simulations with self-gravitating fluids. This book represents both a valuable book for graduate students and important reference resource for researchers in the field.

Primordial black holes (PBHs) were proposed more than 50 years ago as black holes possibly formed across a vast mass range in the early universe. They represent a unique probe to access the primordial universe and cosmological inflation. Furthermore, in certain mass ranges, they could comprise the entirety of the dark matter, seed supermassive black holes at high redshift, be responsible for some gravitational-wave events detected so far, and be novel gravitational-wave sources detectable with future instruments. However, detecting PBHs has proved to be extremely challenging and extensive research focused on setting a variety of constraints on the fraction of dark matter composed by these objects. This book highlights an up-to-date, comprehensive overview on this subject, including pedagogical details on the PBH formation scenarios, cosmological evolution, astrophysical implications, connections with gravitational-wave astronomy, and critical discussion of the latest and future constraints. At variance with all existing reviews on this subject, this book addresses graduate students and researchers not necessarily familiar with all areas of the topic, providing details on important key results rather than collecting and reviewing the latest literature. The topic is naturally interdisciplinary and connects areas as diverse as cosmology, particle physics, gravitational-wave astronomy, and numerical simulations. To reflect this diversity, the book includes 25 contributions from key researchers working in these different areas. It provides a unique reference both to approach the topic for the first time and to learn a specific specialized sub-area.

This book presents the first comprehensive exploration of the state of this well studied and thus unsolved mystery of the value of the Hubble constant.

This book presents the first comprehensive exploration of the state of this well studied and thus unsolved mystery of the value of the Hubble constant. Chapters covering data, systematics, independent methodologies, and theoretical explanations are authored by distinguished subject-matter experts. Tailored for scientists in the field or adjacent fields, this book provides a resource of insights and also an in-depth background sufficient for motivating future study.  Key Features:  Introduction: Written by the Nobel Laureate Adam Riess. Measurement Techniques: Gain a profound understanding of the leading Hubble constant measurement techniques, from parallax and masers to supernovae and cosmic chronometers, dissected by leading authorities on each. Systematic Errors: A deep dive into the complexities of data. Experts scrutinize potential sources of systematics that may contribute to the observed disagreements, offering a nuanced view of the challenges in Hubble constant determinations. Theoretical Explanations and Progress: A review of the theoretical explanations, some that are still standing, and some that have been ruled out; all of which have led to scientific progress toward the truth.  A Comprehensive Take: This book covers every key and influential aspect to the dilemma of the Hubble tension to date and has gathered world-leading voices on each respective topic.

This open access book highlights the autonomous and intelligent flight control of future launch vehicles for improving flight autonomy to plan ascent and descent trajectories onboard, and autonomously handle unexpected events or failures during the flight. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, space launch activities worldwide have grown vigorously. Meanwhile, commercial launches also account for the booming trend. Unfortunately, the risk of space launches still exists and is gradually increasing in line with the rapidly rising launch activities and commercial rockets. In the history of space launches, propulsion and control systems are the two main contributors to launch failures. With the development of information technologies, the increase of the functional density of hardware products, the application of redundant or fault-tolerant solutions, and the improvement of the testability of avionics, the launch losses caused by control systems exhibita downward trend, and the failures induced by propulsion systems become the focus of attention. Under these failures, the autonomous planning and guidance control may save the missions. This book focuses on the latest progress of relevant projects and academic studies of autonomous guidance, especially on some advanced methods which can be potentially real-time implemented in the future control system of launch vehicles. In Chapter 1, the prospect and technical challenges are summarized by reviewing the development of launch vehicles.  Chapters 2 to 4 mainly focus on the flight in the ascent phase, in which the autonomous guidance is mainly reflected in the online planning. Chapters 5 and 6 mainly discuss the powered descent guidance technologies. Finally, since aerodynamic uncertainties exert a significant impact on the performance of the ascent / landing guidance control systems, the estimation of aerodynamic parameters, which are helpful to improve flight autonomy, is discussed in Chapter 7.  The book serves as a valuable reference for researchers and engineers working on launch vehicles. It is also a timely source of information for graduate students interested in the subject.

This open access book highlights the autonomous and intelligent flight control of future launch vehicles for improving flight autonomy to plan ascent and descent trajectories onboard, and autonomously handle unexpected events or failures during the flight. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, space launch activities worldwide have grown vigorously. Meanwhile, commercial launches also account for the booming trend. Unfortunately, the risk of space launches still exists and is gradually increasing in line with the rapidly rising launch activities and commercial rockets. In the history of space launches, propulsion and control systems are the two main contributors to launch failures. With the development of information technologies, the increase of the functional density of hardware products, the application of redundant or fault-tolerant solutions, and the improvement of the testability of avionics, the launch losses caused by control systems exhibita downward trend, and the failures induced by propulsion systems become the focus of attention. Under these failures, the autonomous planning and guidance control may save the missions. This book focuses on the latest progress of relevant projects and academic studies of autonomous guidance, especially on some advanced methods which can be potentially real-time implemented in the future control system of launch vehicles. In Chapter 1, the prospect and technical challenges are summarized by reviewing the development of launch vehicles.  Chapters 2 to 4 mainly focus on the flight in the ascent phase, in which the autonomous guidance is mainly reflected in the online planning. Chapters 5 and 6 mainly discuss the powered descent guidance technologies. Finally, since aerodynamic uncertainties exert a significant impact on the performance of the ascent / landing guidance control systems, the estimation of aerodynamic parameters, which are helpful to improve flight autonomy, is discussed in Chapter 7.  The book serves as a valuable reference for researchers and engineers working on launch vehicles. It is also a timely source of information for graduate students interested in the subject.

Black holes are one of the most fascinating predictions of general relativity. They are the natural product of the complete gravitational collapse of matter and today we have a body of observational evidence supporting the existence of black holes in the Universe. However, general relativity predicts that at the center of black holes there are spacetime singularities, where predictability is lost and standard physics breaks down. It is widely believed that spacetime singularities are a symptom of the limitations of general relativity and must be solved within a theory of quantum gravity. Since we do not have yet any mature and reliable candidate for a quantum gravity theory, researchers have studied toy-models of singularity-free black holes and of singularity-free gravitational collapses in order to explore possible implications of the yet unknown theory of quantum gravity. This book reviews all main models of regular black holes and non-singular gravitational collapses proposed in the literature, and discuss the theoretical and observational implications of these scenarios.

Since we do not have yet any mature and reliable candidate for a quantum gravity theory, researchers have studied toy-models of singularity-free black holes and of singularity-free gravitational collapses in order to explore possible implications of the yet unknown theory of quantum gravity.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton Observatory have been the pioneering satellites for studying the Universe with X-rays and the cornerstone of X-ray spectroscopy since their launches more than 20 years ago.