WORLD SCIENTIFIC SERIES IN ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS – serie

This book describes the subject of electrodynamics at classical as well as quantum level, developed as an interaction at a distance. Thus it has electric charges interacting with one another directly and not through the medium of a field. In general such an interaction travels forward and backward in time symmetrically, thus apparently violating the principle of causality. It turns out, however, that in such a description the cosmological boundary conditions become very important. The theory therefore works only in a cosmology with the right boundary conditions; but when it does work it is free from the divergences that plague a quantum field theory.

This book describes the subject of electrodynamics at classical as well as quantum level, developed as an interaction at a distance. Thus it has electric charges interacting with one another directly and not through the medium of a field. In general such an interaction travels forward and backward in time symmetrically, thus apparently violating the principle of causality. It turns out, however, that in such a description the cosmological boundary conditions become very important. The theory therefore works only in a cosmology with the right boundary conditions; but when it does work it is free from the divergences that plague a quantum field theory.

The study of presolar meteoritic grains is a new inter-disciplinary field that brings together topics from nuclear physics to astronomy and chemistry. Traditionally, most of the information about the cosmos has been gathered by observing light through telescopes. However, with the recent discovery that some dust grains extracted from primitive meteorites were produced in stellar environments, we now have the opportunity to gather information about stars and our Galaxy from the laboratory analysis of tiny pieces of stardust. Stellar grains represent a unique and fascinating subject of study. Their analysis is a breakthrough in research on stellar nucleosynthesis and the origin of the elements.While a number of specialized reviews exist on the topic, this book is the first work that brings together in a unified and accessible manner the background knowledge necessary for the study of presolar grains together with up-to-date discoveries in the field.The book includes exercise questions and answers, an extensive glossary for easy reference, and more than 40 figures and tables — from schematic diagrams to electron microscope images and graphs of results from stellar grain measurements and theoretical stellar models.

There are several textbooks available on solar astronomy which deal with advanced astrophysical aspects of solar physics, and books which provide very elementary knowledge about the Sun. This book will help to bridge the gap. It aims to stimulate interest in solar astronomy, presenting at one place the basic methods and techniques used in the field, together with the latest findings and the excitement in solar physics. As solar astronomy is becoming very popular among amateur astronomers and laymen, the book provides the practical knowledge to build simple solar telescopes and other equipment for making solar observations. Amateur astronomers have made important contributions to solar astronomy, and this book will help to guide them in their endeavours. The book can also serve as a text for undergraduate and graduate students starting out on solar physics. Using it, graduate students can easily embark on specific topics of research in solar astronomy.

This unique book provides a clear and lucid description of several aspects of astrophysics and cosmology in a language understandable to a physicist or beginner in astrophysics. It presents the key topics in all branches of astrophysics and cosmology in a simple and concise language. The emphasis is on currently active research areas and exciting new frontiers rather than on more pedantic topics. Many complicated results are introduced with simple, novel derivations which strengthen the conceptual understanding of the subject. The book also contains over one hundred exercises which will help students in their self study.Undergraduate and graduate students in physics and astrophysics as well as all physicists who are interested in obtaining a quick grasp of astrophysical concepts will find this book useful.

This unique book provides a clear and lucid description of several aspects of astrophysics and cosmology in a language understandable to a physicist or beginner in astrophysics. It presents the key topics in all branches of astrophysics and cosmology in a simple and concise language. The emphasis is on currently active research areas and exciting new frontiers rather than on more pedantic topics. Many complicated results are introduced with simple, novel derivations which strengthen the conceptual understanding of the subject. The book also contains over one hundred exercises which will help students in their self study.Undergraduate and graduate students in physics and astrophysics as well as all physicists who are interested in obtaining a quick grasp of astrophysical concepts will find this book useful.

This revised edition places a unique emphasis on all the new results from ground-based, satellites and space missions — detection of molecule H2 and prompt emission lines of OH for the first time; discovery of X-rays in comets; observed diversity in chemical composition among comets; the puzzle of the constancy of spin temperature; the well-established mineralogy of cometary dust; extensive theoretical modeling carried out for understanding the observed effects; the similarity in the mineralogy of dust in circumstellar shell of stars, comets, meteorites, asteroids and IDPs, thus indicating the generic relationship between them.

This book presents in a simple style the success story of modern astrophysics — how the application of known physics to models of stars can, together with the observational data, help us understand what stars are made of, how they live and how they die. The account is non-technical but scientifically accurate. It is interspersed with anecdotes and analogies to make the subject matter readable and understandable even to a lay reader with some basic scientific background.

This book describes in nontechnical language one of the success stories of modern (twentieth-century) astronomy. It presents us with the physical picture of what constitutes a star, a description of how a star evolves with time, how its shape and brightness change, how it manufactures the chemical elements deep in its interior, what makes it explode… The presentation also includes exotic objects such as supernovae, pulsars, neutron stars and white dwarfs, and of course, black holes. This revised edition brings the discussion up to date with the inclusion of astronomical events like Supernova 1987A and findings from the Hubble Space Telescope as well as other observations. The book is appropriate as supplementary material for an elementary course on astronomy and astrophysics.

This book describes in nontechnical language one of the success stories of modern (twentieth-century) astronomy. It presents us with the physical picture of what constitutes a star, a description of how a star evolves with time, how its shape and brightness change, how it manufactures the chemical elements deep in its interior, what makes it explode… The presentation also includes exotic objects such as supernovae, pulsars, neutron stars and white dwarfs, and of course, black holes. This revised edition brings the discussion up to date with the inclusion of astronomical events like Supernova 1987A and findings from the Hubble Space Telescope as well as other observations. The book is appropriate as supplementary material for an elementary course on astronomy and astrophysics.

The study of Comet Halley in 1986 was a tremendous success for cometary science. In March of that year, six spacecrafts passed through Comet Halley as close as 600 km from the nucleus and made the in situ measurements of various kinds. These space missions to Comet Halley and that of the ICE spacecraft to Comet Giacobini-Zinner combined with studies, both ground-based and above the atmosphere, have increased our knowledge of cometary science in a dramatic way.This new edition of Physics of Comets incorporates these new and exciting findings. The emphasis of the book is on the physical processes operating in a cometary environment. It discusses up-to-date observations, methods and results based on the study of various comets. The subject is developed in a systematic manner covering various aspects of cometary phenomena. This book may serve as a text book for students, and as reference material for researchers.

Over the last three decades, a spate of solar wind observations have been made with sophisticated ground-based and space-borne instruments. Two highly successful space missions of the Skylab and the twin spacecraft Helios 1 and 2 have amassed an invaluable wealth of information on the large scale structure of the inner heliosphere, the solar and interplanetary magnetic field, coronal holes, interplanetary dust, solar windflows, etc.Solar and interplanetary propagating phenomena have been extensively studied during the last two decades. Very recently, a new simple model based on results from a density-mapping technique, pioneered at Cambridge, UK, has been proposed which overcomes the problems faced by the existing CME-driven shock theories.This monograph puts together those exciting developments in the field of solar and interplanetary dynamic phenomena with their effects, at times hazardous, on the terrestrial environment. It serves as an update and a ready reference for research students and scientists working in this field.

This book is an introduction to pulsars, a key area in high energy astrophysics with continuing potential for fundamental discoveries. Throughout the book runs the unifying thread of the evolutionary link between rotation-powered pulsars and accretion-powered pulsars — a milestone of modern astrophysics. Early textbooks on pulsars dealt almost entirely with rotation-powered ones, while accounts of pulsars in volumes on X-ray binaries focused almost exclusively on accretion-powered ones. This is the first textbook to treat these two kinds of pulsars simultaneously with equal importance, stressing the fact that both are rotating, magnetic neutron stars, operating under different conditions during different parts of their lives. It describes the observational properties of both kinds of pulsars, summarizes our physical understanding of these properties, and pays detailed attention to the physics of superdense matter which neutron stars are composed of, as well as to the superfluidity which is expected to occur in neutron stars. Evolution from rotation-power to accretion-power, and vice versa, are carefully described. The effects of the strong magnetic fields of neutron stars on themselves, their emission properties, and their environments are discussed, as are the origin and evolution of such magnetic fields. Also treated is the superbly accurate verification of Einstein's theory of general relativity through timing studies of binary pulsars, which led to the award of the Nobel Prize to Hulse and Taylor in 1993. On each topic, the book starts with simple, basic physical concepts, and builds up the exposition to the point where the latest and most exciting developments become accessible to the reader.

There are several textbooks available on solar astronomy which deal with advanced astrophysical aspects of solar physics, and books which provide very elementary knowledge about the Sun. This book will help to bridge the gap. It aims to stimulate interest in solar astronomy, presenting at one place the basic methods and techniques used in the field, together with the latest findings and the excitement in solar physics. As solar astronomy is becoming very popular among amateur astronomers and laymen, the book provides the practical knowledge to build simple solar telescopes and other equipment for making solar observations. Amateur astronomers have made important contributions to solar astronomy, and this book will help to guide them in their endeavours. The book can also serve as a text for undergraduate and graduate students starting out on solar physics. Using it, graduate students can easily embark on specific topics of research in solar astronomy.

The study of dust in the universe is an exciting area in current astronomy. Dust formed during an earlier epoch could be different from that formed at a later time, but the nature and composition of dust is not presently understood in its entirety. The comprehensive study presented in this book provides a much needed critical analysis of different types of dust in the universe. The information derived from presolar grains from comets, meteorites and interplanetary dust particles as well as the relevant laboratory studies are discussed. This should help in our goal of understanding the evolution of dust with cosmic time.