High-energy astrophysics covers cosmic phenomena that occur under the most extreme physical conditions. It explores the most violent events in the Universe: the explosion of stars, matter falling into black holes, and gamma-ray bursts - the most luminous explosions since the Big Bang. Driven by a wealth of new observations, the last decade has seen a large leap forward in our understanding of these phenomena. Exploring modern topics of high-energy astrophysics, such as supernovae, neutron stars, compact binary systems, gamma-ray bursts, and active galactic nuclei, this textbook is ideal for undergraduate students in high-energy astrophysics. It is a self-supporting, timely overview of this exciting field of research. Assuming a familiarity with basic physics, it introduces all other concepts, such as gas dynamics or radiation processes, in an instructive way. An extended appendix gives an overview of some of the most important high-energy astrophysics instruments, and each chapter ends with exercises.
Contents
Preface; 1. Special relativity; 2. Gas processes; 3. Radiation processes; 4. Supernovae; 5. Neutron stars, pulsars and magnetars; 6. Compact binary systems; 7. Gamma-ray bursts; 8. Active galactic nuclei; Appendix A. Some recent high-energy astrophysics instruments; Appendix B. Physical constants; Appendix C. Distances; Appendix D. Luminosity, brightness, magnitude, colour; Index.
Review
"...this book contains everything a beginner in this topic needs to know: special relativity, gas and radiation processes, neutron stars, X-ray binaries, supernovae, active galactic nuclei, even gamma-ray bursts are covered in detail in an extra chapter. ...a pedagogically well thought out textbook. It is highly recommended to all physics students that want to engage in high-energy astrophysics." - Sterne and Weltraum
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