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The book reviews the present status of understanding the nature of the most luminous objects in the Universe, connected with supermassive black holes and supermassive stars, clusters of galaxies and ultraluminous galaxies, sources of gamma-ray bursts and relativistic jets. Leading experts give overviews of essential physical mechanisms involved, discuss formation and evolution of these objects as well as prospects for their use in cosmology, as probes of the intergalactic medium at high redshifts and as a tool to study the end of dark ages. The theoretical models are complemented by new exciting results from orbital and ground-based observatories such as Chandra, XMM-Newton, HST, SDSS, VLT, Keck, and many others.
Provides a comprehensive summary on the physical models and current theory of black hole accretion, growth and mergers, in both the supermassive and stellar-mass cases. This title reviews in-depth research on accretion on all scales, from galactic binaries to intermediate mass and supermassive black holes. Possible future directions of accretion are also discussed. The following main themes are covered: a historical perspective; physical models of accretion onto black holes of all masses; black hole fundamental parameters; and accretion, jets and outflows. An overview and outlook on the topic is also presented. This volume summarizes the status of the study of astrophysical black hole research and is aimed at astrophysicists and graduate students working in this field. Originally published in Space Science Reviews, Vol 183/1-4, 2014.
It has been more than fifty years since the first significant paper on accretion flows was written. In recent years, X-ray satellites capable of identifying accretion disks and radiation jets - indications that accretion has taken place - have significantly advanced our understanding of these phenomena. This volume presents a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the major theoretical and observational topics associated with accretion processes in astrophysics. Comprising lectures presented at the twenty-first Winter School of the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics, the text emphasises the physical aspects of accretion, investigating how radiation jets are produced, how accretion power is divided between jets and radiated energy, the geometry of accretion flow, and the accretion processes of active galactic nuclei. Written by an international team of experienced scientists, chapters offer young researchers key analytical tools for supporting and carrying out the next generation of front-line research.
A graduate-level textbook on the astrophysics of binary star systems and their evolution Physics of Binary Star Evolution is an up-to-date textbook on the astrophysics and evolution of binary star systems. Theoretical astrophysicists Thomas Tauris and Edward van den Heuvel cover a wide range of phenomena and processes, including mass transfer and ejection, common envelopes, novae and supernovae, X-ray binaries, millisecond radio pulsars, and gravitational wave (GW) sources, and their links to stellar evolution. The authors walk through the observed properties and evolution of different types of binaries, with special emphasis on those containing compact objects (neutron stars, black holes, a...
Based on graduate school lectures in contemporary relativity and gravitational physics, this book gives a complete and unified picture of the present status of theoretical and observational properties of astrophysical black holes. The chapters are written by internationally recognized specialists. They cover general theoretical aspects of black hole astrophysics, the theory of accretion and ejection of gas and jets, stellar-sized black holes observed in the Milky Way, the formation and evolution of supermassive black holes in galactic centers and quasars as well as their influence on the dynamics in galactic nuclei. The final chapter addresses analytical relativity of black holes supporting theoretical understanding of the coalescence of black holes as well as being of great relevance in identifying gravitational wave signals. With its introductory chapters the book is aimed at advanced graduate and post-graduate students, but it will also be useful for specialists.
The formation of the first supermassive black holes is one of the main open questions in our understanding of high-redshift structure formation. In this book, we aim to provide a summary of state-of-the-art modern research on this topic, exploring the formation of massive black holes from a fluid-dynamical, stellar-dynamical and chemical perspective. The book thus presents a solid theoretical foundation, a comparison with current observations and future observational perspectives with upcoming missions such as the Square Kilometre Array, the European Extremely Large Telescope, the Euclid satellite as well as possible detections via gravitational waves.
Written by a professional astronomer who has worked on a wide spectrum of topics throughout his career, this book gives a popular science level description of what has become known as multimessenger astronomy. It links the new with the traditional, showing how astronomy has advanced at increasing pace in the modern era. In the second decade of the twenty-first century astronomy has seen the beginnings of a revolution. After centuries when all our information about the Universe has come via electromagnetic waves, now several entirely new ways of exploring it have emerged. The most spectacular has been the detection of gravitational waves in 2015, but astronomy also uses neutrinos and cosmic r...
An accessible look at the mysteries that lurk at the edge of the known universe and beyond The observable universe, the part we can see with telescopes, is incredibly vast. Yet recent theories suggest that there is far more to the universe than what our instruments record—in fact, it could be infinite. Colossal flows of galaxies, large empty regions called voids, and other unexplained phenomena offer clues that our own "bubble universe" could be part of a greater realm called the multiverse. How big is the observable universe? What it is made of? What lies beyond it? Was there a time before the Big Bang? Could space have unseen dimensions? In this book, physicist and science writer Paul Ha...