Physics of the invisible Sun: Instrumentation, Observations, and Inferences provides a new updated perspectives of the dramatic developments in solar physics mainly after the advent of the space era. It focusses on the instrumentation exploiting the invisible windows of the electromagnetic spectrum for observing the outer, fainter layers of the Sun. It emphasizes on the several technical and observational challenges and proceeds to discuss the discoveries related to energetic phenomena occurring in the transition region and corona. The book begins with giving a brief glimpse of the historical developments during the pre-, and post-telescopic periods of visible and spectroscopic techniques, ground-based optical and radio observing sites. Various types of telescopes and back-end instrumentation are presented based on photometry, spectroscopy, and polarimetry using the Zeeman and Hanle effects for measurement of magnetic fields, and Doppler effect for radial velocity measurements. The book discusses theoretical and observational inferences based on detection of solar neutrinos, and helioseismology as the probes of the hidden solar interior, and tests of solar standard models. The characteristic properties and observational signatures of global solar p- and g-oscillations modes, developments in local helioseismology and asteroseismology are discussed. The role of the solar magnetic field and differential rotation in the activity and magnetic cycles, prediction methodologies, and dynamo models are described. Observing the Sun in IR at the longer, and the UV, EUV, XUV, X-rays, and gamma-rays at the shorter wavelengths are covered in detail. Observational challenges at each of these wavelengths are presented followed by the instrumentation for detection and imaging that have resulted in enhancing the understanding of various solar transient phenomena, such as, flares and CMEs. The outer most corona is described as a dynamic, expanding component of the Sun from the theoretical and observational perspectives of the solar wind. It then discusses the topics of the Interplanetary magnetic field, slow and fast solar wind, interaction with magnetised and non-magnetised objects of the solar system, the space weather and the physics of the heliosphere. The chapter on the future directions in solar physics presents a brief overview of the new major facilities in various observing windows, and the future possibilities of observing the Sun from ground and vantage locations in space. Features: Systematic overview of the developments in instrumentation, observational challenges and inferences derived from ground-based and space-borne solar projects. Advances in the understanding about the solar interior from neutrinos and helioseismology. Recent research results and future directions from ground- and space-based observations. This book may serve as a reference book for scientific researchers interested in multi-wavelength instrumentation and observational aspects of solar physics. It may also be used as a textbook for a graduate-level course.

Gravitational waves (GWs) are a hot topic and promise to play a central role in astrophysics, cosmology, and theoretical physics. Technological developments have led us to the brink of their direct observation, which could become a reality in the coming years. The direct observation of GWs will open an entirely new field: GW astronomy. This is expected to bring a revolution in our knowledge of the universe by allowing the observation of previously unseen phenomena, such as the coalescence of compact objects (neutron stars and black holes), the fall of stars into supermassive black holes, stellar core collapses, big-bang relics, and the new and unexpected. With a wide range of contributions by leading scientists in the field, Gravitational Waves covers topics such as the basics of GWs, various advanced topics, GW detectors, astrophysics of GW sources, numerical applications, and several recent theoretical developments. The material is written at a level suitable for postgraduate students entering the field.

Bringing the material up to date, Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines, Second Edition captures the new ideas and discoveries made in physics since the publication of the best-selling first edition. While retaining the popular format and style of its predecessor, this edition explores the latest developments in high-energy astroparticle physics and Big Bang cosmology.

The book continues to make the ideas and theories of modern physics easily understood by anyone, from researchers to students to general science enthusiasts. Taking you on a journey through space and time, author Jim Al-Khalili covers some of the most fascinating topics in physics today, including:

• Black holes
• Space warps
• The Big Bang
• Time travel
• Wormholes
• Parallel universes

Professor Al-Khalili explains often complex scientific concepts in simple, nontechnical terms and imparts an appreciation of the cosmos, helping you see how time traveling may not be so far-fetched after all.

This book focuses on new experimental and theoretical advances concerning the role of strange and heavy-flavour quarks in high-energy heavy-ion collisions and in astrophysical phenomena. The topics covered include * Strangeness and heavy-quark production in nuclear collisions and hadronic interactions, * Hadron resonances in the strongly-coupled partonic and hadronic medium, * Bulk matter phenomena associated with strange and heavy quarks, * QCD phase structure, * Collectivity in small systems, * Strangeness in astrophysics,* Open questions and new developments.

This book provides an introduction, from the astronomical point of view of the author, to the exciting search for extra-terrestrial life, and an overview of the current status of research into 'alien' life in the Solar System and beyond. It also explores the potential future human exploration of the Moon and Mars. Up-to-date with the latest developments in the field and accompanied by key references for further study, it is a fantastic introduction to the field of astrobiology for non-science majors taking an elective module, in addition to undergraduates studying physics with an interest in this area. Features: Contains the latest groundbreaking research in the hunt for life outside of Earth Discusses the identification of biosignatures in exo-planets Reviews future options for human outposts on the Moon and Mars

This book, suitable for interested post-16 school pupils or undergraduates looking for a supplement to their course text, develops our modern view of space-time and its implications in the theories of gravity and cosmology. While aspects of this topic are inevitably abstract, the book seeks to ground thinking in observational and experimental evidence where possible. In addition, some of Einstein's philosophical thoughts are explored and contrasted with our modern views. Written in an accessible yet rigorous style, Jonathan Allday, a highly accomplished writer, brings his trademark clarity and engagement to these fascinating subjects, which underpin so much of modern physics. Features: Restricted use of advanced mathematics, making the book suitable for post-16 students and undergraduates Contains discussions of key modern developments in quantum gravity, and the latest developments in the field, including results from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Accompanied by appendices on the CRC Press website featuring detailed mathematical arguments for key derivations

In Losing the Nobel Prize, cosmologist and inventor of the BICEP (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) experiment Brian Keating tells the inside story of BICEP2's mesmerising discovery and the scientific drama that ensued. In an adventure story that spans the globe, Keating takes us on a personal journey of revelation and discovery, bringing to vivid life the highly competitive, take-no-prisoners, publish-or-perish world of modern science. Along the way, he provocatively argues that the Nobel Prize, instead of advancing scientific progress, may actually hamper it, encouraging speed and greed while punishing collaboration and bold innovation.

'Brilliant. You won't find a clearer, more engaging guide to what we know (or would like to know) about the universe and how it is put together' Bill Bryson Celebrated physicist and global bestselling author Paul Davies tells the story of the universe in thirty cosmological conundrums In the constellation of Eridanus there lurks a cosmic mystery. It's as if something has taken a huge bite out of the universe, leaving a super-void. What could be the culprit? A super massive black hole? Another, bigger universe? Or an expanding vacuum bubble, destined to envelop and annihilate everything in existence? Scientists now understand the history of our universe better than the history of our own planet, but they continue to uncover startling new riddles-the hole in the universe being just one. In this electrifying book, award-winning physicist Paul Davies walks us through the puzzles and paradoxes that have preoccupied cosmologists from ancient Greece to the present day. Laying bare the audacious research that has led us to mind-bending solutions, Davies reveals how we might begin to approach the greatest outstanding enigmas of all.

The historic detection of gravitational waves on September 14, 2015, prompted by the highly energetic fusion of two black holes, has made events in the universe "audible" for the first time. This expansion of the scientific sensorium has opened a new chapter in astronomy and already led to, among others, fascinating new insights about the abundance of black holes, the collision of neutron stars, and the origin of heavy chemical elements. The history of this event, which is epochal for physics, is reconstructed in this book, along with a walk-through of the main principles of how the detectors operate and a discussion of how the search for gravitational waves is conducted. The book concludes with an update of the latest detections and developments to date and a brief look into the future of this exciting research field. This book is accessible to non-specialist readers from a general audience and is also an excellent introduction to the topic for undergraduates in physics. Features: Provides an introduction to the historic discovery of gravitational waves Explains the inner workings of the detectors and the search to find the waves hidden in the data Authored by a renowned specialist involved in the ground-breaking discovery Hartmut Grote is a Professor of physics at Cardiff University, UK. His main expertise is in experimental gravitational-wave physics, and he has worked on building and improving gravitational wave detectors for over 20 years. From 2009 to 2017, he was the scientific leader of the British-German gravitational-wave detector: GEO600.

It is now clear that a binary evolutionary pathway is responsible for a significant fraction of all planetary nebulae, with some authors even going so far as to claim that binarity may be a near requirement for the formation of an observable nebula. This has led to the requirement that textbooks most likely need to be rewritten. Building upon the review of Jones and Boffin in Nature Astronomy (2017), this Springer Brief takes a first step in this direction. It offers the first expanded presentation of all the theoretical and observational support for the importance of binarity in the formation of planetary nebulae, initially focusing on common envelope evolution but also covering wider binaries. This book emphasises the wider impact of the field, highlighting the critical role binary central stars of planetary nebulae have in understanding a plethora of astrophysical phenomena, including type Ia supernovae, chemically peculiar stars and circumbinary exoplanets.

Present-day elliptical, spiral and irregular galaxies are large systems made of stars, gas and dark matter. Their properties result from a variety of physical processes that have occurred during the nearly fourteen billion years since the Big Bang. This comprehensive textbook, which bridges the gap between introductory and specialized texts, explains the key physical processes of galaxy formation, from the cosmological recombination of primordial gas to the evolution of the different galaxies that we observe in the Universe today. In a logical sequence, the book introduces cosmology, illustrates the properties of galaxies in the present-day Universe, then explains the physical processes behind galaxy formation in the cosmological context, taking into account the most recent developments in this field. The text ends on how to find distant galaxies with multi-wavelength observations, and how to extract the physical and evolutionary properties based on imaging and spectroscopic data.

Choice Highly Recommended Title, January 2020 This special edition of Apollo in Perspective marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969. Updated and revised throughout, it takes a retrospective look at the Apollo space program and the technology that was used to land a man on the Moon. In addition, there is a new chapter looking forward to the future of contemporary spaceflight in returning to the Moon (project Artemis) and going on to Mars. Using simple illustrations and school-level mathematics, it explains the basic physics and technology of spaceflight, from how rockets work to the dynamics of orbits and how to simulate gravity in a rotating spacecraft. A mathematical appendix shows how some of the formulas can be derived. This is an excellent introduction to astronautics for anyone interested in space and spaceflight. Features: Accessible, written in a friendly and informal style Contains real-world examples Updated throughout, with new chapters on the Apollo missions and the immediate future of human spaceflight From the Foreword "I am sure there is a woman or a man alive today who will land on the Moon and on Mars. This book will certainly help them be ready for such a journey. Most importantly, it explains not only what happened 50 years ago, but how the Apollo missions happened, and the science that is required to do it again, or to go further, to Mars. If the reader is younger, still in school and perhaps considering the sciences, this book will introduce ideas that will help you choose the subjects to study which can help you to make your space travel a reality. For others, the book will be an exciting and thought provoking read that gives a vision of the near future in space, which all of us on planet Earth will be able to enjoy as the adventure unfolds."- Michael Foale, CBE, former-NASA astronaut

Helping readers understand the complicated laws of nature, Advanced Particle Physics Volume I: Particles, Fields, and Quantum Electrodynamics explains the calculations, experimental procedures, and measuring methods of particle physics. It also describes modern physics devices, including accelerators, elementary particle detectors, and neutrino telescopes. The book first introduces the mathematical basis of modern quantum field theory. It presents the most pertinent information on group theory, proves Noether's theorem, and determines the major motion integrals connected with both space and internal symmetry. The second part on fundamental interactions and their unifications discusses the main theoretical preconditions and experiments that allow for matter structure to be established at the quark-lepton level. In the third part, the author investigates the secondary quantized theories of free fields with spin 0, 1/2, and 1, with particular emphasis on the neutrino field. The final part focuses on quantum electrodynamics, the first successfully operating quantum field theory. Along with different renormalization schemes of quantum field theory, the author covers the calculation methods for polarized and unpolarized particles, with and without inclusion of radiative corrections. Each part in this volume contains problems to help readers master the calculation techniques and generalize the results obtained. To improve understanding of the computation procedures in quantum field theory, the majority of the calculations have been performed without dropping complex intermediate steps.

This book presents the physics of magnetic flux tubes, including their fundamental properties and collective phenomena in an ensemble of flux tubes. The physics of magnetic flux tubes is vital for understanding fundamental processes in the solar atmosphere that are shaped and governed by magnetic fields. The concept of magnetic flux tubes is also central to various magnetized media ranging from laboratory plasma and Earth's magnetosphere to planetary, stellar and galactic environments. The book covers both theory and observations. Theoretical models presented in analytical and phenomenological forms that are tailored to practical applications. These are welded together with empirical data extending from the early pioneering observations to the most recent state-of-the-art data. This new edition of the book is updated and contains a significant amount of new material throughout as well as four new chapters and 48 problems with solutions. Most problems make use of original papers containing fundamental results. This way, the original paper, often based on complex theory, turns into a convenient tool for practical use and quantitative analysis.

Astrophysics is often -with some justification - regarded as incomprehensible without the use of higher mathematics. Consequently, many amateur astronomers miss out on some of the most fascinating aspects of the subject. Astrophysics Is Easy! cuts through the difficult mathematics and explains the basics of astrophysics in accessible terms. Using nothing more than plain arithmetic and simple examples, the workings of the universe are outlined in a straightforward yet detailed and easy-to-grasp manner. Following on the success of the first and second editions, this fully updated third edition covers the significant changes in astrophysics theories and research that have occurred in the last five years, including new material on: exomoons, exocomets and exoasteroids; Special and General Relativity; gravitational waves, their origins and detection; telescope optics; black hole astrophysics; and more. For each topic under discussion, an observing list is included so that observers can actually see for themselves the concepts presented - stars of the spectral sequence, nebulae, galaxies, even black holes. The book also features in-text, nonmathematical questions and end-of-chapter problems - all with their accompanying solutions - to help readers discuss and digest the material.

The papers reprinted in this book depict a research field that is poised to answer some of the fundamental questions of twentieth-century physics and astronomy: How does the sun shine? What is the dark matter? Is there new physics beyond the "standard model"?This book is of interest to students as well as active researchers in the scientific areas spanned by the reprinted papers, which include physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, and engineering. Historians of science, some of whom have already used the solar neutrino problem as a case study, will also find this collection a rich source of examples and insights."Solar Neutrinos" gives one the special feeling of being present at the birth of a scientific field. The physical ideas are presented with a simplicity that is unusual in review of papers. By delving into the scientific landmarks reprinted here, one can see clearly how researchers-starting with a paucity of data and with conflicting hypothesis-struggled together to grope their way to a better understanding of the sun and of weak interaction physics. Three new papers have been added to the present paperback version; these papers represent breakthroughs in the field since the original 1994 hardcopy publication.

Clusters of galaxies are large assemblies of galaxies, hot gas and dark matter bound together by gravity. Galaxy clusters are now one of the most important cosmological probes to test the standard cosmological models. Constraints on the Dark Energy equation of state from the cluster number density measurements, deviations from the Gaussian perturbation models, the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect as well as the dark matter proles are among the issues to be studied with clusters. The baryonic composition of clusters is dominated by hot gas that is in quasi-hydrostatic equilibrium within the dark matter-dominated gravitational potential well of the cluster. The hot gas is visible through spatially extended thermal X-ray emission, and it has been studied extensively both for assessing its physical properties and as a tracer of the large-scale structure of the Universe. Magnetic fields as well as a number of non-thermal plasma processes play a role in clusters of galaxies as we observe from radioastronomical observations. The goal of this volume is to review these processes and to investigate how they are interlinked. Overall, these papers provide a timely and comprehensive review of the multi-wavelength observations and theoretical understanding of clusters of galaxies in the cosmological context. Thus, the volume will be particularly useful to postgraduate students and researchers active in various areas of astrophysics and space science. Originally published in Space Science Reviews in the Topical Collection "Clusters of Galaxies: Physics and Cosmology"

The twentieth century has witnessed the transformation of astronomy from celestial mechanics to astrophysics. While optical telescopes may have presented a peek into the structure of the constituents of the universe, such as stars and galaxies, new windows of observation have revealed far more amorphous objects, from nebulae and sheets to filaments and voids, whose "violent" processes include flares, shocks, accretion disks and jets. In these processes, plasma is often the constituent matter-- as well as the medium through which the astrophysical setting becomes so violent. In this graduate level text, Tajima and Shibata offer a new synthesis starting where classic works on plasma physics left off. Beginning with a view of plasma astrophysics through fundamental processes of quasi-magnetostatic equilibria, quasi-hydrostatic equilibria, and non-equilibria, the authors go on to develop unique approaches to violent astrophysical plasmas-- as opposed to the more quiescent laboratory variety-- and their processes. The text continues with an exploration of the fundamental processes in hydrostatic, magnetostatic, and gravitational objects. The final chapter is devoted to a discussion of the applications of plasma astrophysics to cosmology, anticipating future developments in this exciting field.This text will be of enormous use to graduate-- and some advanced undergraduate-- students, as well as to physicists entering the field of plasma physics.

Over the last decade, statisticians have developed new statistical tools in the field of spatial point processes. At the same time, observational efforts have yielded a huge amount of new cosmological data to analyze. Although the main tools in astronomy for comparing theoretical results with observation are statistical, in recent years, cosmologists have not been generally aware of the developments in statistics and vice versa.

Statistics of the Galaxy Distribution describes both the available observational data on the distribution of galaxies and the applications of spatial statistics in cosmology. It gives a detailed derivation of the statistical methods used to study the galaxy distribution and the cosmological physics needed to formulate the statistical models. Because the prevalent approach in cosmological statistics has been frequentist, the authors focus on the most widely used of these methods, but they also explore Bayesian techniques that have become popular in large-scale structure studies.

Describing the most popular methods, their latest applications, and the necessary mathematical and astrophysical background, this groundbreaking book presents the state of the art in the statistical description of the large-scale structure of the Universe.
Cosmology's well-defined and growing data sets represent an important challenge for the statistical analysis, and therefore for the statistics community. Statistics of the Galaxy Distribution presents a unique opportunity for researchers in both fields to strengthen the connection between them and, using a common language, explore the statistical description of the universe.

This textbook is a unique and ambitious primer of nuclear physics, which introduces recent theoretical and experimental progresses starting from basics in fundamental quantum mechanics. The highlight is to offer an overview of nuclear structure phenomena relevant to recent key findings such as unstable halo nuclei, superheavy elements, neutron stars, nucleosynthesis, the standard model, lattice quantum chromodynamics (LQCD), and chiral effective theory. An additional attraction is that general properties of nuclei are comprehensively explained from both the theoretical and experimental viewpoints. The book begins with the conceptual and mathematical basics of quantum mechanics, and goes into the main point of nuclear physics - nuclear structure, radioactive ion beam physics, and nuclear reactions. The last chapters devote interdisciplinary topics in association with astrophysics and particle physics. A number of illustrations and exercises with complete solutions are given. Each chapter is comprehensively written starting from fundamentals to gradually reach modern aspects of nuclear physics with the objective to provide an effective description of the cutting edge in the field.

A short, graduate-level synthesis of recent developments in theoretical physics, from a pioneer in the field Lectures on the Infrared Structure of Gravity and Gauge Theory presents an accessible, graduate-level synthesis of a frontier research area in theoretical physics. Based on a popular Harvard University course taught by the author, this book gives a concise introduction to recent discoveries concerning the structure of gravity and gauge theory at very long distances. These discoveries unite three disparate but well-developed subjects in physics. The first subject is the soft theorems, which were found by particle physicists in the 1950s to control the behavior of low-energy photons and are essential for all collider predictions. The second subject is asymptotic symmetries, found by general relativists in the 1960s to provide a surprising, infinite number of exact relations between distinct physical phenomena. The third subject is the memory effect, the measurement of which is sought in upcoming gravitational wave observations. An exploration of the physical and mathematical equivalence of these three subjects has provided a powerful new perspective on old results and led to a plethora of new results, involving symmetries of QED, gluon scattering amplitudes, flat-space holography in quantum gravity, black hole information, and beyond. Uniquely connective and cutting-edge, Lectures on the Infrared Structure of Gravity and Gauge Theory takes students and scholars to the forefront of new developments in the discipline. Materials are presented in a "lecture notes" style with problem sets included Concise and accessible pedagogical approach Topics include soft theorems, the memory effect, asymptotic symmetries with applications to QED, Yang-Mills theory, quantum gravity, and black holes

This book provides readers with an understanding of the basic physics and mathematics that governs our solar system. It explores the mechanics of our Sun and planets; their orbits, tides, eclipses and many other fascinating phenomena. This book is a valuable resource for undergraduate students studying astronomy and should be used in conjunction with other introductory astronomy textbooks in the field to provide additional learning opportunities. Features: Written in an engaging and approachable manner, with fully explained mathematics and physics concepts Suitable as a companion to all introductory astronomy textbooks Accessible to a general audience