H.T. MacGilLIVRAY Royal Observatory Blackford Hill Edinburgh EH9 3HJ Scotland U.K. lAU Symposium No. 161 on 'Astronomy from Wide-Field Imaging', held in Potsdam, Germany, during 23-27th August 1993, was the first conference organised by the recently-formed Working Group of lAU Commission 9 on 'Wide-Field Imaging'. This Working Group was instigated during the XXIst meeting of the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Buenos Aires in 1991, and represented a merging of the former formal lAU Working Group on 'Astronomical Photography' and the informal 'Digitised Optical Sky Surveys' Working Group. Dr. Richard West was 'invited' to be Chairperson, and hence was given the daunting task of organising the Group from scratch. The very fact that the first conference after only two years was a major lAU Symposium says much about the determination and enthusiasm of Richard West to fulfilling the aims of the new Working Group. The siting of the conference in Potsdam in formerly East Germany provided an excellent opportunity to advantage from the political changes in Eastern Europe. Good access to the meeting was possible by scientists from Eastern European countries, allowing exchange of information on the very important Wide-Field facilities in both East and West, information on the rich archives of photographic plates that exist in both East and West, and allowing discussions between scientists facing very similar problems in both East and West.

This book, designed as a tool for young researchers and graduate students, reviews the main open problems and research lines in various fields of astroparticle physics: cosmic rays, gamma rays, neutrinos, cosmology, and gravitational physics. The opening section discusses cosmic rays of both galactic and extragalactic origin, examining experimental results, theoretical models, and possible future developments. The basics of gamma-ray astronomy are then described, including the detection methods and techniques. Galactic and extragalactic aspects of the field are addressed in the light of recent discoveries with space-borne and ground-based detectors. The review of neutrinos outlines the status of the investigations of neutrino radiation and brings together relevant formulae, estimations, and background information. Three complementary issues in cosmology are examined: observable predictions of inflation in the early universe, effects of dark energy/modified gravity in the large-scale structure of the universe, and neutrinos in cosmology and large-scale structures. The closing section on gravitational physics reviews issues relating to quantum gravity, atomic precision tests, space-based experiments, the strong field regime, gravitational waves, multi-messengers, and alternative theories of gravity.

On September 15, 2017, the Cassini spacecraft sent its final transmission to the Earth as it entered the atmosphere of Saturn, ending its historic 13 year mission at the ringed planet. This book is a beautifully illustrated journey of discovery through the Saturn system. Cassini's instruments have revealed never seen before details, including the only extraterrestrial lakes known in the solar system, and have provided unprecedented views of the rings, moons, and the planet itself. Results from Cassini's dramatic Grand Finale of ring-grazing and planet-skimming orbits are included in this expanded and updated second edition. Saturn is the jewel of the solar system. The Cassini spacecraft has been exploring the ringed planet and its moons and rings since 2004 and has helped us solve many of its mysteries while generating a wealth of new questions. Cassini has observed the bizarre mountains of Iapetus, the geysers of Enceladus, the lakes of Titan, and the dynamic and evolving rings. Along the way, this book explores and explains the fundamental processes that shape not just the Saturn system, but planets and moons in general. Written for the general audience with an emphasis on the fundamental physics of planetary systems, The Ringed Planet is a fascinating exploration of the Saturn system that places Saturn in the context of the solar system as a whole. Cassini's instruments have revealed Enceladus and Titan to have subsurface oceans of liquid water. Its cameras have returned stunning images of rings in turmoil, a tumbling moon, the only extraterrestrial lakes known in the solar system, a hexagon of clouds, some of the highest mountains in the solar system and much more. More than a journey of discovery at Saturn, The Ringed Planet is also an introduction to how planetary systems work.

This thesis presents significant new results on the problem of understanding the origin of dark energy in cosmology. The work develops an original approach based on modifications of General Relativity at cosmological scales, introducing non -local effective terms that can in principle emerge from fundamental local theories. Both the phenomenological consequences and theoretical aspects of the proposal are developed in depth. The thesis also contains significant new material compared to that published by the author in scientific journals.

This volume contains the written versions of the lectures given at the 26th course of the renowned Saas-Fee series. The book represents a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the field of galaxy interaction. Nowadays, galaxies are no longer seen as immutable objects: they evolve, interact, merge, blaze, and reshape. Dynamic forces can induce powerful stellar activity able to transform the matter composition and morphology of galaxies. The lectures included in this book aim at a better understanding of these remarkable and fascinating phenomena. Though the book is intended for graduate students and young post-docs in astrophysics, it contains more advanced and original material, as well as historical perspectives, which will be of great interest to experts and astronomy teachers also.

The enormous advances in observational techniques over the last two decades has produced a wealth of data and unexpected discoveries which have helped to reshape astrophysics as a field with well-formulated theories and sophisticated numerical calculations. In nuclear particle physics, plasma physics, as well as in general relativity, the Universe has become a laboratory for cutting-edge research. The courses collected in the book are intended to provide students with this insight, giving a general background on each topic such as cosmic rays, nuclear and neutrino astrophysics, solar physics and strong fields, as well as a presentation of the current research and open problems. The book is aimed at graduate students in physics and astrophysics, as well as researchers, bridging a gap between the specialized reviews and the comprehensive books.

Advanced technologies in astronomy at various wavelengths have provided us with high resolution and high quality data on the QSO population. This meeting was aimed at understanding the morphology and nature of the host galaxies and environments of QSOs. The invited lectures as well as the contributed and poster papers highlighted the main issues of current research: the stellar and gaseous content of the underlying galaxy; the characterization of the population of companions and the nature of their interaction with the host galaxy; the connection between radio-loud QSO and radio-galaxies, and QSOs and ULIRGs; the evolution with redshift of both the host galaxy and its environment, and the main implications in theories of galaxy formation and evolution. This volume provides a valuable overview and timely update of the exciting and rapidly developing field of QSO hosts and their environments - essential reading for graduate students and researchers.

Significant advances have been made recently in both the theoretical understanding and observation of small-scale turbulence in different layers of the Sun, and in the instabilities that give rise to them. The general development of solar physics, however, has led to such a degree of specialization as to hinder interaction between workers in the field. This book therefore presents studies of different layers and regions of the Sun, but from the same aspect, concentrating on the study of small-scale motions. The main emphasis is on the common theoretical roots of these phenomena, but the book also contains an extensive treatment of the observational aspects.

This book is written in a pedagogical style intelligible for graduate students. It reviews recent progress in black-hole and wormhole theory and in mathematical cosmology within the framework of Einstein's field equations and beyond, including quantum effects. This collection of essays, written by leading scientists of long standing reputation, should become an indispensable source for future research.

Fundamental unsolved problems of stellar astrophysics include the effects of angular momentum on stellar structure and evolution, the nature and efficiency of the processes by which angular momentum is redistributed within and lost from stars, and the role that stellar rotation plays in enhancing or driving stellar mass loss. There appears to be a qualitative change in the nature and efficiency of these mechanisms near spectral type FO: hotter (more massive) stars typically retain more angular momentum at least until they reach the main sequence, while cooler stars typically spin down quickly. For the hotter stars, recent work suggests a strong link between the type of pulsation behavior, the mass loss rates, and the rotation velocity. If the same mechanisms are able to drive mass loss from the main sequence A stars, as has recently been proposed, then the current interpretations of a number of observations will be drastically affected: e. g. the ages of clusters may be incorrect by up to a factor of two, and the surface abundances of isotopes of He, Li and Be may no longer give constraints on cosmological nucleosynthesis. There are also effects on the evolution of the abundances of elements in the interstellar medium and on the general evolution of populations of stars. Thus the questions of the mechanisms of angular momentum and mass loss of stars more massive than the sun is important not only for stellar studies but for the foundations of much of modern astrophysics.

In this book, the author draws on his broad experience to describe both the theory and the applications of wave propagations. The contents are presented in four parts and the sequence of these parts reflect the development of ionospheric and propagational research in areas such as space research geophysics and communications. The first part of the book presents an outline of the theory of electromagnetic waves propagating in a cold electron plasma. For reference, vector analysis, dyadics and eigenvalues introduced in this part are presented in the appendices. Practical aspects of radio wave propagation are the subject of the second part. The typical conditions in different frequency ranges are discussed and the irregular features of the ionospheric structure such as sound and gravity waves are also considered. Warm plasma and the effects of ions are considered in the third part, which includes a discussion of sound-like waves in electron and ion plasmas. Nonlinear effects and instabilities are described in the fourth part.

If our eyes were radio rather than optical wide-band detectors it is well known that for us the brightest object in the sky would still be the Sun; that planets, stars and the Milky Way would still shine feebly (and that we would still occasionally be blinded by man-made sources). What is less well known is that quite a different earthbound overcast would hover about us, with its climatic zones, its seasonal changes, its unpredictable storms and scintillating transparence. To be sure, we can get a sort of glimpse of this peculiar type of weather when we tune our receiver to radio broad casting from some remote spot, or photograph the Earth from space at certain specific wavelengths. Nevertheless no one has ever looked at the ionized shroud of the Earth without the help of sophisticated apparatus, and this is one of the reasons why in this domain the phenomena are not easily abstracted from the use of specific techniques. For generations, the study of the ionosphere has been deeply interwoven with the practice of radio communication and detection. Today however, ionospheric physics is best thought of as a branch of space physics; that part of physics which deals with processes at work in the solar system and methods developed for its exploration."

These are the proceedings of international conference on Numerical As trophysics 1998 (NAP98), held at National Olympic Memorial Youth Cen ter, in Tokyo, Japan in the period of March 10 - 13, 1998, and hosted by the National Astronomical Observatory, Japan (NAOJ). In the last decade numerical simulations have grown up as a major tool for astrophysics. Numerical simulations give us invaluable informa tion on complex systems and physical processes under extreme conditions which can be neither realized by experiments nor directly observed. Super computers and special purpose computers may work as very large telescopes and special purpose telescopes for theoretical astrophysics, respectively. Nu merical astrophysics ranks with other tool-oriented astronomy such as ra dio astronomy, infrared astronomy, ultraviolet astronomy, X-ray astronomy, and ')'-ray astronomy. This conference, NAP98, was planned to explore recent advances in astrophysics aided by numerical simulations. The subjects of the confer ence included the large-scale structure formation, galaxy formation and evolution, star and planets formation, accretion disks, jets, gravitational wave emission, and plasma physics. NAP98 had also sessions on numerical methods and computer science. The conference was attended by 184 sci entists from 21 countries. We enjoyed excellent talks, posters, videos, and discussions: there are 40 oral presentations, 96 posters and 16 video pre sentations. We hope that these proceedings and accompanying CD-ROM replay the friendly but inspiring atmosphere of the conference."

The reader will find in this volume the Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Maratea-Acquafredda, Italy, between June 29 and July 12, 1997, entitledTHE DYNAMICS OF SMALL BODIES IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM: A MAJOR KEY TO SOLAR SYSTEM STUDIES . This Advanced Study Institute was the latest in the 'Cortina' series of NATO ASI's begun in the early 1970's firstly under the directorship of Professor Victor Szebehely and subsequently under Professor Archie Roy. All, except the latest, were held at the Antonelli Institute, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Many of those now active in the field made their first international contacts at these Institutes. The Institutes bring together many of the brightest of our young people working in dynamical astronomy, celestial mechanics and space science, enabling them to obtain an up-to-date synoptic view of their subjects delivered by lecturers of high international reputation. The proceedings from these institutes have been well-received in the internationalcommunity of research workers in the disciplines studied. The present institute included 15 series of lectures given by invited speakers and some 45 presentations made by the other participants. The majority of these contributions are includedinthese proceedings.

The 37th Annual Denver Conference on Applications of X-Ray Analysis was held August 1-5, 1988, at the Sheraton Steamboat Resort and Conference Center, Steamboat Springs, Colorado. As usual, alternating with x-ray diffraction, the emphasis this year was x-ray fluorescence, but as has been the pattern for several occasions over the last few years, the Plenary Session did not deal with that subject, specifically. In an attempt to introduce the audience to one of the new developments in x-ray analysis, the title of the session was "High Brilliance Sources/Applications," and dealt exclusively with synchrotron radiation, a topic which has made a very large impact on the x-ray community over the last decade. As the organizer and co-chairman of the Plenary Session (with Paul Predecki), it is my responsibility to report on that session here. The Conference had the privilege of obtaining the services of some of the preeminent practitioners of research using this remarkable x-ray source; they presented the audience with unusually lucid descriptions of the work which has been accomplished in the development and application of the continuous, high intensity, tunable, polarized and collimated x-rays available from no facility other than these specialized storage rings. The opening lecture (and I use that term intentionally) was an enthusiastic description of "What is Synchrotron Radiation?" by Professor Boris Batterman of Cornell University and the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Sourc(! (CHESS).

Physics of Planetary Rings describes striking structures of the planetary rings of Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter, and Neptune: Narrow ringlets, spiral waves, and a chain of clumps. The author has contributed essential ideas to the full understanding of planetary rings via the stability analysis of dynamical systems. The combination of a high-quality description, the set of interesting illustrations, as well as the fascinating and natural presentation will make this book of considerable interest to astronomers, physicists, and mathematicians as well as students. There is no competing text for this book so far.

Both the high level of activity in worldwide space exploration programmes and the discovery of extra-solar planets have spurred renewed interest in the physics and evolution dynamics of solar systems. The present book has grown out of a set of lectures by leading experts in the field within the framework of the well-known EADN summer schools. It addresses primarily graduate students and young researchers but will be equally useful for scientists in search of a comprehensive tutorial account that goes beyond the material found in standard textbooks.

The book gathers the invited talks to the XIII JENAM conference, organized this time by the European Astronomical Society (EAS) and the Spanish Astronomical Society (SEA), and hosted by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (CSIC). All branches of astrophysics are encompassed from the largest scales and cosmology to the solar system and the Sun, through the galaxies and the stars, including a section on astronomical instrumentation. Very relevant experts from all over the world speak in a single book about the most recent, exciting results from their fields in a way which is useful for both researchers in these fields and colleagues working in other disciplines. The book is accompanied by a CD-ROM including the remaining contributions of the meeting in PDF format, hence opening a wide panorama of what is going on in astrophysics nowadays.

Recent state-of-the-art technologies in fabricating low-loss optical and mechanical components have significantly motivated the study of quantum-limited measurements with optomechanical devices. Such research is the main subject of this thesis. In the first part, the author considers various approaches for surpassing the standard quantum limit for force measurements. In the second part, the author proposes different experimental protocols for using optomechanical interactions to explore quantum behaviors of macroscopic mechanical objects. Even though this thesis mostly focuses on large-scale laser interferometer gravitational-wave detectors and related experiments, the general approaches apply equally well for studying small-scale optomechanical devices.

The author is the winner of the 2010 Thesis prize awarded by the Gravitational Wave International Committee.

An up-to-date progress report on the current status of solar-terrestrial relation studies with an emphasis on observations by the Russian Interball spacecraft and the Czech Magion subsatellites. Papers in the volume describe the various spacecraft in the International Solar-Terrestrial Program and the research questions that they are being used to address. The emphasis is on correlative studies employing multiple instruments and multiple spacecraft. The book begins with a description of each spacecraft active in 1998 and describes the roles they can play in correlative studies. This is followed by an up-to-date status report concerning ongoing studies of the solar wind, foreshock, bow shock, magnetopause, magnetotail, and ionosphere, with an emphasis on the observations made by the four Interball spacecraft. Readership Researchers and graduate students of space physics and astrophysics.

Relativistic jets are a powerful, spectacular, yet poorly-understood phenomenon associated with accreting black holes and neutron stars. The question of the internal structure - matter content and magnetic field - of relativistic jets is of prime importance for our understanding of the underlying physics. The study of circular polarisation is both challenging and potentially very rewarding, and when applied to relativistic jets has the potential to probe the structure of the jets in unique ways.
This book compiles the contributions, both theoretical and observational, from a three-day workshop held in Amsterdam in July 2002, concerning the study of circular polarisation from relativistic jet sources.

This book represents the Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Insti tute on Formation and Evolution of Low Mass Stars held from 21 September to 2 October 1987 at Viana do Castelo, Portugal. Holding the meeting in Portugal recognized both the historical aspects and the bright future of astronomy in Portugal. In the early sixteenth century, the Portugese played an important role in the critical diffusion of classical and medieval knowledge which formed so large a part of scientific activity at that time. Navigation and course setting, brought to a high level by Portugese explorers, relied on mathematics and astronomy to produce precise tables of solar positions. In contemporary Portu gal, astronomy is the focus of renewed interest and support at the universities. It is thus particularly appropriate that the NATO Advanced Study Institute was held on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the friendly surroundings of the Costa Verde.

The evolution of life on Earth during the last four billion years has not been uniform. Several distinct periods of mass extinction are known, the last led to the extinction of the dinosaurs some 60 million years ago. The causes for these mass extinctions are, at least in some cases, cosmic catastrophes, such as impacts of asteroid sized bodies, nearby supernova explosions etc. It is also well known that the last ice ages are triggered by variations of different parameters of the Earth'r orbit about the Sun. Cosmic catastrophes therefore have to be considered when evolution of life on planets are discussed, especially the question of habitability on them.
In this book we first discuss habitability not only on planets (in the solar system as well in extrasolar planetary systems) but also on satellites of giant planets. Life needs some energy source which is provided either by the central star of a planetary system or by tidal forces exerted by a giant planet on a large satellite of it. On Earth it took about four billion years for intelligent life to evolve. Such a long time span (which is about 1/3 of the total age of the universe) requires rather stable conditions. We therefore investigate in detail how cosmic catastrophes may destroy life, and at the same time lead to the evolution of new species. Catastrophes therefore seem to be essential for evolution to higher lifeforms.
With the recent advances of biology, the detection of extrasolar planetary systems, the great advancement of our knowledge about the chemical and physical processes that enable life, these questions can be answered in much more detail than several years ago. The reader is provided with an introduction into the various topics and for further details recent literature is cited. It will be also stressed that the evolution of life on Earth is not only connected with the existence of a stable long-lived star, the Sun, but also depends on conditions and distribution of mass in the planetary system (the existence of giant planets at a certain distance from the Sun), the existence of the Moon (which stabilizes the Earth's rotational axis), the location of the solar system in the galaxy and other factors. Primitive forms of life, however, may require less stringent environmental conditions as the detection of extremophiles has proven.

This volume contains the detailed text of the major lectures and the abstracts of the lectures delivered during the seminar sessions. The subject of our NATO Advanced Study Institute in 1981 was the Application of Modern Dynamics to Celestial Mechanics and Astrodynamics. This Preface will first explain the terminology, then it will review shortly the content of the lectures and will outline how all this was made possible and, finally, it will disclose our future aspirations. Periodicity is an extremely important concept in our field, therefore, it should not be unexpected that our NATO Advanced Study Institute is enjoying a period of three years. Since 1972 we conducted four Institutes with increasing interest and en thusiasm displayed by the participants, lecturers and by this Director. Celestial Mechanics or Dynamical Astronomy is part of Astronomy dealing mostly with the motion of natural celestial bodies. Astrodynamics or Orbital Mechanics is the application of dynamics to problems of Space Engineering and it treats mostly the dynamical behavior of artificial satellites and space probes. The underlying mathematical and dynamical principles are, of course, the same for Celestial Mechanics and for Astrodynamics. This Director of the Institute and Editor of the Proceedings was extremely fortunate to have obtained the cooperation of out standing lecturers who were clear, thorough, understandable, patient to answer questions, but above all, had knowledge of the ix V. Szebehely (ed.). Applications of Modern Dynamics to Celestial Mechanics and Astrodynamics. ix-x."