Product Description
High-energy astrophysics involves the study of exceedingly dynamic and energetic phenomena occurring near the most extreme celestial objects known to exist, such as black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, and supernova remnants. High-Energy Astrophysics provides graduate and advanced undergraduate students with the most complete, self-contained introduction to the subject available. This textbook covers all the essentials, weaving together the latest theory with t… More >>
#1 by Dennis Evans on June 29, 2010 - 2:28 am
There is something for everyone in this book. People interested in
observational techniques and data will appreciate the overview in the
first few chapters. Those more interested in the theoretical
interpretation of high-energy sources will find ample discussion of
the physical principles underlying these objects in the rest of the
book. But don’t expect to see the most complete discussion of this
subject here. This book is intended more as a compact overview of the
central topics, and in this regard, it works quite well. I found the
list of references particularly helpful. Anyone interested in learning
more about any particular sub-topic will find the references up-to-date
and very relevant. Overall, this will make a great addition to your
library.
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by Patty144 on June 29, 2010 - 4:27 am
Though HE astrophysics is a rapidly developing scientific discipline,
there hasn’t yet appeared a modern book written to present the many
advances being made in this field—until now. Melia’s HE Astrophysics
fills that void with a well-thought out list of topics, including both
the experimental and theoretical elements of this important branch of
astronomy and astrophysics. There is probably too much information here
to cover in a single-semester class, but the student will find it easy
to read beyond the material assigned to any given course that adopts
this book, since Melia’s writing style is elegant and compact. I found
it also interesting that the problems and solutions are being
distributed in a separate volume. No doubt this separation was chosen
to make it easier for someone other than a student interested in this
field to read it as a monograph rather than a textbook. All in all,
this book belongs on the shelves of any serious astronomer or
astrophysicist, alongside Weinberg’s classic book on Gravitation, and
Rybicki’s book on Radiative Processes. Over time, it will become one
of the most important selections in Princeton’s famed astrophysics
series which, by the way, includes another classic book, Binney’s
Galactic Dynamics.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by OrangeCrush on June 29, 2010 - 6:22 am
“A teaspoon full of matter from a Neutron star weighs more than all of humanity combined and dropping a marshmallow onto the surface of a neutron star releases energy equivalent to a medium sized atomic bomb.”
This is the world of high energy astrophysics.
I actually read that snippet from this book while in the bookstore and boy did it really catch my interest. I am not an Astrophysicist or an Astronomer. In fact I am not even a scientist. I am an architectural photographer who just happens to be a space junkie. I am an amateur backyard astronomer and do a lot of astrophotoghraphy, the sun being my favorite subject. With that being said I do a lot of astronomy/physics reading, both online and offline. I personally find the subjects involved in high energy astrophysics to be the most interesting. Black holes, Neutron Stars, White Dwarfs, SuperNova remnants, Magnetars etc.. They just fascinate me like very few things can.
This book gives an outstanding overview to the field of high energy astrophysics but be forewarned, this is not an easy read as its intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. High energy astrophysics involves the study of phenomena occurring near the most extreme celestial objects known to exist. Again this includes such objects as Black Holes, SuperNova remnants, White Dwarfs, Magnetars, Pulsars, galaxy clusters, gamma-ray burts etc..
This book covers all the bases including observational methods, experimental techniques, and the instrumentation used to study these objects. I personally found the information on instrumentation to be extremely fascinating and very well written. Even tho there were parts of this book that were clearly over my “level”, I still found this book to be an amazing read and overall I learned a lot about this field, the subject matter, and techniques used to study such phenomena. Its easily one of the best astronomy books I have read yet.
If your interested in such subject matter and have a good background in astronomy, physics, and mathematics then this book should definitely be on your bookshelf.
5 stars!!
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by Michael A. Duvernois on June 29, 2010 - 8:18 am
I have always taught this class from Longair’s classic texts (High Energy Astrophysics: Volume 1, Particles, Photons and their Detection and High Energy Astrophysics: Volume 2, Stars, the Galaxy and the Interstellar Medium), but would probably use this book instead when I next teach HE astrophysics. This book is clean, concise, well organized, and well written. Its primary fault is tangled in there with its positive attributes. Sometimes it’s just too concise and doesn’t go into enough depth. It’s probably a better textbook than a reference book.
Rating: 5 / 5