High Energy Astrophysics

Malcolm S. Longair is Emeritus Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy and Director of Development at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge. He has held many senior positions in physics and astronomy, and has served on and chaired many national and international committees, boards and panels, working with both NASA and the European Space Agency. He has received much recognition for his work, including a CBE in the millennium honours list for his services to astronomy and cosmology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Academia Lincei and the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Arte e Literatura.

Part I. Astronomical Background: 1. High energy astrophysics - an introduction; 2. The stars and stellar evolution; 3. The galaxies; 4. Clusters of galaxies; Part II. Physical Processes: 5. Ionisation losses; 6. Radiation of accelerated charged particles and bremsstrahlung of electrons; 7. The dynamics of charged particles in magnetic fields; 8. Synchrotron radiation; 9. Interactions of high energy photons; 10. Nuclear interactions; 11. Aspects of plasma physics and magnetohydrodynamics; Part III. High Energy Astrophysics in our Galaxy: 12. Interstellar gas and magnetic fields; 13. Dead stars; 14. Accretion power in astrophysics; 15. Cosmic rays; 16. The origin of cosmic rays in our galaxy; 17. The acceleration of high energy particles; Part IV. Extragalactic High Energy Astrophysics: 18. Active galaxies; 19. Black holes in the nuclei of galaxies; 20. The vicinity of the black hole; 21. Extragalactic radio sources; 22. Compact extragalactic sources and superluminal motions; 23. Cosmological aspects of high energy astrophysics; Appendix; References; Index.