Astrophysics for Physicists

Designed as a textbook for teaching astrophysics to physics students at advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate level.

Arnab Rai Choudhuri (Author)

9780521815536, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 March 2010

490 pages, 126 b/w illus. 88 exercises
25.5 x 17.8 x 2.6 cm, 1.12 kg

'As one would anticipate from the author's background in solar magnetohydrodynamics, Astrophysics for Physicists contains good passages on fluids, plasmas, magnetic fields, and general relativity, and it provides strong mathematically based discussions of many of the important areas of astrophysics. It stresses theory, but also discusses several experimental and observational topics … To Choudhuri's credit, the book is overall fairly up to date in most areas … [It] represents a useful learning framework and theoretical reference tool for the newcomer and a quick reference for those working in related areas. Overall I rate it as a solid up-to-date text.' George Smoot, Nobel laureate, Physics Today

Designed for teaching astrophysics to physics students at advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate level, this textbook also provides an overview of astrophysics for astrophysics graduate students, before they delve into more specialized volumes. Assuming background knowledge at the level of a physics major, the textbook develops astrophysics from the basics without requiring any previous study in astronomy or astrophysics. Physical concepts, mathematical derivations and observational data are combined in a balanced way to provide a unified treatment. Topics such as general relativity and plasma physics, which are not usually covered in physics courses but used extensively in astrophysics, are developed from first principles. While the emphasis is on developing the fundamentals thoroughly, recent important discoveries are highlighted at every stage.

1. Introduction
2. Interaction of radiation with matter
3. Stellar astrophysics I: basic theoretical ideas and observational data
4. Stellar astrophysics II: nucleosynthesis and other advanced topics
5. End states of stellar collapse
6. Our galaxy and its interstellar matter
7. Elements of stellar dynamics
8. Elements of plasma astrophysics
9. Extragalactic astronomy
10. The spacetime dynamics of the Universe
11. The thermal history of the Universe
12. Elements of tensors and general relativity
13. Some applications of general relativity
14. Relativistic cosmology
Appendixes
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Astrophysics [PHVB], Physics [PH]