Relativistic Astrophysics of the Transient Universe
Gravitation, Hydrodynamics and Radiation

Unified treatment of electromagnetic, hadronic and gravitational radiation processes associated with relativistic outflows from compact objects.

Maurice H. P. M. Van Putten (Author), Amir Levinson (Author), Gerard t'Hooft (Foreword by)

9781107010734, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 July 2012

354 pages, 92 b/w illus. 70 exercises
25.2 x 17.8 x 2.2 cm, 0.84 kg

'Van Putten and Levinson have made an enjoyable compilation of all those strange things that can happen in our Universe, not only providing detailed physical calculations to understand them, but also including descriptions of all the channels of radiation that we can use to receive as much information about them as we can.' Gerard 't Hooft, Utrecht University, from the Foreword

In this decade, the transient universe will be mapped out in great detail by the emerging wide-field multiwavelength surveys, and neutrino and gravitational-wave detectors, promising to probe the astronomical and physical origin of the most extreme relativistic sources. This volume introduces the physical processes relevant to the source modeling of the transient universe. Ideal for graduate students and researchers in astrophysics, this book gives a unified treatment of relativistic flows associated with compact objects, their dissipation and emission in electromagnetic, hadronic and gravitational radiation. After introducing the source classes, the authors set out various mechanisms for creating magnetohydodynamic outflows in winds, jets and blast waves and their radiation properties. They then go on to discuss properties of accretion flows around rotating black holes and their gravitational wave emission from wave instabilites with implications for the emerging gravitational wave experiments. Graduate students and researchers can gain an understanding of data analysis for gravitational-wave data.

1. A zoo of astrophysical transient sources
2. Electromagnetic radiation processes
3. Curved space time and gravitational waves
4. Hadronic processes and neutrino emissions
5. Relativistic fluid dynamics
6. Winds and jets
7. Relativistic shock waves
8. Relativistic blast waves
9. Accretion disks and tori
10. Entropic attraction in black hole binaries
11. Transient sources from rotating black holes
12. Searching for long bursts in gravitational waves
13. Epilogue: the multimessenger transient universe
Index.

Subject Areas: Cosmology & the universe [PGK], Astronomy, space & time [PG], Mathematics & science [P]