Introduction to Black Hole Astrophysics Eazydoc.com

This book is based on the lecture notes of a one-semester course on black hole astrophysics given by the author and is aimed at advanced undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in astrophysics.

As a result of significant research over the past 20 years, black holes are now linked to some of the most spectacular and exciting phenomena in the Universe, ranging in size from those that have the same mass as stars to the super-massive objects that lie at the heart of most galaxies, including our own Milky Way. This book first introduces the properties of simple isolated holes, then adds in complications like rotation, accretion, radiation, and magnetic fields, finally arriving at a basic understanding of how these immense engines work.

For the last eighteen years, I have been teaching an introductory course in as­ trophysics. The course is intended for nonscience majors satisfying a general education requirement in natural science. It is a physics course with applications in astronomy. The only prerequisite is the high school mathematics required for ad­ mission to the university. For a number of years, I used an astronomy text, which I supplemented with lecture notes on physics. There are many good astronomy texts available, but this was not a satisfactory state of affairs, since the course is a physics course. The students needed a physics text that focused on astronomical applications.

This book discusses such topics as extra-galactic radio sources, unified models of black hole accretion, wave propagation theory, cryovolcanism in the solar system, and the early oceans of Earth.