High Energy Astrophysics an Introduction

The raw numbers of high-energy-density physics are amazing: shock waves at hundreds of km/s (approaching a million km per hour), temperatures of millions of degrees, and pressures that exceed 100 million atmospheres. This title surveys the production of high-energy-density conditions, the fundamental plasma and hydrodynamic models that can describe them and the problem of scaling from the laboratory to the cosmos. Connections to astrophysics are discussed throughout.

This textbook is intended as an introduction to the physics of solar and stellar coronae, emphasizing kinetic plasma processes. It is addressed to observational astronomers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates without a back­ ground in plasma physics. Coronal physics is today a vast field with many different aims and goals. Sort­ ing out the really important aspects of an observed phenomenon and using the physics best suited for the case is a formidable problem.

The past decade has seen the emergence and rapid development of particle physics experiments performed in underground laboratories and other non-accelerator installations. Such work allows profound questions of particle physics beyond the capabilities of modern accelerators to be attacked. At a time when elementary particle physics has reached a stage at which it places extreme requirements on new generations of accelerators, such work increases in importance.