Relativistic Astrophysics of the Transient Universe: Gravitation, Hydrodynamics and Radiation

Description

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.

Maurice H. P. M. Van Putten is a Professor in the School of Physics, Korea Institute for Advanced Study. His focus is on radiation processes around rotating black holes, gravitational radiation and ultra high energy cosmic rays. Amir Levinson is a Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University. His research interests include high-energy astrophysics, radiation processes in relativistic outflows, and plasma astrophysics.

'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