High-energy astrophysics: the cosmos at its extremes

The textbook “Introduction to High-Energy Astrophysics”, published by Cambridge University Press, explores one of most active research fields of modern astrophysics and addresses cosmic phenomena that occur under the most extreme physical conditions. The book, authored by Stephan Rosswog and Marcus Bruggen, both professors of astrophysics at Jacobs University, is now available.

[ Aug 03, 2007]  High-energy astrophysics explores the most violent events in the Universe: the explosion of stars, matter falling into black holes, and gamma-ray bursts - the most luminous explosions since the Big Bang. Driven by a wealth of new observations, the last decade has seen a large leap forward in the understanding of these phenomena. Exploring modern topics of high-energy astrophysics, such as supernovae, neutron stars, compact binary systems, gamma-ray bursts, and active galactic nuclei, the authors provide an insight into the latest developments in this topical branch of physics.

The book is ideal for undergraduate students in high-energy astrophysics and helps to get a timely overview of this exciting area of research. Assuming a familiarity with basic physics, the book introduces all other concepts, such as gas dynamics or radiation processes, in an instructive way. An extended appendix gives an overview of some of the most important high-energy astrophysics instruments, and each chapter ends with exercises.