Protostars and Planets V


Book Description

'Protostars and Planets V' builds on the latest results from recent advances in ground and space-based astronomy and in numerical computing techniques to offer the most detailed and up-to-date picture of star and planet formation - including the formation and early evolution of our own solar system.




The First Stars


Book Description

The formation of the first stars (Pop III stars) and galaxies is one of the great outstanding challenges in modern astrophysics and cosmology. The first stars are likely key drivers for early cosmic evolution and will be at the center of attention over the next decade. The best available space and ground-based telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope probe the Universe to high redshifts and provide us with tantalizing hints; but they cannot yet directly detect the first generation of stars and the formation of the first galaxies. This is left as key science for future telecopes like the James Webb Space Telescope. This book is based in part on classroom tested lectures related to Pop III stars, but also draws from the author's review articles of the main physical principles involved. The book will thus combine pedagogical introductory chapters with more advanced ones to survey the cutting-edge advances from the frontier of research. It covers the theory of first star formation, the relation between first stars and dark matter, their impact on cosmology, their observational signatures, the transition to normal star formation as well as the assembly of the first galaxies. It will prepare students for interpreting observational findings and their cosmological implications.




Adaptive Mesh Refinement - Theory and Applications


Book Description

Advanced numerical simulations that use adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) methods have now become routine in engineering and science. Originally developed for computational fluid dynamics applications these methods have propagated to fields as diverse as astrophysics, climate modeling, combustion, biophysics and many others. The underlying physical models and equations used in these disciplines are rather different, yet algorithmic and implementation issues facing practitioners are often remarkably similar. Unfortunately, there has been little effort to review the advances and outstanding issues of adaptive mesh refinement methods across such a variety of fields. This book attempts to bridge this gap. The book presents a collection of papers by experts in the field of AMR who analyze past advances in the field and evaluate the current state of adaptive mesh refinement methods in scientific computing.




Star Formation in Galaxy Evolution: Connecting Numerical Models to Reality


Book Description

This book contains the elaborated and updated versions of the 24 lectures given at the 43rd Saas-Fee Advanced Course. Written by four eminent scientists in the field, the book reviews the physical processes related to star formation, starting from cosmological down to galactic scales. It presents a detailed description of the interstellar medium and its link with the star formation. And it describes the main numerical computational techniques designed to solve the equations governing self-gravitating fluids used for modelling of galactic and extra-galactic systems. This book provides a unique framework which is needed to develop and improve the simulation techniques designed for understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies. Presented in an accessible manner it contains the present day state of knowledge of the field. It serves as an entry point and key reference to students and researchers in astronomy, cosmology, and physics.




New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics


Book Description

Driven by discoveries, and enabled by leaps in technology and imagination, our understanding of the universe has changed dramatically during the course of the last few decades. The fields of astronomy and astrophysics are making new connections to physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science. Based on a broad and comprehensive survey of scientific opportunities, infrastructure, and organization in a national and international context, New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics outlines a plan for ground- and space- based astronomy and astrophysics for the decade of the 2010's. Realizing these scientific opportunities is contingent upon maintaining and strengthening the foundations of the research enterprise including technological development, theory, computation and data handling, laboratory experiments, and human resources. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics proposes enhancing innovative but moderate-cost programs in space and on the ground that will enable the community to respond rapidly and flexibly to new scientific discoveries. The book recommends beginning construction on survey telescopes in space and on the ground to investigate the nature of dark energy, as well as the next generation of large ground-based giant optical telescopes and a new class of space-based gravitational observatory to observe the merging of distant black holes and precisely test theories of gravity. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics recommends a balanced and executable program that will support research surrounding the most profound questions about the cosmos. The discoveries ahead will facilitate the search for habitable planets, shed light on dark energy and dark matter, and aid our understanding of the history of the universe and how the earliest stars and galaxies formed. The book is a useful resource for agencies supporting the field of astronomy and astrophysics, the Congressional committees with jurisdiction over those agencies, the scientific community, and the public.




Literature 1991, Part 2


Book Description

"Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts" appearing twice a year has become oneof the fundamental publications in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics andneighbouring sciences. It is the most important English-language abstracting journal in the mentioned branches. The abstrats are classified under more than a hundred subject categories, thus permitting a quick survey of the whole extended material. The AAA is a valuable and important publication for all students and scientists working in the fields of astronomy and related sciences. As such it represents a necessary ingredient of any astronomical library all over the world.







Gas Accretion onto Galaxies


Book Description

This edited volume presents the current state of gas accretion studies from both observational and theoretical perspectives, and charts our progress towards answering the fundamental yet elusive question of how galaxies get their gas. Understanding how galaxies form and evolve has been a central focus in astronomy for over a century. These studies have accelerated in the new millennium, driven by two key advances: the establishment of a firm concordance cosmological model that provides the backbone on which galaxies form and grow, and the recognition that galaxies grow not in isolation but within a “cosmic ecosystem” that includes the vast reservoir of gas filling intergalactic space. This latter aspect in which galaxies continually exchange matter with the intergalactic medium via inflows and outflows has been dubbed the “baryon cycle”. The topic of this book is directly related to the baryon cycle, in particular its least well constrained aspect, namely gas accretion. Accretion is a rare area of astrophysics in which the basic theoretical predictions are established, but the observations have been as yet unable to verify the expectations. Accretion has long been seen around the Milky Way in so-called High Velocity Clouds, but detecting accretion even around nearby galaxies has proved challenging; its multi-phase nature requires sensitive observations across the electromagnetic spectrum for full characterization. A promising approach involves looking for kinematic signatures, but accretion signatures are often confused with internal motions within galaxies. Accretion studies therefore touch a wide range of astrophysical processes, and hence a wide cross-section of the astronomical community. As observational facilities are finally able to access the wavelength ranges and depths at which accretion processes may be manifest, the time is right to survey these multiple lines of investigation and determine the state of the field in accretion studies of the baryon cycle.







The Initial Mass Function 50 Years Later


Book Description

Theideatocelebrate50yearsoftheSalpeterIMFoccurredduringtherecent IAU General Assembly in Sydney, Australia. Indeed, it was from Australia that in July 1954 Ed Salpeter submitted his famous paper "The Luminosity Function and Stellar Evolution" with the rst derivation of the empirical stellar IMF. This contribution was to become one of the most famous astrophysics papers of the last 50 years. Here, Ed Salpeter introduced the terms "original mass function" and "original luminosity function", and estimated the pro- bility for the creation of stars of given mass at a particular time, now known as the "Salpeter Initial Mass Function", or IMF. The paper was written at the Australian National University in Canberra on leave of absence from Cornell University (USA) and was published in 1955 as 7 page note in the Astroph- ical Journal Vol. 121, page 161. To celabrate the 50th anniversary of the IMF, along with Ed Salpeter’s 80th birthday, we have organized a special meeting that brought together scientists involved in the empirical determination of this fundamental quantity in a va- ety of astrophysical contexts and other scientists fascinated by the deep imp- cations of the IMF on star formation theories, on the physical conditions of the gas before and after star formation, and on galactic evolution and cosmology. The meeting took place in one of the most beautiful spots of the Tuscan countryside, far from the noise and haste of everyday life.