Cosmic catastrophes : exploding stars, black holes, and mapping the universe /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Wheeler, J. Craig.
Edition:	2nd ed.
Imprint:	Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Description:	xviii, 339 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Stars. Supernovae. Black holes (Astronomy) Hyperspace. Black holes (Astronomy) Hyperspace. Stars. Supernovae.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/6230609

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780521857147 0521857147
Notes:	Previous edition: 2000. Includes index.
Summary:	From supernovae and gamma-ray bursts to the accelerating Universe, this is an exploration of the intellectual threads that lead to some of the most exciting ideas in modern astrophysics and cosmology. This fully updated second edition incorporates new material on binary stars, black holes, gamma-ray bursts, wormholes, quantum gravity, and string theory. It covers the origins of stars and their evolution; the mechanisms responsible for supernovae, and their progeny; neutron stars, and black holes. It examines the theoretical ideas behind black holes and their manifestation in observational astronomy, and presents neutron stars in all their variety known today. In addition to recent developments in astrophysics, this book also covers the physics of the twentieth century, discussing quantum theory and Einstein's gravity; how these two theories collide, and the prospects for their reconciliation in the twenty first century. This will be essential reading for undergraduate students in astronomy and astrophysics, and an excellent, accessible introduction for a wider audience.

Table of Contents:

Preface
1. Setting the stage: star formation and hydrogen burning in single stars
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Background
1.3. Evolution
2. Stellar death: the inexorable grip of gravity
2.1. Red giants
2.2. Stellar winds
2.3. Quantum deregulation
2.4. Core collapse
2.5. Transfiguration
3. Dancing with stars: binary stellar evolution
3.1. Multiple stars
3.2. Stellar orbits
3.3. Roche lobes: the cult symbol
3.4. The first stage of binary evolution: the Algol paradox
3.5. Mass transfer
3.6. Large separation
3.7. Small separation
3.8. Evolution of the second star
3.9. Common-envelope phase
3.10. Gravitational radiation
4. Accretion disks: flat stars
4.1. The third object
4.2. How a disk forms
4.3. Let there be light - and X-rays
4.4. A source of friction
4.5. A life of its own
4.6. Fat centers? the DAF zoo
5. White dwarfs: quantum dots
5.1. Single white dwarfs
5.2. Cataclysmic variables
5.3. The origin of cataclysmic variables
5.4. The final evolution of cataclysmic variables
6. Supernovae: stellar catastrophes
6.1. Observations
6.2. The fate of massive stars
6.3. Element factories
6.4. Collapse and explosion
6.5. Polarization and jets: new observations and new concepts
6.6. Type Ia supernovae: the peculiar breed
6.7. Light curves: radioactive nickel
7. Supernova 1987A: lessons and enigmas
7.1. The large magellanic cloud awakes
7.2. The onset
7.3. Lessons from the progenitor
7.4. Neutrinos!
7.5. Neutron star?
7.6. The light curve
7.7. This cow's not spherical
7.8. Rings and jets
7.9. Other firsts
8. Neutron stars: atoms with attitude
8.1. History - theory leads, for once
8.2. The nature of pulsars - not little green men
8.3. Pulsars and supernovae - a game of hide and seek
8.4. Neutron star structure - iron skin and superfluid guts
8.5. Binary pulsars - "tango por dos"
8.6. X-rays from neutron stars - hints of a violent Universe
8.7. X-ray flares - a story retold
8.8. The Rapid Burster - none of the above
8.9. Millisecond pulsars
8.10. Soft gamma-ray repeaters - reach out and touch someone
8.11. Geminga
9. Black holes in theory: into the abyss
9.1. Why black holes?
9.2. The event horizon
9.3. Singularity
9.4. Being a treatise on the general nature of death within a black hole
9.5. Black holes in space and time
9.6. Black-hole evaporation: Hawking radiation
9.7. Fundamental properties of black holes
9.8. Inside black holes
10. Black holes in fact: exploring the reality
10.1. The search for black holes
10.2. Cygnus X-1
10.3. Other suspects
10.4. Black-hole X-ray novae
10.5. The nature of the outburst
10.6. Lessons from the X-rays
10.7. SS 433
10.8. Miniquasars
10.9. Giants among us
10.10. The middle ground
11. Gamma-ray bursts, black holes and the Universe: long, long ago and far, far away
11.1. Gamma-ray bursts: yet another cosmic mystery
11.2. The revolution
11.3. The shape of things
11.4. The supernova and gamma-ray-burst connection
11.5. The possibilities: birth pangs of black holes?
11.6. The short hard bursts
11.7. The future
11.8. The past in our future: the Dark Ages
12. Supernovae and the Universe
12.1. Our expanding Universe
12.2. The shape of the Universe
12.3. The age of the Universe
12.4. The fate of the Universe
12.5. Dark matter
12.6. Vacuum energy - Einstein's blunder that wasn't
12.7. Type Ia supernovae as calibrated candles and understood candles
12.8. Supernovae and cosmology
12.9. Acceleration!
12.10. The shape of the Universe revisited
12.11. Dark energy
12.12. The fate of the Universe revisited
13. Wormholes and time machines: tunnels in space and time
13.1. The mystery of time
13.2. Wormholes
13.3. Time machines
14. Beyond: the frontiers
14.1. Quantum gravity
14.2. When the singularity is not a singularity
14.3. Hyperspace perspectives
14.4. String theory
14.5. Brane worlds
14.6. A holographic Universe
14.7. Coda
Index

Cosmic catastrophes : exploding stars, black holes, and mapping the universe /

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