Introduction to Black Hole Astrophysics

This book is based on the lecture notes of a one-semester course on black hole astrophysics given by the author and is aimed at advanced undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in astrophysics.

The material included goes beyond that found in classic textbooks and presents details on astrophysical manifestations of black holes. In particular, jet physics and detailed accounts of objects like microquasars, active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts, and ultra-luminous X-ray sources are covered, as well as advanced topics like black holes in alternative theories of gravity.

The author avoids unnecessary technicalities and to some degree the book is self-contained. The reader will find some basic general relativity tools in Chapter 1. The appendices provide some additional mathematical details that will be useful for further study, and a guide to the bibliography on the subject.

Autorentext

Prof. Romero has worked on AGN and black holes for more than 20 years and is a recognised scientist in the field

Inhalt

Space-time and Gravitation.- Black Holes.- Black Hole Physics.- Accretion onto Black Holes.- Jets.- Evidence for Black Holes.- Wormholes and Exotic Objects.- Black Holes and Cosmology.- Topology and Manifolds.- Selected and Annotated Bibliography.