Astrophysicists and other students of the Sun will find this expansive coverage of waves and oscillations in our nearest star an informative introduction to a hot contemporary topic. It covers a wealth of aspects from basic electrodynamics to helioseismology.

An Introduction to Waves and Oscillations in the Sun is intended for students and researchers who work in the area of solar and astrophysics. This book contains an introduction to the Sun, basics of electrodynamics, magneto-hydrodynamics for force-free and current-free fields. It deals with waves in uniform media with relevance to sound waves and Alfven waves, and with waves in non-uniform media like surface waves or waves in a slab and cylindrical geometry. It also touches on instabilities in fluids and observational signatures of oscillations. Finally, there is an introduction to the area of helio-seismology, which deals with the internal structure of the Sun.

Presents the theoretical studies pertaining to the wave motions and vibrations of the Sun Presents the observational signatures of oscillations, as well as simulation results and nonlinear studies Provides a good starting point for graduate students and researchers in solar physics and astrophysics

Autorentext
Dr. A. Satya Narayanan is a faculty member at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India in 1982. He was one of the Mathematicians selected for the prestigious Research Scientist position by the UGC, India, in the year 1984. He joined the Indian Institute of Astrophysics as a visiting fellow in 1990 and is presently an Associate Professor. Dr. Narayanan has published many papers in reputed and refereed journals (both national as well as international). He has visited many countries in Europe, the U. K., Japan, and Singapore to attend meetings as well as to deliver lectures. He is one of the editors of the conference proceedings for a spectroscopy meeting held at Kodaikanal, India, in 2009, published by Springer-Verlag.

Klappentext

Astrophysicists and others studying the Sun will find this expansive coverage of what we know about waves and oscillations in our nearest star an informative introduction to a hot contemporary topic. After a section summarizing the Sun's physical characteristics, the volume moves on to explore the basics of electrodynamics, which in turn facilitate a discussion of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). The material also details the often complex nature of waves and oscillations in uniform and non-uniform media, before categorizing the observational signatures of oscillations and exploring the instabilities in fluid, dealing with a range of known forms. Lastly, a section on helioseismology explores our growing familiarity with the internal structure of the Sun.

This book is a unified portal to a thorough grounding in solar waves that includes a wealth of explanatory vignettes demystifying concepts such as flux tubes, current-free and force-free magnetic fields, the prominences, and the relationship between the vorticity and the induction equation. It also sets out the elegant Parker solution describing the phenomenon of solar wind. The volume will inspire readers with the unbridled enthusiasm of astrophysicists who view the Sun as a giant natural plasma laboratory, in interstellar terms located right on our doorstep, in which they can apply and then verify experimental and theoretical studies on plasma through their own observation

Inhalt

Chapter 1: Introduction.- 1.1: Historical Perspectives.- 1.2: The Core of the Sun.- 1.3: Radiative Zone.- 1.4: Convection Zone.- 1.5: Photosphere.- 1.6: Chromosphere.- 1.7: Corona.- 1.8: Solar Wind.- Chapter 2: Electro-Magneto Statics.- 2.1: Charge and Current Distributions.- 2.2: Coulomb's Law.- 2.3: Gauss's Law.- 2.4: Ampere's Law.- 2.5: Faraday's Law.- 2.6: Vector Magnetic Potential.- 2.7: Maxwell's Equations.- Chapter 3: MHD Equations and Concepts.- 3.1: Assumptions.- 3.2: Dimensionless Parameters.- 3.3: Mass Continuity.- 3.4: Equations of Motion.- 3.5: Energy Equation.- 3.6: MHD Equilibrium.- 3.7: Magnetic Flux Tubes.- 3.8: Current-free (Potential) fields.- 3.9: Force-Free Fields.- 3.10: Parker's Solution for Solar Wind.- Chapter 4: Waves in Uniform Media.- 4.1: Basic Equations.- 4.2: SoundWaves.- 4.3: Alfv'enWaves.- 4.4: Shear Alfv'enWaves.- 4.5: Compressional Alfv'enWaves.- 4.6: Magneto acoustic Waves.- 4.7: Internal and Magneto acoustic Gravity Waves.- 4.8: Phase-Mixing and Resonant Absorption of Waves.- Chapter 5: Waves in Non-Uniform Media- 5.1: Waves at Magnetic Interface.- 5.2: Surface and InterfacialWaves.- 5.3: Waves in a Magnetic Slab.- 5.4: Waves in Cylindrical Geometries.- 5.5: Waves in Untwisted and Twisted Tubes.- Chapter 6: Instabilities.- 6.1: Introduction.- 6.2: Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) Instability.- 6.3: Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) Instability.- 6.4: Parametric Instability.- 6.5: Parker Instability.- Chapter 7: Waves in the Sun.- 7.1: Five minute oscillations.- 7.2: Oscillations in Sunspots.- 7.3: Chromospheric Oscillations.- 7.4: CoronalWaves.- 7.5: Coronal Seismology.- 7.6: Coronal Heating due to Waves.- 7.7: EIT and MoretonWaves.- Chapter 8: Heliosesimology.- 8.1: Equations of Motion.- 8.2: Equilibrium Structure.- 8.3: Perturbation Analysis.- 8.4: Acoustic Waves.- 8.5: Internal Gravity Waves.- 8.6: Equations of Linear Stellar Oscillations.- 8.7: Properties of Solar Oscillations (Internal).- 8.8: p and g modes.- References.- Index.