Encyclopedia of Astrophysics, Five Volume Set is a brand new, up to date reference work consisting of 153 chapters, headed up by an editorial board of world-leading astrophysicists. It provides a first point of entry to the literature for all graduate/post-graduate students and early career-researchers working in and studying physics, especially those with an interest in astrophysics and cosmology. It is indispensable to all serious readers in the interdisciplinary areas where astrophysics is of utility.
With a clear and logical template binding all chapters, content is divided into the following five sections, each of which contains chapters written by leading scientists who have evaluated and summarized the most important data published within the field:
- Cosmology: including Big Bang, dark matter, dark energy, Hubble’s law, cosmic microwave background, distance ladder, BAO, lensing, tests of general relativity
- Galaxies: including morphology, galaxy zoo, active galactic nuclei, star formation / feedback / quenching, blue & red peaks and green valley, galactic chemical evolution, galaxy groups & clusters, young stellar / globular / nuclear clusters & dynamics, inter-stellar medium
- Stars: including star formation, stellar evolution, the Sun as a star, asteroseismology, stellar rotation, stellar winds, binary interactions (tides, mass transfer, common envelopes, luminous red novae…), chemical abundance, evolution
- Compact objects: including white dwarfs, neutron stars (pulsars), black holes, supernovae (type IA vs core-collapse), accretion, Eddington limit, X-ray binaries, supermassive black holes, tidal disruption events, mergers: gamma ray bursts, kilonovae, gravitational waves
- (Exo)planets: including formation, Solar system, comets / meteors, dynamics, stability, exoplanet observations (radial velocity, transits)
Advanced interactive features such as videos and 3D viewers are included, significantly increasing the practicality and learning outcomes for the modern-day reader for whom online usage is preferred. The result is the ideal one-stop foundational resource to the complex field of astrophysics and an essential tool for physicists to refer to time and again.
Section 1: (Exo)planets
Formation, Solar system, comets / meteors, dynamics, stability, exoplanet
observations (radial velocity, transits)
Section 2: Stars
Star formation, stellar evolution, the Sun as a star, asteroseismology,
stellar rotation, stellar winds, binary interactions (tides, mass transfer,
common envelopes, luminous red novae), chemical abundance, evolution
Section 3: Galaxies
Morphology, galaxy zoo, active galactic nuclei, star formation / feedback /
quenching, blue and red peaks and green valley, galactic chemical evolution,
galaxy groups & clusters, young stellar / globular / nuclear clusters &
dynamics, inter-stellar medium
Section 4: Compact objects
IWhite dwarfs, neutron stars (pulsars), black holes, supernovae (type IA vs
core-collapse), accretion, Eddington limit, X-ray binaries, supermassive
black holes, tidal disruption events, mergers: gamma ray bursts, kilonovae,
gravitational waves
Section 5 Cosmology
Big Bang, dark matter, dark energy, Hubbles law, cosmic microwave
background, distance ladder, BAO, lensing, tests of general relativity
Ilya Mandel received a PhD in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 2008, with a specialization in gravitational-wave astronomy, under the supervision of Kip S. Thorne. He carried out postdoctoral research at Northwestern University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a National Science Foundation astronomy and astrophysics postdoctoral fellow. Ilya arrived at the University of Birmingham, UK as a Lecturer in 2011, and was promoted to Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics in 2016. During this time, Ilya established himself as one of the leaders in the emerging field of gravitational-wave astrophysics, focusing on sources of gravitational waves, data-analysis challenges posed by current and planned gravitational-wave detectors, astrophysics of compact-object binaries and ways in which upcoming observations of gravitational waves can aid our understanding of this astrophysics. In 2019, Ilya joined Monash University as a Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy.
