Relativistic Astrophysics brings together important astronomical discoveries and the significant achievements, as well as the difficulties in the field of relativistic astrophysics. This book is divided into 10 chapters that tackle some aspects of the field, including the gravitational field, stellar equilibrium, black holes, and cosmology. The opening chapters introduce the theories to delineate gravitational field and the elements of relativistic thermodynamics and hydrodynamics. The succeeding chapters deal with the gravitational fields in matter; stellar equilibrium and general relativity stability; and the properties of pulsar, rotating and neutron stars. The discussion then shifts to the association between gravitational collapse and black holes, as well as the astrophysical investigations of neutron stars and black holes. The final chapters examine the principles of gravitational waves and advances in understanding the field of cosmology. This book will be of great value to astrophysicists and related scientists.

In 1979 I gave graduate courses at the University of Zurich and lectured in the 'Troisieme Cycle de la Suisse Romande' (a consortium offour uni versities in the french-speaking part of Switzerland), and these lectures were the basis of the 'Springer Lecture Notes in Physics', Volume 150, published in 1981. This text appeared in German, because there have been few modern expositions of the general theory of relativity in the mother tongue of its only begetter. Soon after the book appeared, W. Thirring asked me to prepare an English edition for the 'Texts and Mono graphs in Physics'. Fortunately E. Borie agreed to translate the original German text into English. An excellent collaboration allowed me to re vise and add to the contents of the book. I have updated and improved the original text and have added a number of new sections, mostly on astrophysical topics. In particular, in collaboration with M. Camenzind I have included a chapter on spherical and disk accretion onto compact objects. This book divides into three parts. Part I develops the mathematical tools used in the general theory of relativity. Since I wanted to keep this part short, but reasonably self-contained, I have adopted the dry style of most modern mathematical texts. Readers who have never before been confronted with differential geometry will find the exposition too ab stract and will miss motivations of the basic concepts and constructions.

The present volume contains the expanded lectures of a meeting on relativistic astrophysics, the goal of which was to provide a modern introduction to specific aspects of the field for young researchers, as well as for nonspecialists from related areas. Particular emphasis is placed on the theory of black holes and evolution, relativistic stars and jet hydrodynamics, as well as the production and detection of gravitational waves. The book is complemented by further contributions and animation supplied on the accompanying CD-ROM.

This volume contains up-to-date accounts of many of the latest developments in gravitation, cosmology and astrophysics, including papers on black hole radiation, empirical tests of gravitational theory, quantum gravity, classical and quantum cosmology, singularities, computational methods, and a number of other topics. The keynote speakers include S Carlip, M Haugan, A Linde, D Page, G Papini, K Schleich, P Szekeres, G Starkman and J York.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 13th Course of the International School of Cosmic Ray Astrophysics. It focuses on major areas of astrophysics, their relation to cosmic ray physics, and our current understanding of the energetic processes in the Galaxy and the Universe that govern the acceleration and form the features of the cosmic rays that we detect at Earth.The proceedings have been selected for coverage in: ? Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings (ISTP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings)? CC Proceedings ? Engineering & Physical Sciences

The 1972 Banff lectures attempted a systematic exposition of the ideas underlying recent developments in general relativity and its astronomical applications at a level accessible and useful to graduate students having some previous acquaintance with the subject. To our regret, it was not possible to include any printed record of Peebles' beautiful lectures on observational cosmology or of the many stimulating seminars on special topics contributed by the participants. What remains is nevertheless a reason ably self-contained and compact introduction to Einstein's theory in its modern in carnation, and we hope it will be found useful by the many physicists, astronomers, and mathematicians who wish to update and deepen their understanding of the theory. On behalf of the organizing committee, I should like to express appreciation to a number of people whose help was crucial to the success of the enterprise: to Jan van Kranendonk, who initiated the idea of a Banff summer school on general relativity; to him and to David Rowe and Don Betts for inspiration and moral support; to our indefatigable secretaries Olwyn Buckland and Leslie Hughes; and to Garry Nash, Richard Sigal, Tim Spanos, and Gordon Wilson who helped in a variety of ways to keep the wheels running. How much we owe to the splendid cooperative effort of the lecturers will be clear to any reader of the following pages.

The year 2005, which marked the 100th anniversary of the 'annus mirabilis', the year in which Albert Einstein published three of his most important scientific papers, was the perfect opportunity to review and to present the current scientific understanding of relativistic topics. This book provides an up-to-date reference on the theory of gravity, relativistic astrophysics and cosmology. It is a useful reference tool for both the expert and the new-comer in these fields.

All papers have been peer-reviewed. This is conference for physicists, in particular from China and Italy, to present their most recent research works on both theoretical and observational aspects of Relativistic Astrophysics. The conference topics cover the following research fields: gamma-ray bursts; galactic dynamic and survey; dark matter; dark energy and high red-shift universe; black holes; neutron stars and supernovae; general relativity; classical and quantum gravity, and field theory.

This unified treatment of electromagnetic, hadronic and gravitational radiation processes associated with relativistic outflows from compact objects is ideal for researchers interested in the transient universe. It examines relativistic outflows and radiation processes and links contemporary astronomy to gravitational-wave experiments.