AN INVITATION TO ASTROPHYSICS

This unique book provides a clear and lucid description of several aspects of astrophysics and cosmology in a language understandable to a physicist or beginner in astrophysics. It presents the key topics in all branches of astrophysics and cosmology in a simple and concise language. The emphasis is on currently active research areas and exciting new frontiers rather than on more pedantic topics. Many complicated results are introduced with simple, novel derivations which strengthen the conceptual understanding of the subject. The book also contains over one hundred exercises which will help students in their self study.

Undergraduate and graduate students in physics and astrophysics as well as all physicists who are interested in obtaining a quick grasp of astrophysical concepts will find this book useful.

Contents:

Gravitation
Radiative Processes
Matter
Stars and Stellar Evolution
Relics of Stars
Cosmology and the Early Universe
Universe at z < 20
Normal Galaxies
Active Galaxies

Readership: Physicists, astronomers, undergraduate and graduate students in physics and astrophysics.

“I would warmly recommend the book to a good graduate student of astronomy who is preparing for general exams, or to a graduate student working in particle physics who is shifting to the astroparticle side. The text could also serve as a focus for an inspirational graduate seminar that would broaden and deepen students' understanding of physics and the way it enables us to understand environments wildly unlike our own … It is an unconventional but very worthwhile book.”

Physics Today

“This book is a nice introduction to several fields of astrophysics. It is useful for students interested in this special field, but also for researchers of several other fields, as it concentrates on the fundamental questions instead of going into too much details.”

Zentralblatt MATH

“A welcome aspect of this book is the inclusion of many thoughtful problems at the end of each chapter … The interested student will learn a great deal by tackling these problems.”

American Journal of Physics

“A serious session with Padmanabhan's book does for the mind what a vigorous workout in the gym does for the body … even the most distinguished professor of astrophyiscs will gain fresh insights from An Invitation to Astrophysics.”

Physics Today

“It is fun in the same sense that Feynman's Lectures on Physics Volume 3 or Leighton's Principles of Modern Physics was fun to read some 40 years ago when I was a beginning graduate student.”

American Journal of Physics

384pp		Pub. date: Feb 2006
ISBN: 978-981-256-638-6 981-256-638-4		US$99 / £54

384pp		Pub. date: Feb 2006
ISBN: 978-981-256-687-4(pbk) 981-256-687-2(pbk)		US$55 / £30

384pp		Pub. date: Feb 2006
ISBN: 978-981-277-437-8(ebook) 981-277-437-8(ebook)		US$129

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