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Thisbook offers eleven coordinated reviews on multi-scalestructure formation in cosmic plasmas in the Universe. Observations and theories of plasma structures are presentedin all relevant astrophysical contexts, from the Earth's magnetosphere through heliospheric and galactic scales to clusters of galaxies and the large scalestructure of the Universe. Basic processes in cosmic plasmas starting fromelectric currents and the helicity concept governing the dynamics of magnetic structures in planet magnetospheres,stellar winds, and relativistic plasma outflows like pulsar wind nebulae andActive Galactic Nuclei jets are covered.
Themulti-wavelength view from the radio to gamma-rays with modern high resolutiontelescopes discussed in the book reveals a beautiful and highly informativepicture of both coherent and chaotic plasma structures tightly connected bystrong mutual influence. The authors are all leading scientists in theirfields, making this book an authoritative, up-to-date and enduring contributionto astrophysics.
List of contents
1. Multi-scale Structure Formation andDynamics in Cosmic Plasmas.- 2. Electric Current Circuits inAstrophysics.- 3. Magnetic Helicity and Large ScaleMagnetic Fields: A Primer.- 4. Large-Scale Structure Formation:from the first non-linear objects to massive galaxy clusters.- 5. Structures and components in galaxyclusters: observations and models.- 6. Supernova Remnants Interacting withMolecular Clouds: X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Signatures.- 7. The Heliosphere: What did we learnin recent years and the current challenges.- 8. Structures in the Outer SolarAtmosphere.- 9. What Controls the Structure andDynamics of Earth's Magnetosphere?.- 10. Properties of Magnetic FieldFluctuations in the Earth's Magnetotail and Implications for the General Problem of Structure Formation in HotPlasmas.- 11. Current Sheets in the Earth Magnetotail.
About the author
Prof. Andé Balogh is Distinguished Research Fellow and Emeritus Professor of Space Physics at Imperial College, London and the past Director of the International Space Science Institute of Bern, Switzerland. His main research interests are solar and heliospheric magnetic fields, solar activity phenomena and the nature of heliospheric turbulence. Prof. Balogh has been a Principal Investigator on the Ulysses and Cluster space missions and is author and co-author of over 500 scientific papers on solar physics, space research and planetary physics; as well as editor of ten books, including eight volumes in Springer's Space Sciences Series of ISSI. His recent research has covered the measurements of the Sun’s magnetic flux and its dependence on the solar activity cycle.
Andrei Bykov is head of the High Energy
Astrophysics laboratory in the Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology, Russian Academy
of Sciences and professor of St.Petersburg State Politechnical
University. His principal research interests are
theory and observations of processes in astrophysical objects with extreme energy release ‐ supernovae, gamma‐ray
bursts and clusters of galaxies. He is author and coauthor of over 200
scientific publications, a book Turbulence, Current Sheets and Shocks in Cosmic Plasma and editor
of four books on high energy astrophysics.
Jonathan Eastwood is a lecturer in
the Department of Physics at Imperial College London where he is a member of
the Space and Atmospheric Physics research group. He has previously worked at
UC Berkeley and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. In 2012 he was the recipient
of the COSPAR Zeldovich medal (Commission D) in recognition of his research
into the physics of magnetic reconnection and collisionless shocks using
satellite data.
Jelle Kaastra (PhD 1985, Utrecht
University) is a senior scientist at SRON, the Netherlands Institute for Space
Research and professor of high-energy astrophysics at Leiden University.
He is an expert on high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of cosmic plasmas, and is
currently principal investigator of the Reflection Grating Spectrometer on
XMM-Newton and the Low-Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer on Chandra. He
has an active track record on clusters of galaxies, active galactic nuclei and
X-ray models for cosmic plasmas.
Summary
This
book offers eleven coordinated reviews on multi-scale
structure formation in cosmic plasmas in the Universe. Observations and theories of plasma structures are presented
in all relevant astrophysical contexts, from the Earth’s magnetosphere through heliospheric and galactic scales to clusters of galaxies and the large scale
structure of the Universe. Basic processes in cosmic plasmas starting from
electric currents and the helicity concept
governing the dynamics of magnetic structures in planet magnetospheres,
stellar winds, and relativistic plasma outflows like pulsar wind nebulae and
Active Galactic Nuclei jets are covered.
The
multi-wavelength view from the radio to gamma-rays with modern high resolution
telescopes discussed in the book reveals a beautiful and highly informative
picture of both coherent and chaotic plasma structures tightly connected by
strong mutual influence. The authors are all leading scientists in their
fields, making this book an authoritative, up‐to‐date and enduring contribution
to astrophysics.
