Customer Reviews

Advanced Stellar Astrophysics

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This is a great book for anyone interested in advanced stellar phenomena. Easy to read with adequate math rigor, this book is a pleasure to work through. The layout of the book is pleasing to the eye and flows well. Equations are displayed in a spacious and predictable manner which allows quick reference and reduces distractions. Pedagogical discussion is succinct and cogent. Dr. Rose is an excellent teacher and, as usual, Cambridge Press has printed an outstanding book with outstanding attention to detail.

The best thing about this book is that it is very much a self contained textbook. There is a certain amount of underlying physics that one is expected to know, but the rest of it follows from the principles presented and developed in the text. The selection of topics is not very broad nor narrow and they cover a wide range of topics. There is a strong emphasis on basic physics principles and how they are applied to stellar objects.
The section on Statistical Physics is very elegant and covers all the statistical mechanics to be used further along in the book. Absorption processes are also well covered in the book. The equations of stellar structure and stellar atmospheres are two very important topics that are done justice in this book. However, the treatment could and should have been a lot more detailed and in depth.
Weak interactions and nucleosynthesis are given due importance and the section on stellar hydrodynamics is compact but covers all the basics, but it does leave some holes. There is a good discussion of magnetic fields followed by white dwarfs and supernovae. This is followed by a discussion of General relativity, which is one of the weakest points of the text. This is finally followed by neutron stars and black holes. The former are covered in good detail but the latter includes only an extremely simplified treatment
Nonetheless, for its combination of accessibility coupled to a fairly good presentation of topics, the book deserves some accolades.

"Advanced Stellar Astrophysics" is an exact title for this book. It is an advanced monograph on stellar structure. It is, both in style and substance, strongly reminiscent of Chandrasekhar's work on the same structure. Like Chandrasekhar, Rose works every topic out in his own way, including as much background as he needs (e.g. both his succinct treatments of electron gases and of general relativity). This gives the book a remarkable unity and intelligibility, and is a most welcome change tor the usual run of "advanced monographs" which all too often are half-assimilated hodge-podges of other people's work.