High Energy Astrophysics: Supernovae, Remnants, Active Galaxies, Cosmology

The contributions in this book give an up-to-date survey of the current activities in the People's Republic of China in high energy astrophysics, and especially a thorough discussion of supernovae theory. Among other papers the reader will find a Chinese study on the historical novae and supernovae never before published in English. The reader will find articles on cosmology, the formation of galaxies, radiation transport in strong magnetic fields, active galaxies, and a particularly nice exposition on cosmic strings. All papers are carefully edited and address researchers and graduate students in astronomy and astrophysics.

The second workshop on High Energy Astrophysics of the Ma..x-Planck-Society and the Academia Sinica was held at Ringberg Castle near Tegernsee during the week July 12-July 17, 1987. It is the purpose of these workshops to en- courage the exchange of ideas between German and Chinese astrophysicists (scientists from other countries are also welcome, of course), and the pleas- ant atmosphere and surroundings of Ringberg Castle certainly helped the development of relaxed and stimulating discussions. In addition, we seemed to have picked out the one week of perfect weather during a rainy summer. Thanks are due to Mr. Hormann and his staff for creating a perfect infra- structure. The proceedings have required a considerable amount of editing, and I hope that all the papers are comprehensible. Thanks are due to Miss Petra Berkemeyer and Miss Hannelore Muller, who patiently retyped several manu- scripts and helped with other editing jobs. I did not feel that a sharp refer- eeing procedure should be done, although I do not agree with all the papers in this volume. The interested reader will find that this book gives a fair account of the present status of Chinese activities in the field of high energy astrophysics, i.e. in supernova physics, accretion onto compact objects, active galaxies, and cosmology.

Contents: Supernovae and Their Remnants.- Active Galaxies.- Cosmology.- Index of Contributors.