This volume is based on the Third George Mason University Workshop in Astrophysics. A group of experts discusses our present understanding of supermassive black holes, which may be the energy source of quasars and active galactic nuclei.

One of The Barnes and Noble Review Editors' Picks: Best Nonfiction of 2012Selected by The Christian Science Monitor as one of "21 smart nonfiction titles we think you'll enjoy this summer"Selected by The New Scientist as one of 10 books to look out for in 2012We've long understood black holes to be the points at which the universe as we know it comes to an end. Often billions of times more massive than the Sun, they lurk in the inner sanctum of almost every galaxy of stars in the universe. They're mysterious chasms so destructive and unforgiving that not even light can escape their deadly wrath.Recent research, however, has led to a cascade of new discoveries that have revealed an entirely different side to black holes. As the astrophysicist Caleb Scharf reveals in Gravity's Engines, these chasms in space-time don't just vacuum up everything that comes near them; they also spit out huge beams and clouds of matter. Black holes blow bubbles.With clarity and keen intellect, Scharf masterfully explains how these bubbles profoundly rearrange the cosmos around them. Engaging with our deepest questions about the universe, he takes us on an intimate journey through the endlessly colorful place we call our galaxy and reminds us that the Milky Way sits in a special place in the cosmic zoo―a "sweet spot" of properties. Is it coincidental that we find ourselves here at this place and time? Could there be a deeper connection between the nature of black holes and their role in the universe and the phenomenon of life? We are, after all, made of the stuff of stars.

Product Description: In these last years Black hole Physics has developed rapidly both from theoretical and observational aspects: especially as regards quantum aspects many things must be clarified as for instance the processes occuring near mini black holes with spontaneous creation of particles that eventually lead to the evaporation of black hole...read more

Product Description: This book addresses graduate students in the first place and is meant as a modern compendium to the existing texts on black hole astrophysics. The authors present in pedagogically written articles our present knowledge on black holes covering mathematical models including numerical aspects and physics and astronomical observations as well...read more

Product Description: Black hole gravitohydromagnetics (GHM) is developed from the rudiments to the frontiers of research in this book. This second edition of the book is updated throughout and contains a completely new chapter discussing the state-of-the-art.

The authors present evidence of the existance of black holes and the gravitational power they possess

Product Description: This book investigates the propagation of waves in the presence of black holes. Astrophysical black holes may eventually be probed by these techniques. The authors emphasise intuitive physical thinking in their treatment of the techniques of analysis of scattering, but alternate this with chapters on the rigourous mathematical development of the subject...read more

Product Description: This book presents the physics of black holes from an entirely new perspective. It is based on a conformal rescaling of the geometry of space, called optical geometry, which allows one to give a simple, unified and intuitively appealing description of black hole physics...read more

Product Description: Recently, analogies between laboratory physics (e.g. quantum optics and condensed matter) and gravitational/cosmological phenomena such as black holes have attracted an increasing interest. This book contains a series of selected lectures devoted to this new and rapidly developing field...read more

Product Description: In published papers H A Bethe and G E Brown worked out the collapse of large stars and supernova explosions. They went on to evolve binaries of compact stars, finding that in the standard scenario the first formed neutron star always went into a black hole in common envelope evolution...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Set against the background of beautiful Mirabello Bay, astronomers from fourteen countries met at Elounda, Crete in the period 7-18June, 1999 to debate some of the most compelling issues of present day astrophysics. Neutron stars and black holes have been at the forefront of astrophysics for over thirty years...read more

Product Description: This title presents a series of interviews in which natural objects such as an electron, a black hole, a galaxy, and even the vacuum itself, reveal their innermost secrets - not only what they are but also how they feel. A hydrogen atom tells us about quantum mechanics and why we live in a non-deterministic world; a black hole explains curved space and naked singularities; and a uranium atom talks of its life on a meteor, its tremendous collision with Earth, and properties of radioactivity - all while grappling with its own mortality...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: The observational evidence for the existence of black holes has grown significantly over recent decades. Stellar-mass black holes are detected as X-ray sources in binary systems, while supermassive black holes, with masses more than a million times the mass of the Sun, lurk in the nuclei of galaxies...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Once the stuff of science-fiction novels, black holes, and their even stranger cosmologican counterparts, white holes and wormholes, are now the subject of serious inquiry. Physicists who formerly shunned these astrophysical eccentricities have begun to theorize about them and search for the physical proof of their existence with the zeal of converts...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: This work describes Dr Hawkin's discovery that the vast bulk of the universe is in the form of primordial black holes which had their genesis within the first instant of creation. It is a key cosmological breakthrough that draws together the most significant insights of our era into a comprehensive view of the universe...read more

Product Description: A conference on `Observational Evidence for Black Holes in the Universe' was held in Calcutta during January 10-17, 1998. This was the first time that experts had gathered to debate and discuss topics such as: Should black holes exist? If so, how to detect them? Have we found them? This book is the essence of this gathering...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)