Radiation processes in astrophysics

The purpose of this book is twofold: to provide a brief, simple introduction to the theory of radiation and its application in astrophysics and to serve as a reference manual for researchers. The first part of the book consists of a discussion of the basic formulas and concepts that underlie the classical and quantum descriptions of radiation processes. The rest of the book is concerned with applications. The spirit of the discussion is to present simple derivations that will provide some insight into the basic physics involved and then to state the exact results in a form useful for applications. The reader is referred to the original literature and to reviews for rigorous derivations.The wide range of topics covered is illustrated by the following table of contents: Basic Formulas for Classical Radiation Processes; Basic Formulas for Quantum Radiation Processes; Cyclotron and Synchrotron Radiation; Electron Scattering; Bremsstrahlung and Collision Losses; Radiative Recombination; The Photoelectric Effect; and Emission and Absorption Lines.