Black holes exist in galactic nuclei and in some X-ray binaries found in our own galaxy and the large Magellanic Cloud. This volume focuses on astrophysical high-energy emission processes around black holes, and the development of theoretical frameworks for interesting observational results. Contents: Black Hole Observations; Accretion Disk/Formation of Jets; Energy Extraction from Rotating Black Holes; Supernova and Gamma Ray Bursts; Black Hole Astrophysics. Readership: Graduate students, post-docs and academics in astrophysics, astronomy, cosmology and high energy physics.

Beginning with Einstein's special and general theories of relativity, the authors give a detailed mathematical description of fundamental astrophysical radiation processes, including Compton scattering of electrons and photons, synchrotron radiation of particles in magnetic fields, and much more.

The Marcel Grossmann meetings were conceived to promote theoretical understanding in the fields of physics, mathematics, astronomy and astrophysics and to direct future technological, observational, and experimental efforts. They review recent developments in gravitation and general relativity, with major emphasis on mathematical foundations and physical predictions. Their main objective is to bring together scientists from diverse backgrounds and their range of topics is broad, from more abstract classical theory and quantum gravity and strings to more concrete relativistic astrophysics observations and modeling.This Tenth Marcel Grossmann Meeting was organized by an international committee composed of D Blair, Y Choquet-Bruhat, D Christodoulou, T Damour, J Ehlers, F Everitt, Fang Li Zhi, S Hawking, Y Ne'eman, R Ruffini (chair), H Sato, R Sunyaev, and S Weinberg and backed by an international coordinating committee of about 135 members from scientific institutions representing 54 countries. The scientific program included 29 morning plenary talks during 6 days, and 57 parallel sessions over five afternoons, during which roughly 500 papers were presented.These three volumes of the proceedings of MG10 give a broad view of all aspects of gravitation, from mathematical issues to recent observations and experiments.

This book consists of about 20 lectures on theoretical and observational aspects of astrophysical black holes, by experts in the field. The basic principles and astrophysical applications of the black hole magnetosphere and the BlandfordOCoZnajek process are reviewed in detail, as well as accretion by black holes, black hole X-Ray binaries, black holes with cosmic strings, and so on. Recent advances in X-Ray observations of galactic black holes and new understanding of supermassive black holes in AGNs and normal galaxies are also discussed."

Supermassive black holes are now believed to play an important role in the evolution of the Universe. Every respectable galaxy hosts in its center a black hole that appears to regulate the growth of the galaxy itself. In this book, leading experts in the field review the most recent theoretical and observational results on the following topics: - formation and growth of the first black holes in the Universe and their role in the formation and evolution of galaxies - the physics of black-hole accretion and the production of relativistic jets - binary black-hole mergers and gravitational radiation. Theoretical work is supplemented by the most recent exciting results from space and ground based observatories. This volume is useful research and reference tool for the entire astrophysical community.

This book was originally published in 2004. Black holes are among the most mysterious objects in the Universe. Weighing up to several billion Suns, massive black holes have long been suspected to be the central powerhouses of energetic phenomena such as quasars. Advances in astronomy have not only provided spectacular proof of this long-standing paradigm, but have revealed the unexpected result that far from being rare, exotic beasts, they inhabit the center of virtually all large galaxies. Candidate black holes have been identified in increasingly large numbers of galaxies, both inactive and active, to the point where statistical studies are possible. Fresh work has highlighted the close connection between the formation, growth, and evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. This volume contains the invited lectures from an international symposium that was held to explore this exciting theme, and is a valuable review for professional astronomers and graduate students.