This book is a comprehensive introduction to the data analysis of ultraluminous X-ray sources. This book will provide the readers with a familiar environment in data analysis methods and the different software used in high energy astrophysical data analysis.

One of The New Yorker's "Books We Loved in 2017," a BOMB's Looking Back on 2017: Literature Selection, a Paris Review Staff Pick, and one of Vulture's 10 Best Thriller Books of 2017. Girlfriend. Prostitute. Addict. Terrorist? Who is K? The daring new novel from Katherine Faw, the brilliant author of Young God, is a scintillating story of money, sex, and power told in Faw’s viciously sharp prose. A high-end, girlfriend-experience prostitute has just returned to her native New York City after more than a decade abroad—in Dubai, with a man she recalls only as the Sheikh—but it’s unclear why exactly she’s come back. Did things go bad for her? Does she have scores to settle? Regardless, she has quickly made herself at home. She’s set up a rotation of clients—all of them in finance—each of whom has different delusions of how he is important to her. And she’s also met a man whom she doesn’t charge—a damaged former Army Ranger, back from Afghanistan. Her days are strangely orderly: A repetition of dinners, personal grooming, museum exhibitions, sex, Duane Reades (she likes the sushi), cosmology, sex, gallery shows, nightclubs, heroin, sex, and art films (which she finds soothing). She finds the pattern confirming, but does she really believe it’s sustainable? Or do the barely discernible rifts in her routine suggest that something else is percolating under the surface? Could she have fallen for one of her bankers? Or do those supposed rifts suggest a pattern within the pattern, a larger scheme she’s not showing us, a truth that won’t be revealed until we can see everything?

This book introduces young researchers to the exciting field of ultra-high energy astrophysics including charged particles, gamma rays and neutrinos. At ultra-high energy the radiation is produced by interactions of cosmic ray particles accelerated in explosive events such as supernovae or hypernovae, black holes or, possibly, the big bang. Through direct contact with senior scientists, now actively planning the next generation of experiments/models, the excitement and motivation for research at ultra-high energy was conveyed. The underpinning of these fields is a synthesis of knowledge and techniques from nuclear and particle physics, astronomy and cosmology. Informing the participants of this background, how it was derived, and the new challenges for the future are the major goal. Further, the course has helped to foster new astrophysical research and promoted contacts, which have resulted in new collaborations. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Gamma-Ray Burst: Discoveries With Swift (352 KB). Contents: Powerful Astrophysical Sources: Gamma Ray Bursts: Discoveries with Swift (A Wells); Gamma Ray Burst Phenomenology in the Swift Era (P M(r)sziros); The Nature of Dark Matter (P L Biermann & F Munyaneza); Cosmic Rays: Particle Acceleration and Propagation in the Galaxy (V S Ptuskin); GRB as Sources of Ultra-High Energy Particles (P M(r)sziros); The KASCADE-Grande Experiment (F Cossavela et al.); Gamma Ray and Neutrino Astronomy: Study of Galactic Gamma Ray Sources with Milagro (J Goodman); The GLAST Mission and Observability of Supernovae Remnants (O Tibolla); First Results from AMANDA using TWR System (A Silvestri); and other papers. Readership: Academics in astrophysics, high energy, cosmology and earth science."

E. KONTIZAS Astronomical Institute National Observatory of Athens P. O. Box 20048 Athens GR-1181O GREECE The international conference on "Wide-Field Spectroscopy" and its sub ject matter were agreed during the general assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in August 1994 by the Working Group of Com mision 9 "Wi de-Field Imaging". This meeting gave an opportunity to world experts on this subject to gather in Athens, in order to discuss the cur rent exploitation and the impending opportunities that exist in the area of multi-object spectroscopy, with particular emphasis on: 1. Astronomical instruments, data acquisition, processing and analysis techniques. 2. Astrophysical problems best tackled through wide-field, multi-object spectroscopy. The new fibre optic technology offers an important tool for the advancement of basic research and the development of industrial applications. Astronom ical spectroscopy is a field of astronomy which has contributed much to the advancement of fundamental physics. The spectra of hot stars have been used to determine the well-known Balmer formula for the wavelength of hydrogen lines, in the late 19th century. Since then, spectroscopy has made enormous progress in stellar atmosphere studies, in kinematics, and in the detection of high redshifts in the Universe. The traditional techniques of obtaining wide-field spectroscopic data are based on slitless spectroscopy (objective prism). Several observations, world wide, make use ofthese tech niques in order to obtain information on the spectral properties of objects in large areas of the sky.

During the past decade, the field of astrophysics has progressed at an impressive rate. This was reflected by the topics discussed at the workshop from which this book eminated. These topics include the inflationary universe; the large-scale structure of the universe; the diffuse X-ray background; gravitational lenses, quasars and active galactic nuclei; infrared galaxies; results from infrared astronomical satellites; supernova 1987A; millisecond radio pulsars; quasi-periodic oscillations in the X-ray flux of low-mass X-ray binaries; and gamma-ray bursts.