Provides a comprehensive summary on the physical models and current theory of black hole accretion, growth and mergers, in both the supermassive and stellar-mass cases. This title reviews in-depth research on accretion on all scales, from galactic binaries to intermediate mass and supermassive black holes. Possible future directions of accretion are also discussed. The following main themes are covered: a historical perspective; physical models of accretion onto black holes of all masses; black hole fundamental parameters; and accretion, jets and outflows. An overview and outlook on the topic is also presented. This volume summarizes the status of the study of astrophysical black hole research and is aimed at astrophysicists and graduate students working in this field. Originally published in Space Science Reviews, Vol 183/1-4, 2014.

This volume serves as a general introduction to the state of the art of quantitatively characterizing chaotic and turbulent behavior. It is the outgrowth of an international workshop on "Quantitative Measures of Dynamical Complexity and Chaos" held at Bryn Mawr College, June 22-24, 1989. The workshop was co-sponsored by the Naval Air Development Center in Warminster, PA and by the NATO Scientific Affairs Programme through its special program on Chaos and Complexity. Meetings on this subject have occurred regularly since the NATO workshop held in June 1983 at Haverford College only two kilometers distant from the site of this latest in the series. At that first meeting, organized by J. Gollub and H. Swinney, quantitative tests for nonlinear dynamics and chaotic behavior were debated and promoted [1). In the six years since, the methods for dimension, entropy and Lyapunov exponent calculations have been applied in many disciplines and the procedures have been refined. Since then it has been necessary to demonstrate quantitatively that a signal is chaotic rather than it being acceptable to observe that "it looks chaotic". Other related meetings have included the Pecos River Ranch meeting in September 1985 of G. Mayer Kress [2) and the reflective and forward looking gathering near Jerusalem organized by M. Shapiro and I. Procaccia in December 1986 [3). This meeting was proof that interest in measuring chaotic and turbulent signals is widespread.

Lists citations with abstracts for aerospace related reports obtained from world wide sources and announces documents that have recently been entered into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Database.

The formation of galaxies is one of the greatest puzzles in astronomy, the solution is shrouded in the depths of space and time, but has profound implications for the universe we observe today. This book discusses the beginnings of the process from cosmological observations and calculations. It examines the different theories of galaxy formation and shows where each theory either succeeds or fails in explaining what we actually observe. In addition, the book looks ahead to what we may expect to uncover about the epoch of galaxy formation from the new and upcoming generations of telescopes and technology.

These two volumes feature the proceedings from a conference held in Cefalù, Italy, in June 2006. The first volume starts with a discussion of gamma ray bursts, then examines magnetar candidates, and finally explores the properties of supernovae. The second volume discusses the properties of pulsars and millisecond pulsars and then covers the properties of interacting binaries containing white dwarfs, neutron stars, or black hole candidates.